Life — September 28, 1928 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

World’s Series Heroes A coop many people who “high-hat” the ball games of the regular season fre- quently turn up at a world’s series, and in the best seats, too. This leads to con- fusion, These spec- tators never know which is the home team; they can’t tell a stolen base from a loud foul; they ask whether Judge Landis is going to hit a home run or not, and if not, they think they should get their money back; they have even been discovered applaud- ing the umpires. The first thing to do is to get the teams straight. This, apparently, is not always so easy. Two years ago when the Cardinals and Yankees were fighting each other, a flapper going home in the Subway said to her friend: “Oh, we were so excited in our office | S| League.’ today. The worlds series, you know. Nobody did a stroke of work. We just | watched the ticker.” “Yeah? Who won?” queried Flapper No. 2. “Oh, lemme see. I think it was Buf- falo!”” Then there was the chap who went to the last world’s series between the Yankees and Giants and rooted for Brooklyn through the whole series. A simple rule, good for all time, is to root for the team in the white uniforms. They are the home guards, the defenders of the faith. The others, in the gray uni- forms, for the time being at least are mis- | creants and scoundrels. There should also be a warning to the layers in the world’s series. They should know what is at stake and what risks they have to run. Casey Stengel won a world’s series for the Giants by knocking two home runs at critical moments. As a reward for these gallant efforts he was traded to the Boston Braves that same winter. It was Casey himself who said: “Let this be a warning to all players, “Look, Mom, may I throw him some peanuts?’ If I had knocked one more home run, they would have sent me to the Sally There is also the sad fate of “Luck Johnny” Rawlings to ponder. With his amazing stops around second base, Raw. lings choked off the Yankees on behalf of the Giants in the world’s series of 1921, and the following season he reaped his reward in the shape of a railroad ticket to an unimportant junction. Then there was “Big Bill” James, pitcher for the Boston Braves when the astonishing Beaneaters overwhelmed the famous Athletics of 1914. Among those who never recovered from the shock was “Big Bill” James. He was never any good after one glorious week as a hero. Hank Gowdy was the Boston batting hero in that same series. He won the title with his big black bat. He lost the 1924 series for the Giants by wearing his mask on his foot while trying to catch a foul fly for what would have been the final out. Hank’s unique foot- gear tripped him y and the Senators ral- lied to win the cham- pionship. Thus Jank broke even in his world’s series ventures. He won one and lost one. After helping Cincinnati to a world’s championship, Jimmy Ring was traded to the Phillies, which was cruel and un- usual punishment. Rogers Hornsby gave St. Louis its first pennant and first world’s championship in forty years and just for that he was fired as manager and traded to New York. Manager Bill McKechnie brought Pittsburgh its first world’s cham- pionship in sixteen years and one year later he was cast into exterior darkness. On the other hand, Roger Peckinpaugh fumbled the Yankees out of one world’s championship and the Senators out of another, but he never lacked for a job as a player and now he is going along swimmingly as manager of the Cleve land Indians. All of which, as usual, proves nothing. John Kieran. EXCESS BAGGAGE Suttan (to Chief Eunuch): Hassan, the harem is overstocked. You will im mediately deposit two of my wives in the Bosphorus. Hassan (calling to back room): Two in a bag to go out! comicbooks.com