CHAPTER XIII
SPORTS
=Interest in sports.= One of the marked characteristics of American newspapers is the large amount of space, both absolutely and relatively, that they devote in every issue to news of sports. Although there is undoubtedly a healthy interest in athletic contests on the part of many readers, newspapers have greatly stimulated this interest and have created a considerable part of the present demand for sporting news and gossip. Hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers who have never seen a major league baseball game follow day by day the doings of the various teams and players, not merely during the playing season but throughout the greater part of the year. Newspapers have also assisted in developing intercollegiate football from a game in which students and alumni were primarily interested into a sport of big spectacular contests that attract the general public. Even after prize fighting was barred in most states, newspapers, by the space given to the contestants for months before every fight, were able to maintain wide-spread interest in the results. In order to furnish readers with a very large amount of reading matter concerning both major and minor sports, most papers have a special staff of sports writers under the direction of the sporting editor.
=Type of story.= Sporting news stories may be divided into three classes: (1) those that deal with the contestants and the conditions before the event, (2) those that report the contest itself, and (3) those that analyze the event and its results. Stories that discuss the relative merits of the contestants and forecast the results of the game are based on first hand observations of the writer or on the observations of others, regarding the showing made by the contestants in previous events and in practice. The general and the detailed accounts of a contest can, of course, be written only by writers who have witnessed it. The analysis of the event and of its results may be based either on the reporter’s own observations of the contest or on the reports of it printed in newspapers. In covering a big sporting event, a newspaper frequently assigns two men to report it, one to write a general account and one a detailed story. It is evident that all sporting news stories can best be written by men who are thoroughly familiar with the sport itself and with the contestants.
=Purpose.= The general aim of sporting news stories should be to satisfy a normal, healthy interest in legitimate sports. That newspapers have stimulated an excessive interest in professional baseball and intercollegiate football, as well as in prize fights, is a criticism deserving careful consideration. The evil effects on schoolboy athletes, and even on some college players, of undue newspaper publicity have been pointed out by educators and should also be considered by the sports writer. Accuracy and fairness are as vital to news stories of sports as to any other news stories. Although the interest that readers have in local contestants may warrant a writer in devoting considerable space to them, it does not justify him in slighting or treating unfairly their opponents in whom the readers have less interest. The spirit of fair play that is essential to sport is equally necessary to reports of sporting events.
=Treatment.= The handling of sporting news presents several problems. The review of conditions preceding the contest and the analysis of the game and its results require careful observation, clear thinking, and a good expository style. In some respects this kind of interpretation is not unlike editorial and critical writing. The account of the event itself demands spirited narrative and description that portrays not only the scenes but the spirit of the occasion. The contrast between the emotions of the victors and those of the vanquished may be used to good advantage. Because of the popular interest in individual players, many events give ample opportunity for developing the personal, or human interest, elements. The term “heroes” as often applied to athletes is not inappropriate, for it is the heroic qualities of the contestants that appeal to the spectators and the followers of the sport.
Style is also an important element in sporting news stories. The very popularity of a subject that demands much writing on the same or similar material day by day necessitates variety of presentation. Efforts to avoid constant repetition in reporting baseball games have resulted in some picturesque diction and some original figures of speech in the stories of the clever few, and in much more cheap humor and almost unintelligible jargon in the work of their mediocre imitators. That readable stories can be written in good English with as much originality of style as is to be found in other well written news stories, has been repeatedly demonstrated by a number of writers on sports.
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FOOTBALL TEAM PROSPECTS
_Philadelphia Ledger_
When the University of Pennsylvania football eleven lines up for its game with the Navy team tomorrow afternoon on Severn Field it will in all probability be without the services of three of its star backfield men. Howard Berry, “Bill” Quigley and “Vic” Welch are the trio who will be forced to witness this contest from the sidelines. Berry, who was injured the early part of last week, has been unable to get into any of the scrimmages this week, while Quigley and Welch have been out of the game since last Saturday, when both received injuries which will very likely keep them out of the contest, unless it is absolutely necessary to call on them for active service.
The loss of these three men will prove a serious loss to the Red and Blue, and unless the men who are sent in to take their places can gain through the Middies’ defense, “Old Penn” will be in a serious predicament. The result of the game tomorrow afternoon will be very closely followed by all of Penn’s coming opponents on the gridiron this fall; and unless the Quakers can come close to the score made by the Pittsburgh team last Saturday against the Admirals, the chances for defeating the Smoky City athletes are very slim.
Yesterday’s workout in the rain did not slow up the practice a great deal, as the men put all of their energies into their play, and if the same spirit is prevalent in tomorrow’s game the Red and Blue team should bring victory to Philadelphia. Ray Grant, who has been directing the team during the last two days, will in all probability be first choice for the quarterback position, with Williams, Ross and Derr behind him.
In the workout yesterday these four men gained consistently against the freshman and scrub elevens, and all of the coaches were well pleased with the scrimmage work of the men. In the freshman contest the Varsity went over for a touchdown in 20 minutes of play, and in the scrub game they shoved the pigskin for another tally. Tackling was practiced, and every man was given the “call” if he did not down the runner in the proper manner. This department of the game will be drilled into the head of every man, and before the season is far advanced there should be a vast improvement in the tackling of every Penn player.
At the close of today’s practice the men will go to the training house for dinner, after which they will pack their grips for Annapolis. The squad will not go direct to Annapolis tonight, but will stay in Baltimore. The team’s headquarters overnight will be the Hotel Belvidere. Saturday morning the men will board cars for the Naval Academy. Coaches “By” Dickson, Torrey, Wharton and Dr. Carl Williams will in all probability take the trip with the team.
That the students at the University are interested in the outcome of this contest is certain, for tomorrow morning a “Pennsylvania special” will pull out of Philadelphia with more than 150 Penn rooters on board. There are certain to be some lively times on the Navy field tomorrow afternoon, when the rooters cheer their teams on the banks of the historic Severn River.
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NOTE--_The two stories following, although taken from the same paper and dealing with similar material, afford an interesting contrast._
THE DAY OF THE GAME
_New York Evening Post_
PRINCETON, N. J., November 6.--With ideal football weather for the annual game between Princeton and Harvard to-day, the thousands of followers of the rival teams who are here from all sections of the East expect to witness one of the most spectacular struggles of the season. The Tiger coaches consider their eleven 20 per cent. stronger than when Dartmouth was defeated two weeks ago, and while not over-confident, are hopeful of victory. There are many in the Princeton camp who say it is the first time in four years that the Orange and Black have entered into battle with Harvard on apparently even terms.
Although the unbeaten Princeton team appear to have the better of Harvard in playing form and all-round strength, it is realized that in the Crimson, defeated by Cornell two weeks ago, there are great possibilities, and that Rush’s men will have the battle of their careers if victory is to be theirs. With the exception of Halsey, right tackle, who was injured last week, the Tigers are in prime condition and prepared for a gruelling contest. Parisette, who replaces Halsey, and Lamberton, who takes Brown’s place at right end, are the only changes announced by Coach Rush. The remainder of the team is the same that started the Dartmouth contest. Lamberton until recently was a substitute halfback. The changes are believed to have materially strengthened the Princeton combination at its weakest point.
Harvard will present a team on edge for the battle, and, with the remarkable open-field running of Capt. Mahan, hopes to carry away the honors. The Crimson, however, is to face a much stronger opponent than it did last year, when Princeton was defeated 20 to 0. Neither of the rival coaches will make any predictions prior to the start of the game; both are hopeful, however, and say their men will fight to the last ditch.
The largest crowd that ever saw a Harvard-Princeton game in this little town is on hand to see the fray. The demand for tickets was so great that the supply of 41,000 was exhausted. It was the usual colorful crowd, bedecked with the crimson of Harvard and the yellow and black of the Tigers, that wended its way from the special trains from New York and Philadelphia early to-day to Palmer Stadium. Automobiles by the hundreds brought thousands of spectators. Old Princeton graduates, back for the annual game, held impromptu reunions on the campus or on Nassau Street, or made a tour of inspection of the University buildings to note the changes since they were last here.
The Cambridge players came in from New York on a special during the morning, and were given a great welcome by hundreds of Harvard men who had preceded the squad here. Members of the scrub elevens of the two institutions who have worked hard all season giving practice to their respective ’varsity teams played a game in the forenoon which attracted a big crowd.
The lineup will be as follows:
PRINCETON. HARVARD.
Highley, l. e. Soucy, l. e. McLean, l. t. Gilman, l. t. Nourse, l. g. Dadmun, l. g. Gennert, c. Wallace, c. Hogg, r. g. Taylor, r. g. Parisette, r. t. Parson, r. t. Lamberton, r. e. Harte, r. e. Glick (c), qb. Watson, qb. Shea, l. hb. King, l. hb. Tibbott, r. hb. Boles, r. hb. Driggs, fb. Mahan (c), fb.
Officials: Referee, W. S. Langford, Trinity; umpire, Dr. Carl Williams, Pennsylvania; field judge, E. S. Land, Annapolis; head linesman, G. N. Bankart, Dartmouth. Time of periods fifteen minutes each.
Game starts 2 P. M.
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THE DAY OF THE GAME
_New York Evening Post_
BY FAIR PLAY.
CAMBRIDGE, November 7.--Brave north-west winds, a blue sky with heavy clouds drifting across, sunlight with a glint of steel in it, and air with a tang, were the weather conditions which added zest to the spirit with which Cambridge greeted the day of her big game of the season, the contest for gridiron supremacy between the Harvard and Princeton football elevens. The game with Yale will be played two weeks hence at New Haven, and as a consequence Nassau takes Eli’s place in the Cantabrigian scheme of things.
Enthusiasm is keen both here and in Boston; for since the Crimson and Orange and Black resumed football relations in 1911, after a lapse of fifteen years, interest in this annual struggle has increased in the public mind, as in the estimation of adherents of the rival universities, until now it has taken a place among the gridiron classics of the year.
The fact that of all the important university elevens Harvard and Princeton are the only two that have not met defeat this season is taken into account as emphasizing the importance of the game, there being something of a supplemental thrill in the probability that by five o’clock this afternoon the record of two unbeaten elevens will be reduced to one.
A striking note about Cambridge to-day is the absence of Crimson banners in the hands of Harvard enthusiasts. Red flags are barred under the law, and the Socialists have insisted upon the enforcement of the ordinance. No one is permitted to carry the colors of fair Harvard, under pain of arrest, and, while there was a tendency on the part of certain indignant students and alumni to make a test of the law which, by the way, was aimed at anarchists and militant Socialists, the Harvard authorities deemed it unwise thus to force the issue. So a formal request was issued by the management that Harvard’s arterial red be not borne to-day. This is said to apply, also, to arm-bands and to handkerchiefs, which will defeat the ancient Harvard custom of the Cambridge cheering section forming a red-and-white H. An attempt will be made to have the law amended, so as to exempt the University from its provisions, which afflict Harvard so grievously at present.
The whole thing is ridiculous, absurd; but the law stands, and it has to be obeyed. In the meantime there appears to be no objection to red carnations and American beauty roses, nor even to red neckties or hosiery. Just the same, the Harvard stands are likely to be more sombre this afternoon than is usual when big games are played in the stadium. There is no ban, however, upon the orange and the black, and so, Princetonians, of whom there will be several thousands inside the gray walls of the arena on the River Charles, may be as garish as they please.
Cambridge was overlaid with gold to-day, not the gold of Old Nassau, but nature’s purest sunlight. It rested on old buildings of the yard, flooded the streets, and tipped the tiny wavelets of the Charles with silver. No day better qualified for football at its best ever smiled upon this old university seat. On the inspiring breeze was borne the odor of burnt leaves and of wood smoke; the call of the great out of doors was too potent for even the most dry-as-dust professor to resist.
Every one was out early; every one was talking football. Concrete point to the excitement developed shortly after noon when the graduates and students began to assemble for their parade through the University and thence to the field. The alumni representing classes as far back as the sixties, and coming down to the class of 1913, met in front of University Hall, the seniors in front of Weld, the juniors at Grays, the sophomores at Matthews, and the freshmen at Massachusetts. The procession was scheduled to start at one o’clock, headed by a band, which was to lead the way about the yard, and finally after a season of cheering both for the various classes and the University and the football eleven, the route led out of the Johnson Gate and so to the Stadium.
The Harvard team passed the night in seclusion at the Brookline Country Club--so, as a Harvard wag put it, they would not be forced to hear even the faintest echoes of the Harvard-Princeton Glee Club “massacre” in Memorial Hall. The Tigers rested far from the heart of turmoil, out at the Woodland Park Hotel in Auburndale. In the meantime, the Princeton supporters, who had not the necessity of keeping strict training, disported themselves in various agreeable ways at the Copley Plaza, while Harvard men, staying up late, were to be found everywhere.
Neither team physically is in just the condition that the coaches would like to have it. Not that they are overtrained at all, but various important cogs in either machine have suffered in the remote or recent past from sprains and pulled tendons, which, while healed, may recur at the most inopportune moment. For Princeton, Glick, Talbott and Ed. Trenkman are liable in this respect, while Mahan and Pennock of the Harvard eleven are in the same boat. Wallace, the Harvard centre, will not enter the lineup because of slow recovery from a blow in the head received in the game against Michigan. Thus Bigelow will have to play in his place, and this is regarded as weakening the Crimson centre to some extent. Highley and Shea will start as ends for Princeton. Managers of both elevens express themselves as delighted with the condition of the gridiron, and are pleased, also, with the assurances of the weatherwise that by afternoon the wind will be a negligible quantity. The line-up follows:
HARVARD.
Player, class, and position: Age. Ht. Wt.
T. J. Coolidge, ’15, l. e. 21 5 11¾ 175 K. B. G. Parson, ’16, l. t. 22 6 02½ 187 M. Weston, ’15, l. g. 20 6 03½ 194 D. J. Wallace, ’16, centre 21 5 11 174 S. B. Pennock, ’15, r. g. 22 5 08½ 203 W. H. Trumbull, ’15, r. t. 21 6 01½ 190 H. R. Hardwick, ’15, r. e. 22 5 11 171 M. J. Logan, ’15, qb. 21 5 08½ 150 E. W. Mahan, ’16, l. hb. 22 5 11 169 F. J. Brandlee, ’15, r. hb. 21 5 11½ 178 H. Francke, ’15, fb. 20 6 00¾ 189
SUBSTITUTES.
J. L. Bigelow, ’16, t. and c. 22 6 00 182 C. A. Coolidge, jr., ’17, e. 20 5 10½ 161 L. Curtis, ’16, e. 21 6 01½ 175 W. Rollins, ’15, hb. 20 5 07½ 158 H. St. J. Smith, ’15, e. 23 6 01 174 E. G. Swigert, ’16, qb. 22 5 07 147 D. C. Watson, ’16, qb. 19 5 09 148 A. J. Weatherhead, ’15, e. 22 5 10 168 W. Whitney, ’16, hb. 21 5 10 157 W. Wilcox, ’16, qb. and hb. 19 5 08 143 F. B. Withington, ’15, g. 23 6 01½ 184
PRINCETON.
H. M. Lamberton, ’16, l. e. 21 6 00 178 W. McLean, ’17, l. t. 19 5 11½ 180 W. J. Shenk, ’15, l. g. 23 5 10½ 179 A. E. Gennert, ’17, c. 18 5 11 180 E. Trenkman, ’15, r. g. 21 5 11¾ 194 H. R. Ballin, ’15, r. t. 20 6 01 194 H. G. Brown, ’16, r. e. 20 5 11 174 K. L. Ames, jr., ’16, qb. 20 5 10½ 160 F. Trenkman, ’15, l. hb. 23 5 08 180 F. Glick, ’16, r. hb. 21 5 09 178 E. H. Driggs, jr., ’17, fb. 19 5 11 178
SUBSTITUTES.
P. Bigler, ’17, t. 21 5 10 176 J. S. Baker, ’15, e. 20 5 10 174 M. A. Charles, ’17, e. 21 5 10½ 176 J. T. A. Doolittle, ’15, hb. 22 5 08¾ 159 C. A. Dickerman, ’17, hb. 22 5 10 169 C. C. Highley, ’17, e. 19 5 11 162 T. T. Hogg, ’17, g. 20 6 04 193 W. D. Love, ’16, t. 21 5 10 186 B. C. Law, ’16, hb. 19 5 11 163 R. Nourse, ’17, c. & t. 19 5 11½ 186 E. L. Shea, ’16, e. 21 5 10 166 D. M. Tibbott, ’17, hb. 18 5 10 170
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NOTE--_The detailed story, play by play, followed this under a separate head._
FOOTBALL GAME
_Springfield Republican_
Yale. Princeton.
Brann, Gould, l e r e, Shea, Brown Talbott, Loughridge, C. Sheldon, l t r t, Ballin Conroy, Oakes, l g r g, E. Trenkmann, Hogg White, c c, Gennert, Haviland Walden, r g l g, Shenk, Swart Betts, J. Sheldon, Von Holt, r t l t, McLean, Love Stillman, Carter, r e l e, Highley, Lamberton, Rayhill, Brown A. Wilson, Easton, q b q b, Ames, Eberstadt, Glick Ainsworth, Cornell, l h b r h b, Glick, F. Trenkmann, Boland, Law Knowles, Scovil, r h b l h b, Tibbott, Dickerman Le Gore, Guernsey, f b f b, Driggs, Moore
Score, Yale 19, Princeton 14. Touchdowns, Ainsworth, Brann, Scovil, Moore, Glick. Goals from touchdowns, Le Gore, Law 2. Referee, Nathan Tufts of Brown. Umpire, Carl Marshall of Harvard. Head linesman, J. W. Beacham of Cornell. Field judge, Fred W. Burleigh of Exeter.
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The Yale football team defeated Princeton’s eleven yesterday afternoon, 19 to 14, in a game which, for thrilling climax, rivaled modern stage craft at its best. Beaten back and scored upon with apparent ease during the first three periods of play, the Tigers tore loose with a smashing attack in the final 15 minutes of the game and fairly riddled Eli’s line. Twice the orange and black swept across the blue goal line and the Princeton men were fighting desperately for the third touchdown, which would have given them victory, when the timer’s call ended Princeton’s chances and Yale’s apprehensions.
No similar situation has developed in the annual game between these two university teams in many years, and with its thrilling moments of spectacular play and gripping uncertainty, the contest formed a most fitting dedication of Princeton’s new Palmer memorial stadium.
The setting for the Tigers’ dying rally of the season of 1914 was as perfect as if the final scenes had been planned weeks in advance. Forty thousand spectators from all points of the compass invaded Princeton, bearing the flags and emblems of the rival institutions. The weather man’s gift to the day’s contest was perfect weather overhead and a turf unsurpassed for football. The great gray horseshoe with its innumerable tiers of seats was filled, with the exception of the curve at the north end. With a warm sun and an almost entire absence of wind, heavy wraps were unnecessary, yet down on the green turf of the gridiron shaded by the high walls of the stadium the players fought out the struggle to the end without suffering the inconvenience usually experienced by combatants on an Indian summer day.
During three-quarters of the game there was nothing to indicate the sensational climax with which the Princeton team was to mark its first game against Yale in its new football arena. Forced to take the defensive from the very beginning of play, the Tigers showed little defensive strength at any time, and the blue combination scored in each quarter.
The contest opened with an exchange of punts, intermingled with the efforts of the rival quarterbacks to ascertain the strength and weaknesses of their opponents. Princeton soon found that she could make no progress either through the line or around the ends, and punted at every opportunity. Yale opened with an assortment of stabbing line plunges and knife-like dives just outside of tackle. The progress, however, was not rapid, and the Elis soon fell back on their mixture of forward and rugby passing. The initial score came when, having secured the ball well in Princeton’s territory, Wilson took his center’s pass and, after a short run along the left side of Princeton’s line, passed the ball back to Le Gore. The powerful Yale fullback in turn ran a short distance and made a beautiful forward pass to Ainsworth, who had rushed up-field, and the latter ran more than 20 yards for a touchdown, from which Le Gore failed to kick goal.
Similar tactics were pursued in the second period, when Yale, with short gains by line plunges and overhead passes, reached a point inside the Tigers’ final five-yard mark. Here Princeton held firmly and the blue was obliged to seek the aerial route for scoring, Le Gore making a short pass over the line to Brann, who touched down the ball, whereupon Le Gore added an additional point by a goal following the punt out.
Scarcely had the third period opened when a 40-yard forward pass, Le Gore to Brann, gave Yale the ball inside Princeton’s 20-yard mark. Six rushes, in which Scovil, Wilson and Le Gore worked alternately, put the ball across the line for Yale’s third and final touchdown. Le Gore failed to kick the goal, and with a 19-point lead Coach Hinkey of Yale began to send in his substitutes.
For a few minutes the Eli second string of players held the Tigers safe, but with the opening of the final quarter Princeton’s jungle men took heart and made a savage and maintained attack on Yale’s substitutes with the result that in less than 15 minutes they had rolled up 14 points and were threatening to snatch victory from the blue when time expired.
The orange and black team played like a new combination after the final minute of rest, opening up a rushing game which swept the blues’ substitutes off their feet. Three, five and eight yards at a clip, Princeton’s juggernaut rolled up the field until Moore, on a zigzag 16-yard run which twice carried him through the Yale line and secondary defense, went over for the touchdown from which Law kicked goal. Following the kick-off came an exchange of punts and then the Tigers cut loose again, ramming holes through the Eli forwards and sweeping around the end, aided by close interference until Glick plowed his way through the blue combination for a second touchdown and Law kicked goal.
Hinkey was by this time rushing back his ’varsity players into line and backfield, but the Tiger, once he tasted Yale blood, was not to be frightened away. With less than five minutes of playing time remaining, Princeton started its rush for a third touchdown. Capt Talbott urged his players frantically to make a last stand, and the Elis responded nobly. Princeton found its gains cut down from yards to feet and resorted to forward passes, hoping to gain overhead the ground denied them by straight football tactics. Forward pass after forward pass was flung far up the field, to be grounded or blocked by the blues’ alert backfield until, when the timer’s whistle ended the struggle, Princeton was holding the ball not far from midfield.
Aside from this surprising flash of offensive strength in the last quarter, Princeton was as completely outplayed by Yale as by Harvard a week ago. The wide open attack in which the blue backfield passed the ball from player to player in runs around the end and then suddenly switched to long forward passes, appeared to bewilder and dazzle the Tiger line and secondary defense just as much as the crimson’s close formation and concealed ball offense.
The jungle team appeared to have little if any plan of campaign, punting frequently upon the first or second down with the apparent idea that the ends would recover the ball following a Yale fumble. In this respect the Elis refused to be accommodating, Le Gore and Wilson handling Driggs’s and Law’s drives cleanly and frequently running the ball back from 10 to 15 yards before being downed.
Princeton was outdistanced in these kicking duels, Le Gore gaining steadily on each exchange of punts with Driggs. When these gains had driven the Tigers well into their own territory Yale struck viciously and, with a bewildering attack, quickly carried the ball over for a score. From a defensive standpoint the Yale first-string team was never in danger from Princeton’s attack, and it was not until the second and third-string substitutes went in that the orange and black football machine could make consistent progress.
The statistics of play bear out the superiority of the Yale team. Yale gained 298 yards by rushing to Princeton’s 145 and made 15 first downs to the Tigers’ 11. Yale essayed seven forward passes to Princeton’s 10, gaining 69 yards to Princeton’s 0. Yale punted 27 times to Princeton’s 40 and showed an average gain of close to four yards in each exchange of punts.
Penalties were numerous throughout the four periods, Yale losing 80 yards in eight setbacks to Princeton’s 60 in seven infringements of the rules. Yale made three fumbles to Princeton’s one, recovering one to Princeton’s two. Including the original line-up, substitutions and re-substitutions, 57 players took part in the game, which is in all probability a record for a contest of the caliber of the Yale-Princeton match.
While in all-around team work Yale outshone Princeton, the Tigers uncovered several players who from an individual standpoint held their own with the Eli stars. Capt. Ballin was, as usual, a tower of strength. E. Trenkmann also played a splendid game, both these men frequently penetrating the blue backfield and stopping rushes or going down field under kicks on a line with their ends. Gennert’s passing was at times ragged, but he was hurried by the concerted charging of his opponents. In the last quarter Dickerman and Glick showed remarkable ability in line plunging and end runs, frequently carrying several Yale tacklers from one to three yards before they were finally swept from their feet.
For Yale, Le Gore and Scovil were the stars from an offensive standpoint. When carrying the ball they kept their feet, following interference or finding holes in the line with remarkable skill. Le Gore also figured prominently in the forward passing, his long spiral heaves to Brann and Ainsworth at times reaching the proportions of a kick. Quarterback Wilson handled his team cleverly and selected plays with splendid judgment.
In the line Capt. Talbott played a game which proved that he has fully recovered from his injuries and will give the Harvard men plenty of work next week at New Haven in the closing game of the Yale and Harvard schedules.
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FOOTBALL GAME
_Springfield Republican_
CAMBRIDGE, Saturday, October 24.
Harvard narrowly escaped defeat to-day by Penn State, which outplayed the crimson in all departments. The score ended in a tie, 13 to 13. For 46 minutes Penn State drove the Harvard ’varsity substitutes about the field, and scored a touchdown and a goal from the field in the first 12 minutes of play.
The visitors outrushed, outkicked and outmaneuvered the crimson, but lost a chance for victory through two costly fumbles. In the second period, with the score 10 to 0 against it, Harvard recovered a fumble on Penn State’s eight-yard line. On three attempts Harvard could make no gain, but a score came when C. Coolidge caught a forward pass across the goal line. Penn State increased its lead to 13 points toward the end of the game on another field goal.
Two minutes before play ended, Harvard recovered the ball on a fumble on the visitors’ 40-yard line. On the second play, three rapidly-executed lateral passes, based on the rugby game, as recently taught the crimson squad by the Canadian players, completely mystified Penn State. Willcox ran the distance to the goal line for the score. He was tackled with a yard to go, but managed to fall across the line. Amid a breathless silence Withington kicked goal and the score was tied.
Penn State rushed 54 times for 173 yards gain, while the crimson made but 95 yards on 72 rushes. Penn State had six first downs, while Harvard made but two.
Lamb, Penn’s big tackle, booted the ball on the kick-off to Francke on Harvard’s 10-yard line. The new back came in to his own 32-yard line, where he was downed. On the third play, Francke was forced to kick. James caught the ball on Penn’s 30-yard line, returning seven yards. Here the Penn State power flashed. Tobin snatched two yards at right tackle, followed by James, who made a quarterback run around the same side for 15 yards, placing the ball past midfield.
Tobin then, huddled behind superb interference, sped around Coolidge’s end for 25 yards. After two plays had failed, Lamb kicked a field goal for Penn State from the 32-yard line.
Tobin took Bradlee’s kick-off on his own 13-yard line and ran it back 21 yards. Higgins then slipped around right end for five yards, and his interference so successfully smothered Soucy that the new Harvard end was carried from the field. At the hospital it was found that he had pulled a ligament in his right leg, which was badly bruised.
It was not long after the first score that the visitors carried the ball down the field again. The tally came after McKinlock failed to make a drop kick, the ball falling into James’s arms on his five-yard line. After several big gains, Clark carried the ball over on a delayed run around left end. Lamb kicked goal. The first quarter ended with the score 10 to 0, in favor of Penn State.
Toward the end of the second period Harvard got a chance to score. On the fourth down Bradlee kicked to James, who was downed in his tracks on the seven-yard line. Penn State tried another trick play and again a fumble lost her the ball. Swigert had replaced Watson at the beginning of the quarter. He dropped back and heaved the ball to C. Coolidge, who stood with one foot almost on the line marking the limit of the zone behind the goal line, when he successfully pulled down the ball for a touchdown. Bradlee failed to kick goal.
About the end of the last quarter Penn got another chance to score, when Tobin intercepted a forward pass from Swigert. Lamb booted a placement goal over from the 26-yard line, making the score 13 to 6 for Penn. There were only six minutes to play and Harvard was desperate. Willcox replaced Rollins at left half and made it possible for Harvard to tie the score. When James fumbled the ball, R. C. Curtis gathered it in and made it Harvard’s ball on the 49-yard line. There were two minutes to play.
On the first play there was a general mix-up, and suddenly the ball shot out from the Harvard line to Willcox, who started like a shot for Penn’s goal line. He dodged Barron, and then went flying past three more backs. The last five yards were covered with Kratt and Higgins hanging to him, but, when the two visitors had been peeled off Willcox, the ball was found over the line by several inches. Withington’s sure kick tied the score for Harvard with one minute left to play. The line-up:--
Harvard. Penn State.
T. J. Coolidge, C. Coolidge, le r e, Thomas, Barron, Morris R. C. Curtis, Parson, l t r t, Lamb Underwood, Withington, l g r g, McDonnell Wallace, c c, Wood Weston, r g l g, Miller Bigelow, r t l t, Kratt Soucy, Weatherhead, r e l e, Higgins Watson, Swigert, q b q b, James McKinlock, Whitney, Rollins, Willcox, l h b r h b, Tobin Francke, King, r h b l h b, Welly, Edgerton Bradlee, McKinlock, f b f b, Clark
Score, Harvard 13, Penn State 13. Touchdowns, C. Coolidge, Willcox, Clark. Goals from touchdowns, Withington, Lamb. Goals from field, Lamb 2. Referee, W. N. Morne of Penn. Umpire, Fred W. Murphy of Brown. Head linesman, G.V. Brown of Boston A. A. Time, 30-minute halves.
* * * * *
ANALYSIS OF FOOTBALL GAME
_New York Evening Post_
(Condensed)
BY FAIR PLAY.
If there was a Yale graduate who did not feel the impulse to stand in his place and uncover silently to a little knot of athletes in blue gathered to give their bulldog bark of victory at the close of a bitterly fought struggle with Princeton in the Bowl on Saturday, that graduate had lost the edge of a certain fine spirit which the sons of Eli are supposed to take with them out into the world. From their seats the undergraduates stormed on to the field, gyrating in their uncontained exuberance, cheering, shouting, writhing in the intricacies of the snake dance. And they did well, these ebullient undergrads--precisely what they should have done; but to the thinking Yale men whose remoteness from their student days has seen year piled on year, there must have come deeper emotions which made, shall we say, for reverence, rather than for the casting off of mental, not to say physical, restraint. For the Yale eleven did a memorable thing on Saturday. Through sheer spirit, through indomitable determination, through utter willingness to give the final measure of physical sacrifice, those men of Yale lifted from the muck a bedraggled, bedaubed blue banner, holding it on high so that it floated and snapped proudly once more, glorified by the light of victory. It was fine. It meant more, that victory--stood for more--than the mere winning of a football game. It went deep into the roots of extra-curricular endeavor and gave that sanction for intercollegiate contest which does not always appear. The elements that won that game against a powerful, spirited rival are elements that not even the most dryasdust pedant, wedded to the scholastic cloister, can talk down. And it is good for Yale or any other university, to have these developed upon the field of competitive athletics as in other departments of college life, essential and subsidiary. In the matter of Saturday’s game, this applies as much to those who, filled with foreboding, assembled none the less thousands upon thousands to cheer and sing for Yale, as to the players.
“I don’t know that we can hold Princeton,” said a Yale coach a few hours before the contest. “Privately, I don’t think we can. But you may count upon this: not a man of Yale will yield to-day until he is carried from the field.”
That was the spirit that won for Yale, the spirit that won against an eleven better equipped to play finished football, against an outfit which gained two yards to Yale’s one, which made twelve first downs to Yale’s four.
* * *
If the Tigers had not matched the best fighting qualities of Princeton spirit against the best that Yale spirit stands for the lustre of Yale’s feat would not have been so bright--would have lost much of its significance. But that grim, undying quality, win or lose, that Princeton partisans look for and expect was not lacking in the Orange and Black. The contest was fought out to the end, with the enormous throng standing spellbound, cheers and inarticulate cries muffled in their throats, watching the balance of victory as it inclined this way and that. The contest had not the technical excellence of some big games we have seen--from this standpoint the Harvard-Princeton game was superior--but in its spectacular characteristics, in its sequence of thrills, in its swift, shuttling changes, it stood out by itself.
* * *
In Princeton Yale defeated an eleven which possessed a stronger and more varied attack, with a defence which could keep the Blue from rushing the ball into what may be termed promising touchdown territory. In all that the term implies the Tigers had a machine which was superior to the Yale machine, inasmuch as it had the power not only to gain in midfield, but to cross the chalk marks. The Tigers made one touchdown by clean rushing and forward passing, and had a break not occurred at the supreme moment, her rushing prowess in the last quarter would have been rewarded by another touchdown. Further Glick’s generalship was execrable upon many occasions. In the first quarter Wilson dropped a long booming punt from Driggs, and Highley, picking it up on the bound, was tackled one stride short of getting clear for a touchdown. The ball was on Yale’s thirty-yard line. Now, instead of going outside tackle, Princeton essayed a series of centre bucks with quarter and halves, which every Princeton scout must have told Glick could not succeed against Yale. Thus the downs were exhausted. Guernsey punted weakly from his twenty-yard line, giving Princeton the ball on Yale’s twenty-seven-yard mark, where instead of going off tackle or around the end Princeton tried two line plunges and then threw the ball away by a forward pass over the goal line, the same being translated automatically into a touchback for Yale. Thereafter, throughout the game, Princeton turned time and again to centre plunges, usually unsuccessfully, whereas not many of her sweeps around the Yale wings failed to gain materially. They say her gains in this way were sporadic, but this was only because the play was attempted sporadically. Nassau’s off-tackle plays and delayed passes gained a great deal of ground and put Yale in danger more than once; yet usually a down or two were used up on centre bucks, when Princeton should have known she was wasting her strength. Where Yale was vastly superior to Princeton was in following the ball and in holding it.
* * *
Yale’s first goal was clean and untarnished. Guernsey kicked it from the fifty-three-yard line, and it was as fine an effort as I have ever seen. The ball struck the cross bar and toppled over. But Yale’s second field goal was a direct gift from Princeton. Brown was sent in to relieve Highley and committed the gross and inexcusable error of speaking to Capt. Glick before reporting to the referee. The referee promptly and justly set Princeton back fifteen yards to her own twenty-eight yard line. After two rushes had failed to gain, Yale did the obvious thing; she sent Guernsey back to kick a field goal. This he did. Princeton then fell to work and rushed the ball downfield to the Yale goal line, where the ball was held directly on the final chalk-mark before it was finally pushed an inch or two over; it was a splendid piece of grim defence by Yale, but the ball was too close. Thus the half ended. The half was characterized by a piece of roughness on the part of a Princeton man who hurled himself upon a prostrate Yale receiver of a forward pass after he had been downed. Princeton was justly penalized for undue roughness, as she was in the last period when a Princetonian roughed a Yale player in a play which ended out of bounds. Such incidents leave a bad taste in the mouth. It was done in the heat of a hot game, and no injury resulted because of no real design to injure, but that is no excuse.
* * *
The second half assumed a blue tinge almost immediately when Tibbott dropped a long spiral from Guernsey and Way picked up the ball and ran for a touchdown. The remainder of the third period was characterized by one or two well-worked forward passes and some goodly gains off tackle by Princeton, with Yale on the defensive satisfied as matters stood. The fourth period saw Princeton hungry for a score, playing like all-possessed, with Yale conducting herself cautiously, and always seeking to get Guernsey in a position to drop a field goal. But the Elis--who were not able to make a first down in this half--would not have got sufficiently near to Princeton’s goal to try a kick for score had not Dickerman dropped a Yale punt on his eighteen-yard line, Yale recovering. The Blue could not gain, but profited by Dickerman’s fumble to the extent of giving Guernsey a chance for a dropkick. He made the goal cleanly, but it did not count because of holding on the part of Yale; the holding may or may not have affected the success of the kick, but rules are rules, and the holding was obvious even to some of the spectators. A few minutes later Princeton, with Moore in the lineup, took advantage of a weak punt against the wind by Guernsey and unleashed an irresistible attack, which started from Yale’s thirty-two-yard line. End-runs and off-tackle plays, with a forward pass to spread Yale’s defence, took the ball to Eli’s seven-yard line. Here was what the Princeton adherents had been looking for; the multitude of sixty-odd thousand became so quiet that the quarterback’s signals echoed and reëchoed throughout the immense amphitheatre. An assault at the line was killed for a loss. Then, with the Yale defence packed closely to the left, Glick took the ball and gave it to Dickerman. The Yale defence dashed straight in. The fleet-footed Moore, sprinting to the right, was completely clear. Dickerman threw the ball to him laterally. It was not a perfect throw, but it was within reach of the fast-running Moore, who, with a clean catch, could have walked over the goal-line. But it glanced from his fingers. He still had time to pick it up on the bound and score; the oval hit his knee and bounded over the side-line, in touch. Right there waned and flickered Princeton’s last hope, a hope valiantly essayed, a hope which died at the moment when it was being translated into a flaming reality. The contest ended a few minutes later. In justice to Moore it may be said that Dickerman’s toss might have been better done. It came too swift, too much in a line, still, the throw might have been spoiled had it gone too slowly.
* * *
Where Yale shone, wherein she has hope to make trouble for Harvard, is in her punting and drop-kicking, her down field ability and sharp tackling of her team; the close, unerring following of the ball and the splendid spirit of the players individually, and as a whole. Her wing defence and defence off tackle must improve between now and next Saturday, probably will. Her forward-passing game is not dangerous, and she launches a driving attack from her Minnesota shift formation better qualified for midfield gains than for gains inside her opponent’s thirty-five-yard line. Perhaps she can work up her off-tackle slashes so that they will carry farther than they did against Princeton, but if she can repeatedly get Guernsey anywhere from Harvard’s forty-yard line on she may not need touchdowns in order to win. For Guernsey is a toe artist of real stature. As to the Yale players individually it is impossible to speak, because not being numbered, the various men were identified only by word of mouth and word of mouth is usually inaccurate and misleading. Guernsey, of course, was recognized because he did the punting, and Way was known because he was prominent as a baseball pitcher and, besides, wore no head guard. But as to the exact identity of most of the rest I have no notion upon which I may rely. One of the Yale halfbacks played a slashing game offensively, and the entire backfield shone in returning punts and kickoffs. The three centre men were impregnable, but the tackles and ends worked inconsistently on off-tackle plays and end runs. Harvard may take some unction in the fact that Yale can still be fooled by an elusive attack. Yale’s basket formation for forward-pass defence, four men back, was well conceived--it was patterned after the Harvard defence--but her normal defensive arrangement of backs, three abreast, twelve yards back, is open to grave criticism. She got her shift into action in good style, and the backs started quickly. She lacks long-gain plays.
* * *
John Rush has not the slightest cause for being disheartened over the results of his first season’s work. He gave to Princeton the first offensive team she has had since 1899, a team which made a splendid reputation up to her big games, both of which, as a matter of fact, might have been won under different circumstances. Rush constructed an engine, a strong, impressive engine, several parts of which snapped under high tension in the course of the two supreme tests. In no way can Rush be charged with the loss of either game. In both, failures came through manual errors on the part of individuals, and these no coach can prevent. Vide Haughton and the Harvard-Cornell game. Princeton in Rush has a rare jewel, who has made good convincingly.
* * * * *
BASEBALL GAME
_Boston Post_
NEW YORK, Aug. 22.--New York made it two straight over Chicago today, winning the second game of the series by a score of 8 to 1. Cheney was wild and ineffective in the third inning, when the champions took a winning lead by scoring three runs. Vaughn, a former member of the New York Americans, who is trying to come back with Chicago, was not hard hit, but the champions bunched their three hits with his two passes for four runs.
Tesreau, the New York pitcher, was very wild, but the Chicago batsmen could not hit him with men on bases. Zimmerman fouled out twice with the bases full. Chicago filled the bases in the first inning with none out, on Leach’s triple and passes to Evers and Schulte. Only one run was scored, however, Saier’s infield out putting over the tally. New York tied the score in the second on Merkle’s single and steal, Snodgrass’ infield out and McLean’s single. Three runs followed when Cheney hit two men, issued a pass and was hit for a single and a double.
Herzog made two doubles and a single in four times up, and was responsible for five of the New York runs, driving in two and scoring three. Archer, the Chicago catcher, had a bad day. Five bases were stolen on him, and he had two passed balls, one of which let in a run.
The score:
NEW YORK. AB. R. BH. TB. PO. A. E.
Burns, l f 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 Shafer, 2b 2 1 0 0 1 5 0 Fletcher, ss 2 2 0 0 0 3 0 Herzog, 3b 4 3 3 5 2 0 0 Merkle, 1b 4 1 2 2 10 0 0 Murray, r f 4 0 1 1 3 0 0 Snodgrass, c f 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 McLean, c 4 0 1 1 6 0 0 Tesreau, p 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Totals 30 8 7 9 27 11 0
CHICAGO. AB. R. BH. TB. PO. A. E.
Leach, c f 4 1 1 3 0 0 1 Evers, 2b 2 0 0 0 2 3 0 Schulte, r f 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 Zimmerman, 3b 4 0 1 1 1 4 0 Saier, 1b 3 0 1 1 11 1 0 Williams, l f 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 Bridwell, ss 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 Archer, c 4 0 1 1 4 2 0 Cheney, p 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 [_a_]Stewart 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Vaughn, p 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 [_b_]Good, 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Totals 31 1 5 7 24 12 1
[_a_] Batted for Cheney in the fifth.
[_b_] Batted for Vaughn in the ninth.
New York 0 1 3 0 1 0 3 0 --8 Chicago 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--1
Two-base hits--Herzog 2. Three-base hit--Leach. Stolen bases--Burns, Merkle 2, Murray, Herzog. Double play--Fletcher to Shafer to Merkle. First base on balls--Off Tesreau 6, off Cheney 3, off Vaughn 2. Hit by pitcher--Fletcher, Snodgrass (by Cheney). Passed balls--Archer 2. Hits--Off Cheney 4 in 4 innings, off Vaughn 3 in 4 innings. Time--1h. 50m. Umpires--Rigler and Byron.
* * * * *
BASEBALL GAME
_Boston Globe_
BY T. H. MURNANE.
The fourth game of the important series with the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park was a clean-cut victory for the Boston team by a score of 2 to 1.
It was a great pitchers’ battle between Coveleskie, the left-hander, and Ernie Shore, and the Boston man won out by outstaying the Tiger pitcher.
It was the second time that Coveleskie has worked in the series here, while Boston presented Shore for the first time, although he proved by far the strongest boxman the club had to tame the Tigers with.
The visitors started off in a savage manner on the Boston pitcher, scoring their only run on three singles in succession. After that Shore seemed to find himself, and with the assistance of some clever throwing to second by Forrest Cady and grand ground-covering by the Boston outfield, as well as smooth work around the infield, Shore prevented the Tigers from making the rounds of the bases after the first inning.
The Boston run that tied the score in the second was a gift by Owen Bush, who made a wild throw to first on Barry’s grounder, and the winning run was scored in the seventh inning on a single by Lewis and a double by Barry, Crawford allowing the ball to pass him while making a great try for a low drive.
The intense rivalry between the two teams, although subdued, was visible in many ways; and yet the game went off smoothly, as most games do when umpired by Billy Evans, and the large crowd was delighted with its afternoon’s outing.
* * * * *
It was Rockland Day at Fenway Park and fully 1000 fans were present from that energetic town. Before the game they marched around the field to the music of a band; then they were ushered into the right wing of the grandstand, where they had a delightful afternoon, rooting for the Red Sox and punctuating their applause with the bass drum.
As Rockland is a town where President Lannin spent many of his boyhood days, he was especially delighted to see such a splendid gathering. A beautiful gold watch and chain were presented to the Red Sox president.
There was also a large delegation of Boston waiters present as President Lannin’s guests, and still another large delegation will be out today. As the waiters could not all leave business at once, they split up their calls between two games.
The attendance given out, 11,315, did not include the fans from Rockland or the waiters from Boston.
The day was dark and cloudy, and before three innings were over a light sprinkling of rain caused the fans in the bleachers to make for the covered pavilions, where they were allowed to go. There was quite a heavy sprinkle again in the fifth inning, but the game went on, with a strong, cold wind blowing across the field.
So intensely interesting was the game that the fans sat as if glued to their seats until the last man went out, when a good, stiff shout went up for the Speed Boys, and the Tigers walked off the field sore to the quick and in the worst kind of humor for fan talk.
* * * * *
With one out in the first inning, Bush singled. Cobb hit safely to center on the first ball. Crawford singled over second, scoring Bush. Veach was thrown out at first, and Burns was disposed of by Janvrin, Boston getting out of a very bad corner. The Red Sox went out in order on three weak infield flies.
In the second Young was safe at first on a wild throw by Cady. Baker hit to Janvrin, who refused to toss the ball to Barry, but instead ran to second, touched the bag and threw wild to first. No damage was done, however, as Coveleskie flied to left and Vitt was thrown out at first.
Gainor was hit by a pitched ball and sacrificed to second by Lewis. Gardner struck out. Barry hit a ball to short that Bush took well back of the line and threw short to first, the ball bounding over Burns’ shoulder and allowing Gainor to score the tying run.
Bush opened the third with a single. Cobb smashed a liner to center that Speaker made a great catch of. Then Crawford and Veach sent high flies to the outfield. Boston could make no headway against the Tiger pitcher.
In the fourth inning both teams went out in order. Gainor, having reached first, was doubled up on Lewis’ grounder to the pitcher.
In the fifth, with two down, Bush was given a base hit when Janvrin failed to get a ball that came to him on a merry bound. Cobb got in a scratch single, and with big Sam Crawford up it was a trying moment until he sent a long fly that Speaker pulled down.
With two down in this inning, Cady dropped one in right field for two bases, to see Shore thrown out at first.
The Tigers went out in order in the sixth. Young, drawing a pass, was nailed when he tried for second, as Cady was in fine throwing form. Janvrin was hit by a pitched ball, but never left first.
With two down in the seventh, Vitt singled and tried for second, but again Cady’s throw was perfect.
Lewis led off with a single to center. Gardner was patient and got Coveleskie in for three balls. Then came two strikes and Larry was forced to hit, Young handling his fast grounder in fine style. Barry hit a low liner to right that Crawford made a great try for, the ball hitting the ground and rolling past him, Lewis scoring what proved to be the winning run.
It was now up to the Red Sox to hold their advantage and keep the Tigers from scoring. Bush, a hard man to get, was called out on strikes, Shore displaying remarkably clever form at this stage of the game. Cobb was forced to hit, as Shore was putting the ball over the center of the pen. Ty missed twice and then hit a sharp grounder that Janvrin played to first. Crawford sent one to Hooper and things brightened for the home team.
* * * * *
In the ninth Veach smashed a line fly to right that Hooper timed to a nicety while playing very deep and pulled down after a sharp run. Burns smashed the first ball to the bank in left center for two bases, and the Tigers got busy on the coaching lines and in the dugout, cheering like wild men for a hit.
Kavanagh was sent in to bat for Young, and drew a pass, as Shore would not take a chance to groove a ball for this slugger. McKee went to bat for Baker and was thrown out by Shore.
With men at third and second, where a hit would more than likely win the game for the Tigers, Dubuc was sent in to bat for Coveleskie, with two down, and he smashed away at the first ball dished up, driving the leather to left center, where Speaker pulled it down after a sharp run, and the game was over.
The best fielding features were furnished by Bush, who displayed remarkable ability in covering ground, really making hard plays easy by his phenomenally quick starts. Hooper and Speaker, as well as Barry and Cady, did some sharp fielding for the Red Sox.
But to Shore belongs about 75 per cent of the glory for winning the game, for after the first inning he settled down and was steady as well as effective. He was given what belonged to him by Umpire Evans, and was not forced to suffer as the other Boston pitchers were, with Mr. Chill behind the plate. The score:
BOSTON AB R BH TB PO A E
Hooper rf 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 Janvrin ss 3 0 1 1 2 3 0 Speaker cf 4 0 0 0 4 0 0 Gainor 1b 2 1 0 0 11 0 0 Lewis lf 3 1 1 1 2 0 0 Gardner 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 Barry 2b 3 0 1 2 2 4 0 Cady c 3 0 1 2 4 2 1 Shore p 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Totals 28 2 4 6 27 12 1
DETROIT
Vitt 3b 4 0 1 1 1 0 0 Bush ss 4 1 3 3 2 3 1 Cobb cf 4 0 2 2 1 0 0 Crawford rf 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 Veach lf 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 Burns 1b 4 0 1 2 11 0 0 Young 2b 2 0 0 0 3 4 0 Baker c 3 0 0 0 5 0 0 Coveleskie p 3 0 0 0 0 4 0 [D]Kavanagh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [E]McKee 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 [F]Dubuc 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Totals 34 1 8 9 24 11 1
[D] Batted for Young in ninth.
[E] Batted for Baker in ninth.
[F] Batted for Coveleskie in ninth.
Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Boston 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 --2 Detroit 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--1
Earned runs, Detroit, Boston. Two-base hits, Cady, Burns, Barry. Sacrifice hit, Lewis. Base on balls, by Shore 2, by Coveleskie. First base on errors, Boston, Detroit. Left on bases, Boston 5, Detroit 7. Struck out, by Shore 4, by Coveleskie 3. Double play, Coveleskie, Young and Burns. Hit by pitched ball, by Coveleskie, Janvrin, Gainor. Time, 1h 52m. Umpires, Evans and Chill.
* * * * *
BASEBALL GAME
_New York Times_
Look: there he goes!!
Ty Cobb is loose again on a base galloping spree. He romps to first on a single. Slim Caldwell pitches to Nunamaker, and the ball nestles in his big mitt. Cobb, a few feet off first, suddenly bolts into action and races to second. Nunamaker, amazed at the Georgian’s daring, stands dumfounded.
He throws the ball to Dan Boone just as the Southern Flyer jumps into second base. The steel spikes flash in the waning sun and Cobb is lost in a cloud of dust. Nunamaker’s nervous toss rolls into centre field and the Georgia Gem bounds to his feet and tears to third. He’s as safe as the Bank of England. Cobb’s sarcastic smile angers his hoodwinked opponents.
Now the speed-crazed comet dashes up and down the third-base line, trying to rattle Caldwell. Will Cobb have the nerve to try to steal home? You said it; he will. Caldwell doesn’t think so. No one thinks so, but Cobb. The Yanks’ lanky pitcher hurls the ball at the batsman like a rifle ball. As the ball left his hand Cobb bounded over the ground like a startled deer.
At the plate crouched Nunamaker. He was so surprised that he didn’t know his own name. Cobb dashed through the air toward the scoring pan. His lithe body swerved away from Nunamaker’s reach and clouds of dirt kicked up by his spikes blinded the eyes of Nunamaker, Caldwell, and Silk O’Loughlin.
The umpire ruled that the catcher didn’t touch Cobb. He also ruled that Cobb hadn’t touched the plate. While the Yankee players were protesting Cobb sneaked around the bunch and touched the plate.
A smart young feller, this same Cobb.
The bold piracy of Captain Kidd was like taking ice-cream cones from children compared with that. Caldwell threw his glove high in the air in derision at O’Loughlin’s decision. Naturally Caldwell and Nunamaker were in a very disturbed state of mind.
So is a man when a “dip” relieves him of his watch-chain and wallet. Cobb pulled the wool over their eyes like a “sharper” unloading mining stock on a Rube. Caldwell was put out of the game for being mad because Cobb had outwitted him.
Aside from this outburst of daring the Southern Flyer also contributed all the other means whereby the Detroits were able to shut out the Yankees at the Polo Grounds yesterday by a score of 3 to 0. Oscar Vitt had teased a pass from Caldwell in the first inning. Cobb strutted chestily to the bat. From the coaching lines pearls of oratorical wisdom began to drop from Hughie Jennings’s chiseled lips.
It sounded like this: “Come on you, Ty boy, attababy. Only one out, O, Ty. Bring ’em in; you kin do it. Old pepperino, Ty boy. Attaway to hit a baseball. E-E-E-Eh Yah, here we go.”
Cobb gracefully swung on the ball. With a resounding crash it started on its dizzy flight between right and centre fields. The Georgia racer gathered speed as he went along. Bounding over the ground like a phantom, he turned first, flashed past second, and pulled up smiling at third, with Vitt already over the pan. Cobb’s batting .400. Going up?
Then came old Sam Crawford, Cobb’s partner in the pitcher-wrecking business. Sam would never leave his friend Cobb stranded like a wooden Indian on the bases, not if he could help it. Crawford reasoned this way. He figured that if he didn’t propel Tyrus home, Cobb would steal home, anyway, and cause the Yankees a lot of embarrassment. So Wahoo Sam cracked out a single and Cobb walked home. The score:
DETROIT. AB R H PO A
Bush, ss 4 0 1 4 4 Vitt, 3b 3 1 0 3 3 Cobb, cf 4 2 2 1 0 C’ford, rf 4 0 1 1 0 Veach, lf 4 0 0 0 0 Kav’h, 1b 4 0 1 13 1 Young, 2b 3 0 0 1 7 McKee, c 2 0 0 4 0 Dubuc, p 3 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- -- Total 31 3 5 27 15
NEW YORK. AB R H PO A M’sel, 3b 4 0 1 0 0 P’p’gh, ss 4 0 0 4 4 Cree, cf 4 0 1 5 0 Pipp, 1b 3 0 0 9 1 Cook, rf 3 0 0 1 0 H’tz’l, lf 3 0 1 2 0 Boone, 2b 4 0 1 1 1 Sw’ney, c 3 0 0 5 0 [G]High 0 0 0 0 0 N’m’ker, c 0 0 0 0 1 C’well, p 3 0 0 0 2 Pieh, p 0 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- -- Total 31 0 4 27 9
[G] Ran for Sweeney in seventh inning.
Errors--Vitt, Nunamaker.
Detroit 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1--3 New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--0
Two-base hit--Maisel. Three-base hit--Cobb. Stolen bases--Cook, Cobb (2.) Earned runs--Detroit, 2. Sacrifice hit--McKee. Left on bases--New York, 7; Detroit, 4. First base on error--New York. Bases on balls--Off Caldwell, 2; off Dubuc, 2. Hits--Off Caldwell, 4 in 8 2-3 innings; off Pieh, 1 in 1-3 inning. Hit by pitcher--By Dubuc, (Cook.) Struck out--By Caldwell, 5; by Dubuc, 2. Time of game--One hour and fifty-five minutes. Umpires--Messrs. O’Loughlin and Hildebrand.
* * * * *
COLLEGE CREW PROSPECTS
_New York Times_
After a long rest, candidates for the Columbia ’Varsity crew will be called out next week to start the long training for the Spring races and for the intercollegiate regatta on the Hudson in June. Jim Rice, coach of the Blue and White navy, will order the men to the rowing machines on the opening day of college following the Christmas recess, for practice until the end of the examinations following the first term. Daily work on the machines will then be ordered, and the crew men will not have any further let-up in their training.
Rice is confronted with a difficult task this season in finding the material to build up a winning crew to match the eight which swept the Hudson last June and won the intercollegiate championship of America. Only three men of this crew have returned to college. A new stroke must be developed, and practically an entirely new eight built up, from the junior squad of last season.
Those who have seen Coach Rice whip together crews will not, however, be discouraged at this time. In years past Coach Rice has started out the season with an untrained and comparatively small squad of oarsmen and has startled college circles with a wonderful eight, ready by the time the Spring races rolled around. It is fair to assume that a similar feat will be performed this year.
An example of Coach Rice’s ability in this respect was furnished last season in the building up of a junior ’Varsity eight. With the exception of Robinson, the oarsmen from the two freshmen eights of 1915 and 1916, both of which finished last in the freshmen races at Poughkeepsie, were whipped into shape as the junior eight and finished second against all the other colleges in the intercollegiate regatta.
It is on these eight men, with the three men left over from the ’Varsity eight and a couple of freshmen of last season, that Coach Rice will have to depend for this year’s ’Varsity eight. The most telling loss this season is the graduation of C. F. McCarthy, who stroked the winning eight, and Capt. Irving Hadsell, who rowed at No. 7, two of the best and gamest oarsmen who ever sat in a Columbia shell. Steddiford Pitt is another splendid blade who is lost to the crew this year, and the strength and fight found in Rothwell are hard to spare.
The three men who must serve as the nucleus for this year’s eight are Bratton, who rowed at No. 6; Sanborn, who rowed at No. 4, and Naumer, who rowed at bow. Bratton was one of the strongest men in the eight, weighing 180 pounds, and there is no question but that Coach Rice will place him back in the waist of the shell this season. Naumer is a good oarsman, and obtained his seat at bow last season purely on his merits, as evidenced after a long tryout against Cronenberg for the position. It is highly probable that Naumer will be moved further down in the boat this year, and that Cronenberg will get his place at bow.
Much speculation centres about the selection of stroke of the eight. Ex-Capt. “Irv.” Hadsell predicts that Frank McCarthy will find a way to get back in his old position this Spring, but positive denials by McCarthy seem to indicate otherwise. The two logical men for the position as pacemaker of the eight are Myers, who stroked the junior boat last season, and Sanborn, who stroked the 1915 freshmen crew, rowed at No. 2 in the ’Varsity four of 1913, and held down the place at No. 4 in the ’Varsity of 1914.
The student body is faced with the task of raising $2,700 to take care of the crew debt contracted in 1913-14. A few of the alumni have been supporting the crew with large donations, and at present they hold notes for the above amount. Recently, however, an appeal was sent out to the undergraduates to help bear the burden, and their response has been quick and loyal.
The Greek letter fraternities at Columbia have come forward with $500, and the undergraduates prior to leaving for the holidays pledged an equal amount. Further efforts will be made when the students return, and it is confidently expected about the campus that a good share of the indebtedness will be paid off within a few months.
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COLLEGE ROWING REGATTA
_Christian Science Monitor_
HARVARD-YALE WINNERS FOR 1915
FIRST VARSITY EIGHTS Yale 20m. 52s.
SECOND VARSITY EIGHTS Yale 10m. 40s.
FRESHMAN EIGHTS Yale [H]8m. 6s.
FRESHMAN FOURS Harvard 6m. 21s.
GRADUATE EIGHTS Harvard 3m. 5½s.
[H] Mile and a half by agreement.
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NEW LONDON, Conn.--By making a clean sweep of the three major events of their annual regatta with Harvard on the Thames river Friday, Yale is today champion over Harvard in rowing, and, with previous victories over Cornell, Pennsylvania and Princeton, will be generally regarded as intercollegiate rowing champions of the United States for 1915.
That Yale deserves the victories which she won over the Crimson Friday is certain. The Eli varsity captured one of the biggest victories over the Harvard varsity when she won by about five lengths in the record time of 20m. 52s., that the Blue has registered against the Crimson in many years. The race was rowed upstream, which makes the time a new record, and it is stated by those who have followed rowing on the Thames for many years, that had the race been rowed down stream Yale would probably have broken the record of 20m. 10s. for the course. It is also interesting to note that the Harvard varsity was inside of the old record for the upstream course.
Yale owes her victory to the coaching of Guy Nickalls, the famous English college oarsman. It was the second year that Nickalls had coached the Yale varsity and both years he has turned out crews which have defeated the Crimson.
Yale took the lead at the very start of the varsity race and was never caught by Harvard. Rowing a lower stroke almost the entire distance, Yale kept drawing away from the Crimson oarsmen and, despite the fact that Stroke Lund succeeded in getting his crew to raise the stroke to as high as 34 beats to the minute over the last part of the race, Yale, rowing a much lower and easier stroke, was able to increase its lead.
While the Harvard crew appeared to be a smoother rowing eight than Yale’s it did not move through the water nearly as well. There was a perceptible drag to the Harvard varsity between strokes, while the Yale eight went evenly and showed very little if any slowing up between the strokes. At all times the Harvard crew appeared to be better together, but it did not make as good use of the slides as the Yale eight. The rigging did not appear to fit the Harvard oarsmen to the best advantage.
Yale won the freshman race by about a length and a half. This race was a very unsatisfactory one. The event was to have been rowed in the morning, but was postponed until after the varsity race. It did not start until about 7:30 in the evening. After the race had been under way a few minutes the Harvard stroke caught a crab and the crews were stopped. It was then agreed to start again and row a mile and a half instead of the customary two miles. Yale finally won this race although the Crimson oarsmen made the contest much closer than the varsity race. Yale’s time was 8m. 6s. and Harvard 8m. 10s.
The race for second varsity eights was the hardest fought of the day and the Yale victory in 19m. 40s. opened a very successful day for Yale. The official times of the varsity and freshman races by half miles follow:
VARSITY
Yale Harvard ½ mile 2:05 2:08½ 1 mile 4:40 4:45 1½ miles 7:27½ 7:34 2 miles 10:05 10:14 2½ miles 12:39½ 12:52 3 miles 15:27 15:39 3½ miles 18:22 18:40 4 miles 20:52 21:13½
FRESHMEN
Half mile 2:22 2:23½ Mile 5:20 5:22 Mile and a half 8:06 8:10
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TENNIS MATCH
_Kansas City Star_
Playing masterful tennis and repeatedly downing every attempted rally made by his opponent, Clifford J. Lockhorn yesterday defeated Jack Cannon, the Kansas City champion, in the finals match in the invitation tennis tournament staged on the K. C. A. C. courts. Lockhorn’s winning count was 6-2, 6-4, 6-2, and, after the finish of the first set, at no time did it appear that the local crack had a chance to defeat the Cincinnati expert.
Let it be said in Cannon’s defense that he did not play his best game, the game that downed Rolan Hoerr in the Missouri Valley tournament last year, and the game that made him run Joseph Armstrong a hard race for the final title in that classic. The courts yesterday were heavy, sogged by the recent rains, and Cannon looks best on a fast, light ground. And, knowing before he started the first set the handicap he was working under, the Kansas City star appeared a trifle nervous before play had been running long.
But Lockhorn’s work was marvelous! The crowded stand which witnessed every moment of the day’s play was applauding his every move as he finished up the last set. His head work was perfect, and his strokes sure. An easy side-arm shot, apparently simple for his opponent to fathom, gained him point after point in Cannon’s back court. His direction was always good, and clever placements followed successively in such lightning-like order that Cannon was kept running about the court most of the time. And when the new player showed that wonderful assurance, verging almost on carelessness, which characterized his every move, the crowd was with him. They couldn’t help but be.
Cannon opened up the first set well, taking the first game handily on his own serve, after Lockhorn had raced it up to deuce twice. The next three went to Lockhorn in rapid succession, the “dark horse” showing Sphinx-like steadiness on his own serve, and passing Cannon repeatedly at the net when the local player’s second shot on his own serve would be too easily placed. With the score 3-1 against him, Cannon braced, and took the fifth game, game-thirty, but the spurt was short lived and once again Lockhorn started his old sure, steady, thoughtful play, running out the next three games, and winning the set, 6-2, in clever fashion.
The second set was perhaps Cannon’s best one. He seemed to have lost a trifle of the wildness that had marked his opening play, and repeatedly drew applause from the gallery for his brilliant returns of Lockhorn’s back-line placements. The first six games were divided, three and three. Then Lockhorn took “seven” and “eight,” raising the score to 5-3 in his favor. Cannon took the ninth game, game-fifteen, on his own serve, but Lockhorn, with the possibility of a deuce set facing him, allowed Cannon just one point in the last game, and the second set ended 6-4, “all his way.”
The third and deciding set started out like a walk-away for the Cincinnati player. Cannon, scenting defeat in the air, grew over anxious and wild. His own service was frequently off in its direction, and he often smashed Lockhorn’s serve into the net or the fence, without opening up a chance for a volley at which he generally is so successful. Lockhorn quickly took five of the first six games in this set. The seventh he dropped, after he had had match point on Cannon once. But he rallied on his own service in the eighth game, and, though it went to deuce, he shot two clever drives down Cannon’s sidelines for the last two points of the set, which gave him the match, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
Lockhorn, the most feared player in Kansas City because of his untouted victory over Cannon yesterday, is a clever player to watch on the courts. He never gets excited, and seems almost lazy in the easy indifference with which he plays his opponent’s hardest strokes. The highest pinnacle of his play has been unexplored by local cracks--at least in this tourney. Every time out he shows a little more “stuff” and exerts himself just enough to beat his next rival.
Kansas City followers of tennis will watch Lockhorn’s work anxiously in the Missouri Valley tournament in the fall. Alexander Squair and Walter Hayes, R. F. Shelton and J. B. Adoue, jr., Paul Darrough and Gene Monett will be there; so will Roland Hoerr and Drummond Jones. Perhaps Lockhorn may uncover a little of that “old stuff” of his then. Kansas City enthusiasts want to see just what he has, anyway.
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GOLF MATCH
_Boston Transcript_
There was nothing of the runaway about this morning’s half of the final round for the John Shepard, Jr., trophy between Francis Ouimet and Paul Tewksbury, chums and both members of the Woodland Golf Club, where the match is being played. The national amateur champion led by one up at the end of the morning play, after a round in which the margin at no time was more than two holes. They play the final eighteen holes this afternoon, and considerably more of a gallery is expected than witnessed the play in the morning.
As a general thing Mr. Ouimet plays the Woodland course around 73 to 75 in his matches, but this morning he kept out of the 80 class only by a single stroke. Mr. Tewksbury had one bad hole, the thirteenth, so that his medal was 82. The pair halved one hole in 7, which is decidedly unusual for them, and another in 6.
The first hole went to Mr. Ouimet on the strength of an exceptionally fine putt, where he faced a stymie and had to slice around his opponent’s ball to get down in 4. Luck was with the champion at the second, where his topped approach rolled through a bunker onto the green about ten feet past the hole, whence he ran it down for a 3 and became 2 up. Neither reached the third green in 2, against the wind, and they halved in 5, as was the case also at the fourth. Mr. Ouimet required another 5 at the fifth, failing to get on from the tee, and then taking three putts. He lost that hole and also the sixth, where he drove into the woods. This squared the match.
After a succession of four 5s, which in itself is decidedly unusual for the champion, he managed to get back to normal with a 4 at the seventh, which won it; he then played such an accurate approach at the eighth that he holed the putt for a 3 and became 2 up once more. He pulled one out of bounds at the ninth, which cost him the hole and left him 1 up at the turn.
They halved the tenth in par 3. Mr. Tewksbury’s superior play netted him a 4 at the eleventh, which squared the match again. There was something spectacular at the twelfth, where Mr. Tewksbury hit the cup on an approach shot from the embankment above the green and stopped near enough to get down his putt for a 4. Mr. Ouimet was off the green also on his second, but approached close enough to sink his putt for the half. The thirteenth was a nightmare to Mr. Tewksbury, who played about four shots and then gave up the hole. He had a chance to square the match at the fourteenth, where a long drive and equally fine second put him within seven feet of the hole, but it was a difficult putt and he missed his 3.
The 600-yard fifteenth hole was a stiff proposition, owing to the strong wind, and neither player got home in 3. Then, singularly enough, they took three putts apiece for a half in 7. That was in decided contrast to the play at the sixteenth, which they halved in 3. To the other long hole, the seventeenth, Mr. Ouimet was hole high, but a number of yards below the green in 2. His short approach was much too strong and he failed to get his fourth dead or to hole his putt for a 5. Mr. Tewksbury, who was little better situated in 3 than Mr. Ouimet in 2, finally had a putt of four feet to win the hole. He missed it, and they halved in 6. Then they halved the home hole in 3. It was a striking finish--to halve four successive holes in 7, 3, 6, 3. Their cards:
Ouimet 4 3 5 5 5 5 4 3 6--40 Tewksbury 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 5--41 Ouimet 3 5 4 4 4 7 3 6 3--39--79 Tewksbury 3 4 4 [I]7 4 7 3 6 3--41--82
[I] Approximated.