From the Louisville Courier-Journal, October 8, 1919
Reds Again Bow to Little Dick Kerr
Sox Win Ten Inning Game Through Steady Pitching of Game Little Twirler
Dick Kerr Retains Nerve in Face of Loose Support and Apparent Defeat – Weaver Performs Brilliantly Both in Field and at the Bat.
Groh Guilty of Playing Poorly, Says Speaker
Cincinnati, O., Oct. 7 – For the second time in the series, the Cincinnati Reds were forced to bow to little Dick Kerr, the smallest pitcher in the American League, for Dick to-day was the big noise in the 5 to 4 victory taken down by Chicago in the tenth inning. It was Kerry’s courage that pulled the Sox through. With a pitcher working so gamely they could not help but rally to his aid. They would have been totally devoid of shame had they done otherwise, for I do not remember ever seeking a game exhibition of pitching than that he gave us to-day.
There are lots of pitchers who can pitch their heads off when things are going their way, but it is the pitcher who pitches steadily and shows the proper amount of “innerds,” when the fielding behind him is ragged and his teammates are lacking ginger that I take my hate off to, and that’s why I say Dick Kerr was the big man of the contest. You notice I say “contest.” That’s right. This was a contest, a real one.
Dick was not effective as he was last Friday when he shut out the Reds but he was just as courageous. When his colleagues played like a bunch of bushers, he kept putting just as much on the ball and trying just as hard to fool his foes, showing himself to be the nervy little guy he is despite the fact that he apparently was pitching in the fact of certain defeat. In the eighth inning he stopped a hot line drive off Kopf’s bat, getting it with his bare hand. There were lots of us in the press box who thought he was through because of the injury, but apparently his hand was just numbed by the blow for his pitched effectively the rest of the way.
Crossed by Sox.
The White Sox are trying to cross me. I was pulling for them from the start of the series and kept being my money on them and they kept refusing to justify my confidence in them. Because of the awful baseball they have been showing I got off them to-day and pulled for the Reds, believing it was no use to prolong the agony, and then, who do the Sox do but cross me again by winning and I must give them credit for playing great ball the latter part of the game for then they showed they really can play the game.
It was the first time in the series that either team in the series that either team has come up from behind and won the game, as in each of the other five games the team that scored first was the one to win. Speaking of being crossed, only two of my hunches have gone through. I picked Dick Kerr to win his first game and by so doing I made a small killing.
The other hunch that went through were was to-day when after watching Ruether work one inning, I remarked, “Ruether will not last the game.” My reason for being so sure was that he did not have the control of his curve ball that he had last week. He was experiencing the same trouble that Williams did in his first game and I figured that if Ruether tried to improve his control at the cost of not putting quite so much on the ball he would be due for a drubbing. But I am not throwing any bouquets at myself for such reasoning. It was about time I was making some predictions stand up.
Moran’s Problem.
While we are on the pitcher subject, I might mention that Pat Moran is in a tough spot for pitchers for tomorrow’s game, despite the fact that he thought he had five pitchers capable of holding the White Sox in subjection. He not only used up Ruether, upon whom he was relying to end the series to-day, but Ring also, who had been counted upon to pitch to-morrow in case the Sox won today.
It now begins to look as if Pat made a mistake in not using Hod Eller, who pitched such wonderful ball yesterday, earlier in the series. Had he done so, he could have repeated with him by this time, but it looks as if Pat had been working on the theory that he had five pitchers, one as good as another, and, to tell the truth, I think he has. Ruether today did not look like the Ruether of last Wednesday, but it may be that he is a pitcher who needs to work more oftener than once a week. I know I rested Stanley Coveleskie up for a whole week so he could win his twenty-fifth game of the year, and he pitched his worst game of the season.
Sallee Probable Choice.
Anyway, it looks now as if Pat would have to choose for his pitcher tomorrow between Sallee, who was hit hard, but had horseshoe luck; Fisher, who was beaten, and Luque, in whom Moran does not seem to have quite enough confidence. I think it will be Sallee or Fisher, probably the former.
To get back to to-day’s game, I Want to speak of the rival third basemen and make somewhat of a comparison of them. Ever since the series has opened it has been my luck, or you might call it fate, to sit near some National League writers, and they have been hammering it into me that “Heine” Groh was pretty near the best third baseman of all time. I tried to convince them that Buck Weaver was a pretty fair third sacker, but they outvoted me. But I don’t think they will open their batteries on me any more.
Plays Bad Baseball.
I won’t deny that Groh has made some nice plays, but when it comes to all around hustling, playing with your head up and using that same head to think with, Groh has not compared with Weaver. And Buck has not made an error, although he has had just as difficult chances to handle as Groh. Now, Groh played bad baseball a couple of times to-day. There were two occasions when he should have had Risberg, but he seemed to be asleep each time, and the run that Risberg scored was enough to make the score a tie in the ninth and thus make it possible for the White Sox to win.
Right now I would say Weaver was the Chicago star of the series. He has hustled more. He has shown more of the real fighting spirit than his teammates. He also has made hits. Next to Weaver, I would put Eddie Collins, although he has not done much at the bat. IT is in the field that he has excelled. To-day he played a regular Collins game. It simply was impossible to get a ball by him, while his handling of throws from Schalk and also Risberg was wonderfully accurate and fast.
Sun Too High.
I guess I know the reason now why the outfield work of the White Sox has been such a disappointment. Jackson and Felsch are not 2 o’clock outfielders. In other words, they are not used to playing sun fields with such a high sun, as practically all of these games have been played under. I cannot account for any other excuse for “Happy” Felsch, whom we have rated as one of the best center fielders in the business looked awfully bad to-day when he groped blindly around for Duncan’s drive in the fifth inning and let Duncan go all the way to third. Chicago was lucky that two were out and the error did not cost a run.
In ending my story for the day I want to say that I have a hunch that we will have to go back to Chicago. Anyway, we played safe after to-day’s game and bought tickets for both
Cleveland and Chicago.
Box Score of Yesterday’s Game
WHITE SOX AB R H PO A E REDS AB R H PO A E
J. Collins, rf 3 0 0 2 0 0 Rath, 2b 5 0 1 4 1 0
Liebold, rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 Daubert, 1b 4 1 2 8 0 0
E. Collins, 2b 4 0 0 4 6 0 Groh, 3b 4 0 1 2 2 0
Weaver, 3b 5 2 3 2 1 0 Roush, cf 4 1 1 7 2 0
Jackson, lf 4 1 2 1 1 0 Duncan, lf 5 0 1 2 0 0
Felsch, cf 5 1 2 2 0 1 Kopf, ss 4 0 0 1 5 0
Gandil, 1b 4 0 1 11 0 0 Neale, rf 4 1 3 3 0 0
Risberg, ss 4 1 0 3 5 2 Rariden, c 4 0 1 3 0 0
Schalk, c 2 0 1 4 2 0 Ruether, p 2 1 1 0 0 0
Kerr, p 3 0 1 1 4 0 Ring, p 2 0 0 0 1 0
Totals 35 5 10 30 19 3 Totals 38 4 11 30 11 0
Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 T
White Sox 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 5
Reds 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
Two-base Hits – Groh, Duncan, Ruether, Weaver 2; Felsch. Three-base Hit – Neale. Stolen Bases – Daubert, Rath, Schalk, Liebold. Sacrifice Hits – Kerr, Daubert. Sacrifice Fly – E. Collins. Double Plays – Roush to Groh; Jackson to Schalk; Risberg to E. Collins to Gandil; Roush to Rath; Kopf to Rath. Left on Bases – Reds 8, White Sox 8. Bases on Balls – Kerr 2 (Kopf and Groh); Ruether 3 (Schalk 2, Risberg); Ring 3 (Jackson, Gandil and Liebold.) Hits – Off Ruether 6 in 3, none out in sixth; off Ring, 4 in 5. Hit by Pitcher – Kerr (Roush). Struck Out – Kerr 2 (Groh and Ring); Ring 2 (Schalk and Felsch). Losing Pitcher – Ring. Umpires – Evans behind plate; Quigley at first; Nallin at second; Rigler at third. Time of Game – Two hours and six minutes.
Image courtesy of Pixabay by becca427820 (no changes).