THE SPORTING NEWS - SEPTEMBER 12, 1912

 

 

HONORS GO TO WOOD

 

Red Sox Star Beats Johnson In Challenge Battle

 

By Tim Murnane

 

BOSTON, Sept. 3 - Special Correspondence - Oh for a ball park large enough to accommodate all the people who would gladly pay double the regular price too see the World's Series games at Boston and New York next month. When ready for the big series with 8,000 seats added, the Boston park will take care of 30,000 and the Polo Grounds will care for 40,000, but it is already evident these great stadiums will be no where near adequate. The reserve seats at Boston, which will number about 12,000, have been spoken for three times over already. It looks to me as if the local field would have to be encroached on for temporary seats.

 

If you don't think that Boston is a ball town with a winner, look at the attendance for the recent Washington games. At the third game, when Joe Wood and Walter Johnson were announced to work, 30,000 fans packed the park to overflowing. The battle between these premier slabmen and staged in grand form and the two great pitchers gave the crowd a chance for a hundred thrills.

 

Clark Griffith has something to apologize for. He sent out word on Wednesday that he would hold Johnson out until Wood was sent in, and then proposed to give him a good beating and stop the Red Sox smoke artist from tying Johnson's record of 16 straight victories. "Tell Wood that we would consider him a coward if he doesn't pitch against Johnson," was Griff's comment. Griffith wanted to infer that Wood had been given easy games for a record. "All right," was Jake Stahl's answer," Wood will pitch Friday. I had him down for Saturday, but to accommodate Griff we will make the change and we intend to defeat the Senators with Johnson pitching for them."

 

Griff Should Be Satisfied

 

And so two great pitchers met and Griffith knows the answer, for Joe Wood won by a 1 to 0 score and made his record over Johnson a clean one. The two had met but once before this season, and in that game Wood beat Johnson 3 to 0. If Griff is not satisfied now, he is a hard man to please, but Boston is willing to admit that his star gave our Joe some battle.

 

Wood was a bit nervous at the start. Milan led off with a hit. Foster tried to sacrafice, but hit to Wood, and the ball was shot to second where Wagner turned in a double play, and the boys, catching their stride, were off. Johnson never had more speed, while Wood had speed-and a delightful assortment of curves. It was a great battle and when it was over, Wood had shut out the Senators in 18 straight innings, with Johnson and Wood matched.

 

The lone tally of the game came in the sixth inning with two out. Speaker hit into the crowd in left field for two bases. Lewis, next up, knocked into right field for a double, a hard fly which Moeller was barely able to touch, Speaker scoring. Washington had more opportunity to score than Boston, but Wood was at the top of his game in the pinches, striking out nine men. Johnson fanned five, three of them being consecutive outs in the fifth. The Senators filled the bases, two men being passed in the third, and Wood fanned Moeller for the third out. Washington had six runners on second in the sixth, eighth and ninth, but they could not get any further, Wood fanning men for the last out on two of these occasions.

 

No victory has ever pleased the Boston fans as much as Wood's victory over Johnson and today every honest critic must class Joe Wood the equal of any pitcher in the business. He is not only a remarkable pitcher, but a fielder and hitter as well, with the nerve to go the full distance against any odds. From this out Wood will take no chances of being overworked as he will have the bulk of the pitching to do against the National League champions in the World's Series.

 

Great Record in Home Stay

 

Wood's victory made it ten straight wins for the Red Sox and te team's record is 18 wins out of 22 games since returning from the last western trip. Connie Mack was not farwrong when he remarked that Boston was one of the greatest ball teams ever known to the game. This band of players has played its best games when forced by the leaders, and it can be counted on for brilliant work in the post-series.

 

The Boston players are delighted to see the New York Giants brace and make pretty sure of the honors in the National League. The Red Sox met the Giants two years ago, have played at the Polo Grounds, and will face the music confident. The big series should be a battle, for it now looks as if the Giants would be at their best a month from now and the Red Sox were never better.

 

The Red Sox left home Sunday with 13 games to play in the West, opening at Chicago on Tuesday and making the rounds to St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit. Feeling confident of returning home with the honors won, the boys will be in a position to take it easy with New York, which comes here for four games starting on September 24, lay up a beat during the Washington series and then tuned up for the big event in the final series with the Athletics, a good team to finish up with.

 

It is figured that the World's Series will open at New York on October 8, and the games will alternate between New York and Boston until finished.

 

Promises Good Time to Visitors

 

Every preperation is being made here for the accomodation of the press. This part of the entertainment will be taken care of by Herman Nickerson, the local representitive of the of the Base Ball Writers Association. And I want to say that Mr. Nickerson will show class in this kind of work, and he will be backed to the limit by President McAleer. Boston will also open her arms wide to visiting fans and show them what real sportsmanship is like. Boston has shown this year that her ball teams never quit once they have an even break for the honors but never asks more than an even break. It was a great pleasure for Manager Griffith to to notice the fine reception given his team by the Boston fans. Both the Athletics and the Senators were treated royally and encouraged in every way to give the coming champs a battle. Players and public were keen to establish beyond all question the right of the Red Sox to be proclaimed real champions, and also to show that Boston is still the Hub of the national game, something the attendance in the five games with Washington should establish.

 

Although his ball team lost all except one of the four games played, Griffith left town for the West with one recollection of the series that certainly was a happy one. Griff carried a check signed by President McAleer and Treasurer Robert McRoy of the Boston Club for more than $16,000, the Senators' share of the gate reciepts for the four games Washington played in Boston. The four games were witnessed by approximately 85,000 fans and the total reciepts were about $44,000.

 

The Braves will now have the field pretty much to themselves in Boston until Tom Lynch rings down the curtain and they are going right well, playing good if not winning ball.

 

The Braves will play during the month of November against the three strong Havana teams. President James E. Gaffney has given his consent to the boys making the trip.

 

Manager Johnny King can not go because of the opening of his new mammouth billiard ball and sporting emporium in Kansas City, Mo. The team will be under the direction of Arthur Devlin.