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Here’s the Only Time That Georgia Gave McWhorter Any Kind of Interference---and It Wasn’t Much
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has some likeh football material, but in the game against Vanderbilt Satu.nhiv their attack was. very
miieh ■•bush league.” McWhorter. a wonderful offensive player, tried time amt agam to make decided gains,
*" ar<\ aiways was dropped in his tracks because his team mates gave him no help. Georgia's interference
amounted to naught, and Coach Cunningham must work hard to improve this irnpoitant part of the game, or a
"*■* ■„ . ■ ■■■ ... -
Atlanta Is Off Again on Football-less Weekl
-?••!•
Georgia Plays Alabama Saturday and Will Win
By Percy 11. Whiting.
ATLANTA is off again on an
other foothallless week. On
Saturday the Tech team
plays—but it plays in far-away
Jacksonville. Not until a week
from Saturday will there be a
contest in Atlanta. And that day
there will be a real one. for Au
burn plays here that day, and the
Auburn-Tech game is always some
performance.
Georgia has a very moderate
game Saturday, with the L’niversl
tj’ of Alabama as the opposition.
The following Saturday Cunning
hams men get busy wit! Sewanee.
Vanderbilt takes on a light game
Saturday, with th< I'niversity of
Mississippi (provided that team
doesn't cancel), but the following
Saturday gets busy in earnest with
Virginia. At that the fact that
Virginia was so unmercifully
trounced Saturday by V. M. 1.
(which latter team lost the pre
vious Saturday. 31 to 0, to Prince
ton). makes this game look rather
cinchy for the Commodores, and it
will not surprise anybody hero If
the Commodores run up almost the
•core on the Virginians that they
did on Georgia.
Sewanee plays Tennessee Sat
urday in Chattanooga, and it
should be an Interesting game. The
Knoxville team is all of an uncer
tainty and nobody is absolute
ly sure as yet Just what to expect
of Sewanee.
It appears that, in the South at
least, the coming week doesn't
promise any stirring football do
ings,
• • ♦
VT that the mud, lashed ip into
the semblance of a billow y
t'O’lll bv the heroic .struggle on
Ponce DeLeon field Saturday after
noon. has begun to settle back to I
Its normal smoothness and the
football folks have had chance to
think over the strange happenings
of that fateful game, Georgian.- are
asking themselves a lot of things,
among them this "How the dick
ens did it happen, anyway ?'*
Forty-Six tn nothing scored by
what appeals to b< only m iv<r
•ge Vanderbilt team on what
•rented an exception;!.ly strong
Georgia eleven 46 to <•! It w ,sn t
a mete defeat It was a men il
drubbing.
It will not take ovei on. mm.
At Lyric this week, the
“Mother Love” drama,
“Madame X.”
IS 3IXDQI H
HO7IVI ‘H3AV3M Wol|
AXNVTQKV NV3'l|
J.flOlS ‘SXOVaHONQHI
SX33N fJjMOI 113. I |
game like that for everybody to
reconstruct (heir notions about that
\ underbill team. Unless the dope
is badly deranged, it is a wonder
team—an eleven so good that it
will make history' for itself that
will not for many years be forgot
ten.
There wasn’t any license for an
average team to beat Georgia the
way Vanderbilt beat them. There
was not a lot of difference in the
weight. In ex|<erience the Athe
nians had perhaps a slight edge.
Georgia had the advantage in con
dition. The Commodores’, vaunted
speed wag nullified by the muddy
field.
And yet, despite all these things.
Vanderbilt just everlastingly
romped. There wasn’t a time
when there appeared any real
chance that Georgia would score,
(•nee, and only once, was there a
worried expression on a Vander
bilt face. It was when Georgia had
made a couple of first downs in
succession and were going good.
It even looked bad enough so that
Joe Covington, who was re
served for rear trouble, was stuck
in Whether it was Joe’s peppery
presence or Just the petering out
of Georgia's sprint, but. any how,
the ball was lost, and Vanderbilt
was off again on the mad chase on
ward and ever onward to Georgia's
goal line.
If the Vanderbilt team has no
hard luck with injuries—and in
juries are always a dangerous pos
sibility. for the Commodores have a
tolerably fragile back field —the
Vanderbilt team will not have trou
ble this year, except with one game
■and that one with Hatward. And.
say what you please, if the Com
modores get up there in good
sitape and with everybody on edge,
look out for surprises! ft is like
ly that the Crimson will have
enough power and drive to down
the Commodores, but they are like
ly to be treated to forward passes
and emi runs that will startle
t hem.
• * •
r\NE thing about the Georgia team
they had some clover plays.
One was a fake end run which was
built around the known fact that
• very opposing team will play to
bold McWhorter. On this play
M< Wliorter ami the Interference
are started around one end. Then
the ball is passed to somebody else,
who eottios tearing through center'
fol a good gain. Owing to the
• ‘getmxs ot the V.iiidi i bilt men
not to H McWhorter get through
their Hngos. this worked capital
ly several times. Cunningham's
Im tl .1 -<> urn orked some neat doU
b. passes and showed that they
knew .1 lot of advanced football.
\\ hat th< y tell down mt, oftett, was
■ok "I aptness and training in
tile rudiments inability to tackle,
o Start fa« to < harg. , .nd
the like. \nd thes, are things
that Georgia teams must learn
from assistant coaches, if at all.
lot' tim\ do not within the
grope vt u head coach. If the Red
THE A TI A NTAGEQRG TA sa> I) NEWS.MOXDAY. OCTOBER 21. 1912
and Black is to show well through
the rest of the season, It needs
some of its many loyal alumni to
come to the rescue and to give
their time as individual coaches.
If the Georgia material can learn
the rudiments and can leave Alex
Cunningham free to teach the big
principles of football. It will yet
come through the season with the
record of only one defeat. For the
material is surely there.
• • •
SATURDAY’S game was adver
fc tiged as a duel between Mc-
Whorter and Hardage. It came
mighty near turning out an un
equal but mighty brave fight be
tween McWhorter and the whole
Vanderbilt team. It wasn't quite
that, for Henderson and Peacock
played good ball and several other
Georgia men did fairly well. But
in the main McWhorter played the
largest part of the game for Geor
gia
It is pointed out that McWhorter
did not gain as much, ground as
Hardage. Well, hardly .
Suppose conditions had'been re
versed and McWhorter, aided by
the brilliant Vanderbilt interfei
once and starting behind that
hard-charging Commodore line, has
played with Vanderbilt against
Georgia! And suppose Hardage
had been working with the demor
alized Red and Black eleven.
Would Hardage have gained as
much ground as McWhorter did?
We don't know the answer. But
it's worth considering.
No danger that we shall try to
detract! anything from the brillian
cy of Hardage’s performances.
There's a halfback worthy of the
very highest position! What John
Craig at his best had on him we
don't pretend to know. Also, be it
mentioned, his running mate. Col
lins. is only a step or two behind
in brilliancy, but he is a shade
fragile to compare with the Com
modore captain.
• • «
IT was our impression that, after a
* football game, the ball belonged
to the winning team. If this is
true, it was poor sportsmanship on
the part of the Georgia team to
attempt to get away with the ball.
Prom our own personal viewpoint,
it would seem that, to the Geor
gians, that ball would be a rather
sorry souvenir.
GORDON AND RIVERSIDE
IN BIG BATTLE TODAY
BARNESVH I.E. GA . I x-t It The
i Cordon football team emerged from the
Locus; Grove game with only a few
J bruised placers Tud«\ Gordon .journey*
jio Gainesville, where a game will lie
Ipla.wd with the fast Riverside team. Both
leaiiia ap|»ear to he pretty evenlj match*
| e<l, and a batd game is sure to be the
; result.
BIG PREP GAME TODAY.
IMTMT GROVEL GA . <hl ”1 An lil
tereming gatne in prop school circles will
be plated here today, when the Stone
Mountain team come« to Locust Grove
'for a gamp with the locals
Eugenie Blair in “Mad
ame X,” at the Lvric this
week. " 1
• t.o.irn <»l husky, likely'ookius players will have a bad season, '('he Gnorfrian photographer snapped it V
l every scrimmage when the ball wax in possession of Georgia, and in this picture alone did the Athens clown show!
j any interference for the man with the hall—and surely the interference in this play doesn't amount to iniidiJ
I Coach Cunningham verily needs some assistants at Athens.
SO® GEORGIIi
DOPEFWOUP
IT BIG MS
By W. S. Farnsworth.
Ji ’ST before the last game of
the world's series in Boston 1
had a long talk with Frank
Farrell, president of the New York
league club. He tipped me off that
he doesn't believe Tommv Me-Mil
lan. ex-Yellow Jacket stat, will
stick up in the fast company be
cause of his inability to hit.
"I am going to give McMillan
another chance next spring." said
Mi’. Farrell, "but I don't believe he
will do. He can't hit. The little
fellow is a mighty good infielder
and a fair man on the bases, but
I have go) to get seme hitters for
my team next season, and unless
McMillan takes a big brace I fear
1 will have to ask waivers on him."
APH ILA DEL PH IA scribe at t lie big
k * games told me an interesting
story about Claude Derrick, former
Georgia crack, w ho has been secur
ed by the Yankees for next year,
it seems that Connie Mack let Der
rick go to Baltimore the past sea
son. where he played corking ball.
Mack tried to get him back by draft
this fall, but W ashington drew him
and then traded him to New York.
The shrewd Mack hung onto Der
rick for two years, but Claud went
to the bad after the Athletics had
made their first Western trip to
Chicago last spring. Mack sold him
to Baltimore, believing he had
reached the end of his career be
cause of an accident that happened
in the Windy City. But Derrick
soon recovered in Baltimore and
today is considered the best of the
youngsters drafted by the Majors.
The accident was the result of a
lot of tomfoolery. A member of one
of the stvellest clubs in Chicago in
vited the Athletics one hot night
down to his club to take a plunge
in a big pool, in the party were
Derrick. Bris and Rube Oldring.
Oldring and Lord thought they
would have some fun with Derrick
and began bolding him tinder the
water. First one and then the other
would push him down. Finally be
became exhausted and nearly
drowned. it took two physicians
all that night to bring him around.
The shock Derrick suffered was
so great that he went all to pieces
and was unable to play any kind of
ball. Mack as a result sold him to
Baltimore. But the Georgia lad
is (). K. now and all the scouts at
the series predicted that tile Yan
kees have made a swell "catch.”
♦ fc ♦
z-sEORGK STALLINGS believes
' 1 lie w ill land in the first dir is
ion with his Boston team next year.
"Ml I will need to finish better than
fifth Is a couple of pitchers." he told
me on the return to New York after
the deciding game.
Wise baseball men consider
Stallings as great n manager as
McGraw and Mar k, Hughey Jen
nings claims that the Georgian
knows how to handle players bet
ter than anybody In the Aorld.
"Look at the way ho eat rind that
New York burn h into second place."
said the Detroit manager And
look what <’h,i--. (|i<| the next year
with the same outfit." he added.
I , ~
Twenty-Five Greatest Southern League Players
-r»T ’r*v ---•••• -?•+ q-e-J-
No. I—Sparks Wore Ball Room Pumps at Debut
1 By Fuzzy Woodruff.
I A W\IR of pumps, entirely prop
| “ r for a ball room, but
strangely out of the picture
on a ball field, and a pair of hose
as red as a blood-stained Balkan
hillside maale a debut of a career
notable. And the career afterward
made baseball history, and base
ball history that the lovers of the
game are proud to boast about.
The shiny slippers and the in
carnadined hosiery were worn by
Frank Sparks on his first appear
ance as a professional hall player.
I They were discarded the next day.
, but the brand of baseball that the
• youthful hurler pitched to the ac
j eompaniment of the fancy foot
j wear remained to keep him aa one
; of the most formidable slabmen the
i National league knew for years.
Not more Incongruous to his sur
roundings than’ the adornment of
his nether limbs was the man who
made his debut that afternoon in
the earl.v nineties.
The scene was set in the old
Highland park grounds in Mont
gomery Birmingham was the op
posing team. John McCluskey,
afterward manager of the St.
Louis Cardinals, was manager and
first baseman of the Montgomery
club. He had dug Sparks out of
Howard college, where he had
starred for Alabama's Baptist in
stitution of learning and baseball.
Fans Have Never Forgotten.
McCluskeys club was dragging
along in the race, and then, as now.
the finances of the Montgomery
club were not of .1. Pierpont Mor
gan proportions. The attendance
was slim that blazing August aft
ernoon. but right now Columbus
himself could not discover a man
between the ages of eighteen and
eighty in Montgomery who will
not swear that he saw that debut.
There were fine and resounding
whoops of derision when Sparks
took the slab and began tossing tn
old Heinie Peitz. who caught him.
Those crimson stockings ami that
pair of pumps could not be over
looked by the native wits. Some
choice jests were dung across the
field for the benefit of the embry
onic star.
He seemed as much like a ball
player h.« Roosevelt is like Taft.
He was not of a pitcher's six ■ and
helft, though those were not the
days of the gigantic hurlers. He
was blushing a beautiful accom
paniment to his hosiery ami his
delivery was as awkward as a real
debutante's.
Tile Birmingham batters wen
not slow to go after him. Old Dad
Phelan, with his brigand mus
tachios. .Hid all the rest of the
rough neck crew threw badinage
that added io his discomfiture. The
home funs settled back to watch
the revelry.
Was Sold to the Phillies
Then Sparks began to pitch. H<
used the same slow bal! and
sweeping ! urve and absolute con
trol that later made him a terror
•••••«•«••••••••••••«••••
: FUZZY WOODRUFF
i: WRITES SPARKLING
: BASEBALL SERIES
[ • This is the first of a series of
• stories The Georgian will print on
i • “Twenty-five Greatest Southern
I • League Players," written by Fuz-
• zy Woodruff. There is no one
• better acquainted with Southern
• league doings for the past fifteen
• years than Mr. Woodruff, and all
j • his articles, like today's, will be
! • filled with spice and ginger. He
• opens his series with Frank
' • Sparks, who, after graduating
• from this circuit, went to the
• Philadelphia National league club.
; • where for years he was consid-
® ered one of the world's greatest
• pitchers.
•
•••••••••••••••••••••eo««
to National league hitters. That
night he owned Montgomery . The
next season saw him In a Birming
ham uniform, but he was sold ear
ly in the race to the Phillies, and
for nearly’ fifteen years he drew a
salary and earned it. too, <as a
. slabman servant in the City of
Brotherly Love.
Sparks' career In the National
league is too recent In date to te
count. Managers came and man
agers went, but Sparks stayed. All
the time he pitched steady, heady,
consistent basebail. He was rarely
brilliant, but he nearly always
managed to go thiough a season
with more wins to his credit than
losses, however poor the team be
hind him happened to be.
It is extremely doubtful If a
hurler ever remained in the major
leagues so long with so little stuff.
His fast ball was absolutely of a
negative quality His curves were
wide, but broke nicely , and he had
that gicat asset for a pitcher—an
ability to outthink a majority of
batsmen.
Was a Gentlemanly Player.
He was one of the first of the
"gentleman" ball play ers. He was
a rare bird when ho first broke
into fast company Thosi were
the halcyon days of the rough neck.
Sparks shunned demon rum. to
bacco, ett sc words and al! those
other pleasures we ate told to
eschew when we are young ami
piHctice when we learn "wisdom."
IL- never played Sunday ball. He
was always Inmiaculate in his
il>' --. being in appt ;l ran< -a rather
tinnieky business man lather than
a demon athlete. His voice was as
s'»lt as the whisper of a spring
z< phy and his words as carefully
chosen ,i« those of a Funday school
superintendent when he explains
whystliH lions didn't eat Daniel.
I util 191 ii Sparks remained on
the Phlllr pav .roll. When he was
through h‘ was given an uncondi
tional release as a reward for long
and faithful service and was not
Slow to grab on with Johnny
I ’-.tm- „f < 'hattan .. K Though
the Lookouts finished fourth In
1911), Sparks led the aague IF
pitching.
Arm Gene, Won With Head.
The next season found hm Again;
with Dobbs, only this time it--wai
back on his old stamping ground!,
in Montgomeiy, where ti:t---n yrt
before he had faced his first pro-;
fessional batter and bravriy brook
ed tin- taunts in ref< ;em . 'nil
pumps and crimson strn’kinc.-. He
piti he<l Dobbs' outfit ilit', so ”.1
place in 1911. but his arm "al
praeticri'lly gone. His tfiinkitiz ap
paratus remained ini.tet,
and he was able to be '’tie "f '"(
league's leaders.
Hi- saw that his baseball 'iayt
wete over. His careful living in the
days of his prime had guarante’’d a
fat bank account and H'ld found
him, still looking the business man
and now a real business man. ?n
--gaged in the jileasant jiastmtenf
making two dollars for "m :
little north Mabama town from
which he emarated.
There he tc;" hi s a Sun ,l ;i’■ s. :r'ol
class arid votes t'o: Ricbtmm'l Pear-]
son Hobson ami othei pr n 'tl ’t'ott- 1
ists, but among his h".; of In
are a pair of patent i--.it - ; tmi !
and a blazing set of In
has never forgott -n t.-mt - it of
blood and na t (>)■■
VANDERI ii
SOUTH! ' LEVENS:
TENNI E SECOND
Vanderbilt, wi I” ’ '
against their opj i
<-rn fotohall tea i
second, with Sev-. -
is how Hie South! rr an.-
nmrning.
Vanderb 't
07 Bethel
100 Maryville ... j
54 Hose 1 '01y.... • ■
46 1 Georgia ■ • ■
307
Sewanee
34 Morgan.
101 I- bn once Mint •
27 Chattanooga..
1.02
Auburn
3*> Alumni
sfi Mercer
27 Klorida ' '
27 Clemson ■
US
Alai- ’ <
52 Marion
02 Birmingham..
3 Tech
0 Mississippi Agrict
117
Clenit
50 Howard
2« Riverside
•i Auburn
I'l
Georgia.
33 Chatlanooga
33 cltudel
0 Vanderbilt
(>(1
Mercer.
21* i lordon.. .. .
o Auburn
it)'- Howard
i) Tech
a 5
Tech.
o Eleventh >'a vali y . -
20 Cltade' j
if' Vlahama j
I''. Mercer -
5f 1