Baseball's Greatest Outfield
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Baseball’s Greatest Outfield The $100,000 Outfield to Balance the Famous Infield of the Old Athletics By F. C. LANE The greatest of the sixteen Major League outfields cannot be easily deter- mined. For one thing, an outfield shifts so frequently that it can- not be analyzed as can the work of an individual. Furthermore, the present season’s records are too immature to furnish much light on the question, while those of the past season, though far more accurate, are a bit remote. Employing these fig- ures, however, the Detroit outfield looms up over all competitors. And Detroit is still the one best bet, even with Crawford suffering from lumbago Tris Speaker, the Greatest In- and Cobb and Veach not yet rounded into form. dividual Outfielder in the World CLUB without a powerful out- ing batters. The principal work of the field is like an automobile with infield is to cut off hits and sweep the A a defective motor. It may be an baserunners off the bags by snappy exquisite piece of mechanism. It may plays. But the vocation of the outer- seem faultless to the eye. And yet in gardener is to drive in runs with his mur- that single hidden defect all the advan- derous bat and to score them with his tages of brand new tires and well-fash- nimble feet. For in the outfield is lo- ioned body and costly furnishings fade cated the chief offensive power of a away. The machine looks good, but it well balanced ball club. won’t go. The mutual advantages of batting vs. A baseball machine may look good. fielding have been infinitely discussed. The infield may be fast and flawless. In some positions one predominates and The pitching may be masterly. But vice versa elsewhere. But in the out- without the driving force of a well- field there is no doubt that batting is the poised outfield it can’t score the runs prime essential. Mediocre fielding will that it must score in order to win. Upon get by coupled with a three hundred av- other departments of that machine fall erage. But the most spectacular of field- the burden of the defense. The pitch- ing will not for long assure the job of er’s business is to mow down the oppos- an outfielder whose stick work is feeble 55 56 THE BASEBALL MAGAZINE and erratic. Whatever he may or may ever, the outfields which are the great- not do the outfielder must hit. est are the least likely to change. George It is well to clearly grasp the main Stallings makes numerous shifts because requirements of outfielding talent before he has, on the whole, the poorest out- taking up the complicated problem of field in the National League. The Red the game’s greatest outfield. For there Sox outfield in the days of Tris Speaker are so many subtle undercurrents of seldom varied from season to season fielding skill and. harmony of team play save through injuries alone. There was and the like to be considered that the never a chance for a recruit to supplant all important feature of forceful hitting one of that grand trio. The manager is liable to be obscured. A pitcher is loath to alter a winning combination. needn’t hit, an.infielder should hit, but A study of the leading outfields in an outfielder must hit. the National League is complicated by The spell of the matchless infield, the great number of Federal Leaguers which long insured a pennant to Connie and comparatively new additions. These Mack, has in recent years obscured the men are hard to place on form, simply merits of several stellar outfields. The because their records are defective. Be- Red Sox outfield was for years the pe- cause a man made two hundred hits in culiar pride of that championship club. the Federal League is no safe indication At Detroit the mid-day glare of Ty that he will do as well in the National. Cobb’s name has quite overpowered the Because a player hit for three hundred brilliant record of his associates. The and twenty in the Minors is scant basis pennant-winning Phillies are renowned for computation of what he is likely to for their redoubtable champion Cravath, do in major league company. for the brilliant Paskert and the pains- However, with the data available the taking efficient Whitted. But no great major league outfields shape up some- outfield has loomed up above its com- what as follows: petitors as did the immortal four of the We might as well begin with Brook- Athletic infield. lyn for two reasons. First Ebbets’ team It is hard to line up the outfields for is just at present leading the procession. comparison, for they change form so And second, the outfield which repre- quickly. George Stallings is a shining sents the city of churches is one of the example of what a manager can do to best in the business. make the record-keepers gray-headed. Wheat, Myers and Stengel make a Stallings usually has some half dozen combination which has many things to outfielders whom he shifts and changes recommend it. Wheat is one of the around much like the pawns on a chess prettiest outfielders in the game. Myers board. No human being can tell with is fast as light and a grand ground cov- any degree of certitude, just what con- erer. Stengel has a well-won reputation stitutes the outer defenses of the Braves’ as a slugger. And yet last season’s rec- machine. ords do not treat this great trio very The same indefinite system is the pre- kindly. And since the records of the vailing one with a number of other clubs. present season are still so meagre and Their outfields are as changeable as the uncertain we are perforce compelled to temper of a baseball fan. The custom rely on the most recent and the most of having one man to hit left-handed finished records at hand, namely those of pitchers, and another for right-handers, 1915. seems to have taken root. In fact, Wheat, the direful slugger, These vagaries of the manager, to say who had the highest average on the nothing of the changes incurred by acci- Brooklyn outfield last year, batted for dents, banishment by umpires, trades, but .258. Such an average would not go sales, etc., complicate the outfield situa- very far in gaining a reputation for an tion to such a degree that it is all but im- outer-gardener. And when we further possible to make a clear cut comparison consider that the batting power of the of the sixteen groups of fly chasers in Brooklyn outfield as a whole was but the major ranks. .248, we are forced to conclude that Fortunately for our purposes, how- Brooklyn whatever its laurels of past THE $100,000 OUTFIELD 57 years, and its prospects for this, is pre- cluded from first place honors solely if for naught else, by its weak stick work. One reason for the high standing of the Phillie Club was the offensive power of its outfield. Cravath, in particular, is famed for his slugging powers. And yet, so misleading are batting figures as at present conducted, that one of the most dreaded sluggers in the league is credited with an average of but .285. The error of this system has been dealt with at length in the pages of the BASE- BALL MAGAZINE in the recent past and will be further discussed in the future. But since no improved system of rating batting averages has yet been installed we are perforce content to take the story of the present records. Cravath batted for .285. Whitted, a much underrated player, hit for .281. Paskert, the brilliant and versatile, brought down the batting average, how- ever, by his mark of .244. The com- bined batting per cent.. of the Phillie trio is .273, a sufficient margin to give it a marked preference over Brooklyn, a mark hardly indicative of its inherent skill, since the records give no inkling of the twenty-four home run drives of Cra- vath, drives which in themselves turned many a hard fought contest from defeat to victory. As a fielding combine, the Phillies are good. Paskert is one of the best ground coverers in the league. Whitted is a most efficient performer, while Cravath, though slow, acquits himself creditably in right. Cincinnati had a strong batting com- Cactus Cravath, an Outfielder of the bination in the outer garden, chiefly Slugging Type through the efficient stick work of Grif- fith, who whaled the ball for a total of of a problem. Bescher appears a fix- .307. Killifer, who performed most of ture. Long was a very heavy slugger last the season in the suburbs, hit for .272. season though an indifferent fielder. The third man, Williams, batted, for Wilson is slowing up but he is still a .242, but he has been released. Neale, a beautiful fielder and a good batter. newcomer, is now played regularly in the Bescher, once the king of base stealers, outfield. But records on his work are, seems to have lost something of the of course, lacking. It is impossible to knack. He no longer gets the breaks forecast the permanent outfield of the which once enabled him to steal almost Reds, for this is a club where shifts and at will. Still he is a grand base run- changes are the order of the day. But at ner, a source of strength to any club present the above outfield is as fair a in the outfield and a very fair hitter as representative as any of Cincinnati’s well.