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TTEATtST’S RI’XPA V VMKRTCAN’ BASEBALL AND OTHER SPORTS. SUNDAY. MAY 25, 1013. 13 D AN RANKS GEORGIA AND ALABAMA EVEN How Coach Heisman Classifies Teams Class A [ Alabama (.Georgia ( Auburn Clem3on Tech (Mercer Class C J Vanderbilt Sewauee (Mississippi A. & M. (Florida Class D < Wofford (L. S. U. | Tennessee Jeff Can Sing Hawaiian and All That Stuff c8o C&J C&J By “Bud” Fisher Class £ j Tulane j Millsaps (Citadel By .T. W.- Heisman. (Famous Coach of the Tech Team.) T HE man who would seriously at tempt the pleasantry of award ing a baseball championship of the S. I. A. A. for the season of 1913 soon to close needs be a daring spirit —a man much braver than myself. Never within my somewhat lengthy recollection has the matter of a proper ranking of the teams at the season’s end been in such a fear fully messed-up condition as this year, and no one with any right to speak with authority of the subject has, so far as I know, been so fool hardy as to attempt a definite pro nouncement on the subject. As has often been explained before, there is no* such thing as a real championship of the S. I. A. A., and this holds good even in football. But in the latter sport the teams come much nearer to playing a common schedule of games, and for other rea sons as well it is much more easy to predicate the strongest team of the year than can be the oa^e in base ball. Some years it has been satisfac tory to all to award a tentative cham pionship in baseball to that team which had not lost a single series during the season. This plan would never do in professional baseball, for- it is not series won and lost that count here, but the mere number of individual games won and lost. But while the percentage plan of individual games won and lost is eminently satisfactory in figuring out a pennant winner in a professional league it will rarely do in the^-S. I. A. A., for the reason that the 22 mem bers do not play the same number of games, the same opponents, the same number at home and abroad, etc. It comes to this, that unless one team nas made such a stunning and practically unsmirched record as rea sonably puts it out of the class of all the rest of the teams in the association a just disposition of the title “Champions” is out of the ques tion. This really happens with rea sonable frequency, but it certainly has not happened this year, and hence no uncontested assignment of the title is likely to be made by any one. Still, a careful review of the work of the various teams, and a painstaking contrasting of that work should not be without profit. * * * /CONSIDERING the percentages they have rolled up from the particular teams they have encoun - tered, it is clear that the figures for Georgia and for Alabama loom up the largest. Prior to the Tech series with Georgia, the Athenians had suf fered but two defeats in the S. 1/ A. A., and that was the size also of Alabama’s defeats. Georgia’s per centage was nevertheless a shade higher than Alabama’s for the reason that the Red and Black had played, and therefore won, more games than had the Tuscaloosans. It was also true that the two de feats suffered by Alabama were at' the hands of th§_ Georgians them selves; so that, it' appeared, when it came to direct matching, the Ala bama team seemed to be a bit in ferior to the Georgia team. On the other hand, this was sofnewbat offs a. by the fact that the two gam'es be tween the two had been played in Athens and, further, that nearly all of Georgia’s S. 1. A. A. games had been played on home grounds, while about seven of Alabama’s games ha I been played aivgy from home. But now that the smoke of th- Tech-Georgia series has also clearer away, there does appear considerable ground for Alabama’s insistent plea that they have a better claim to firs: honors than has Georgia, for now the records show that Georgia has lost five S. I. A. A. games, while Alabama has still lost only two. To go with this, Georgia has won 13 S. I. A. A. games, while Alabama has woh 11 such. Unfortunately, these did no. include for Georgia victories over Mercer, Sewanee or Mississippi A. and M., while Alabama’s wins fail to include contests with Auburn, Clerri- eon or Sewanee. Tn other words, there is no real basis of oomparls >a tva liable. 'What seeming advantage on a per- lentage basis Alabama enjoys may disappear when it encounters un derbill on the 26th and 27th; but on the other hand it must be remem bered again that Alabama is going to have the advantage in these games, in that they will be played on home grounds. If we stop to see what effect figur ing in nnn-S. I. A. A. games would have on the records of the teams vve find that it will not help matters much for Georgia to have recourse to this expedient, for while it is true It w On some additional four games from such teams, it also lost . three fc-.apie'i to such teams. Alabama, on cne other hand, has. played four non - *4. i. a A. college games and won them all. (Of course, games with professionals and prep school teams are not being considered at ail in this connection.) I have'gone at some length into a comparison of the work cf these teams, not merely -because they seem to have had, on the whole, the best records for rhe season, but also to il-i ’ hist rath* to the reader what the coni-j l-ihatlons are in the way of a sensible OH ocy- IT SMS HFfcE THAT A Real Hawaiian prwmcfs^ IS IM TtnvN ArsP TKat ■ \<£\\C <aOE~£ THROUGH THE RtsRK EVEP-Y NIORrsiMGi f-OR A TTColL " i born To hobnob with The blue bloods- I LL. JUST DOLL up AND WHEN THAT l-AOY THLN'RE LAI F V W MUSIC.. I JUi~) tfcotiAlVT **<//. •y/ THfc OLD GuiiyvK along 1 HARH ! 1 HfAR HER. 1 " conning and shes _ , „ .Sinaing omi: of I AATivE DIT‘1 SILK HAT HARRY’S DIVORCE SUIT Curiosity Once Killed a Female of the Species • • • • Copyright. 1913, International Newa Service. :: By Tad Oft GEE vjd.KO CAM THAT BE V' KT TW£ 00011. AT TvUS HOUE \ Si* ikj TH£ MOORING- _/ ~l y; * MORMIM ' THE. CADY UAOTAlRi' SECT THIS* DOWN TO MR-£ RU JU H A U iE?- TTT IT SMELLS L | KIT SOME (pGE.EE. Mp* SPR l K>& VRATEIL / Uf W | GOE.SS IF I 'DRlk/Nl SOME FAST IT WONT hum ME OH YOU RE AWAKE." SA~f THE HALL BOV GaME ME THIS- GAlD ranking; and not alone for these two teams, but for others in the associa tion, for the difficulties for all are similar in character in all respects. * * * Dl’T while a view of the unclothed percentages of Georgia and Ala bama seem to show them up in the most favorable light of all the S. I. A. A. teams, there are not lacking those who claim places for other teams alongside these two. Thus some Au- bumites claimed'before the Clemson- Auburn • series that those battles would settle second place. If they did, then Clemson is entitled to second filace and either Georgia or Alabama would have to step down off the pedestal and let the Tigers jump up. But just to show you how dif ferently the same things can look to different people, here is Coach Dob son/who says, that if Tech took the series from Georgia then the Yellow Jackets were entitled to the pennant. So where are we at, and where do we all get off? As for the Techites. they are not splitting anybody’s ears with any kind*of claims in particular. And yet, in justice, what deserts they have should be spread out for public in spection as well as those of other ted ms. Now, Tech has won nine and lost seven, all S. J. A. A. games. This will not met so high a percentage as sev eral other teams can boa?st of; but wait a minute. In the first place, an even half of these games were played away from home, and that is much more along this line than any other of the prominent teams can say. Again, of the seven defeats en countered, four were by one run only, one was by two runs only, and two were by three runs only. In other words, no team has run plumb away from t<he Yellow Jackets in a single encounter, as did Georgia from Ala bama. Also, Tech suffered two of its one-run defeats directly thi’ough the vile luck of having both its catchers knocked out, one in each game at Au. burn, by having their light hands se verely injured ddring the course of the two games. Hat} these accidents not happened, or* not happened on the road where their other catchers were not available, it might have made all the difference in the world with their season’s record. And yet another thing or two: Tech was the only team in or out of the association that could take the series from Clemson, and the only one that could take a series from Georgia. She was the only team that could win more than one from the Georgians on their own campus; and it was the only one that fairly decimated Sewa nee this season. Likewise, it is worth pointing out that Tech’s schedule showed no weak teams on it like Birmingham College, Florida, Tennessee, Tulane, S. W. I*. 1*:. Southwestern Texas, Washington and Lee, etc. No, theiys were all stiff opponent*;. Yet against them all Tech scored fiO runs to opponents’ 45, which is pr-'tfy good. So when you come to think it a!l ; over, it becomes apparent that Coach Dobson had some slight ground, to say the least, for ranking Tech first. * * * A UBURN’S record is* excellent—so far as it goes. The trouble is it doesn’t go far enough; for the only teams it encountered worth talking much about were Georgia, Mercer, Tech and Clemson. Now, to two of these four it lost ; so that a good-look ing percentage built up largely from the other small-fry on their 1913 schedule doesn’t spell much, after all. No one can deny that the team looked good; but of the two series it won out of the four named above, oi/' was played entirely on home grounds, the other entirely on neutral grounds, and even of the two loK one was played entirely on home grounds. * # * A ND right here let us analyze Clem- son’s status on the season’s work: Xo one can think more highly than do 1 of what the South Carolinians ac complished this spring. Not only did they win their State pennant with a clean percentage of 1,000, but they took the series from Auburn on for eign grounds, beat North Carolina and tied Trinity. They also broke even with Georgia, though this was on home grounds. . The. discounts come in when we note that neither North Carolina nor Trin ity had teams of usual caliber this year, apd that none of the South Car olina teams, outside of Clemson, are in a baseball class with the usual run of S. I. A. A. teams. And, of course, Clemson dropped two straight to Tech. But the main difficulty in assigning any given place to Clemson lies in the fact that all told they only played seven gardes in the S. I. A. A. Of these it won three and lost four. Its outside opponents, being of unknown caliber, offer as little basis for a criti cal estimate within the S. h A. A. fold as would a consideration of the prep and professional games that oth*r S 'I. A. A. teams have played. And so it goes. * * * N OW, if anyone can make bead or tail, fins or feet qut of this thrice-jumbled situation they have everybody’s permission to “go to it.” For me, the job is ■strictly “taboo.” 1 do not mind saying that in my opinion, considering records generally, as well as wha\ I saw of the actual play of the various teams, that Ala bama and Georgia deh«erve to rank a shade higher than any other of the S. I. A. A. teams. One further step—taken with some hesitation—and I find myself putting Auburn, Clemson and Tech in ('lass B, just below the other two. Beyond this the path appears to me. to be blocked up solidly. * * * M ERCER'S chief claim to distinc tion lies in the fact that it took two out of three from Tech. But as it won only six college games, while los ing eleven—if my records have it right —it seems plain that the Baptists will n«ot demJirid a ranking above the five already considered. * * * \TAXDERBIT.T has thus far won five * and lost eight, all told. There yet remain on their schedule three games with Alabama at Tuscaloosa, hut even if they take two out of the three, which is unlikely, their record* will still keep them in the.'“second di vision.” • * * CO far as 1 am familiar with it, ^ Sevvanee’s record for the season is just about on a par with Vander bilt’s. The latter won their series with Tennessee, while Sewanee lost to the Volunteers in the one game that was played. Vanderbilt and Sewanee are yet to come together, and if tlie Commodores win from Sewanee they will be champions of Tennessee; but if they lope to the Tigers 1 suppose there will be nothing about that championship either. * * * '"TENNESSEE has a brand new team 1 and not much was to be expected from it. They appear to have been very weak, losing to Michigan, Van derbilt, Georgia and others, with little to chalk up on th> credit side. 1Y/T ISS1SS1PF1 A. A: M. had a fair team, but it also ranks below the A and tlie B classifications, as I have styled them. True, they won two out of three to Vanderbilt, and took the series from Tulane. hut they lost five straight to Alabama. * • * p I.OR1DA, Birmingham. Tulane and J Louisiana all had teams rather below par. ... IF you should ask my opinion of the 1 the strength of the teams as they were playing at the very end of the season it would not take me long to say that no team was going stronger than Tech, to say the least. I do not believe that Georgia was falling off any in its play; there was no reason why it should fall off. The men were all in good condition, still full of ambition, better backed and key ed than they had been for any other preceding game, and I think played the best ball they were able to play against Tech. Vet they went down before the Technicals in no uncertain manner. This might have been a "flash in the pan” for Tech had only one game been played and won by them from Georgia, but when two are played in Athens and two in Atlanta the re sult ceases to be an accident. This conviction is strengthened by a recol lection of what Tech did to Sewanee in the two games immediately pre ceding the series with Georgia. Alabama does not as yet seem to have hit the chutes, but Tech would give a good deal to get another chop at them on home or neutral grounds and right now, Clemson kept to its stride right to the finish and would make it warm for any of them. * * * THE best, then, that I can possibly 1 do is not to attempt an indi vidual ranking of the teams. Instead I must fall back on a funeral classifi cation, which comes as near as may be to expressing my opinion of the strength of the teams as they playe i the season through—taking into con sideration whom they played, how often they played them, where they played them, how they came out, and how they looked in actual perform ance as a mere playing machine. BIG EASTERN MEET JUNE 14. NEW YORK May 24.—The New York Athletic <’lub will hold its nine tieth athletic meet on Travers Island on June 14. Lowry Arnold a True Sportsman *1* • v -!••►!- -J* • *1* *1* • d* d* • d* *1* • *1* Could Have Barred R. Steinmehl By Tick Tichenor I F it hadn’t been for Lowry Arnold the Birmingham Invitation Tour nament would not have been won by Rollo Steinmehl. Of course he beat Lowry in his very first match but this Is not the point. On the afternoon before the qual ifying round Billy Ward, who was a member of the Tournament Commit tee, was in doubt about allowing the Junior members of the Club to enter the tournament. “Lowry,” said he,” we have three or four Junior members who want to play in thtv tournament. “They are boys fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years old. What do you think about letting them enter;' Now if Lowry Arnold had raised any objection all Junior members would have been barred from enter ing. Bui being a big broad-gauge sportsman Lowry replied. “By all means,” Billie, "let them enter. If they are not good enough they will he beaten. If they are good enough they ought to win.” So the matter was settled and the Junior members entered and Hollo Steinmehl established a record of winning the first tournament in w’hich he ever played. • * * H IS victory was the greatest sur prise, which has ever taken place in any tournament in the South. It was a surprise because he was truly a dark horse. None of the members of the club knew how well this fif teen-year-old boy could play. They knew him because they had often seen him playing with his father or had seen him putting on or playing shots to the tentli and fifteenth greens, which are almost in his back yard but none of them ever played with him. He had turned in no scores and so wasn’t even on the hand icap list. When he turned in a score of seventy-eight it was thought that he had outplayed himself in the qual ifying round. When he played his first match with Lowry Arnold and won on the fifteenth green most everybody was surprised but no one considered that he had a chance of winning the tournament. The gen eral Impression was that he was too young to stand the strain and would blow up sooner or later. But those who entertained this idea didn’t know the kid. In his second round he was pitted against Billy Ward, a veteran of many tournaments and who knows even* break and slope and blade of grass on the entire course. At the sixteenth tee Ward was two up with only three holes to play. Ward had tlie match almost as good as won but Steinmehl couldn’t se* it that way ami by winning the eighteenth managed to square the match on the eighteenth green. The nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first holes were halved but he won the twenty-second hole and the match. » * • I N his next match the next morning 1 with H. (’. Wood he had a ding- dong match all the way round as neither was ever more than one up at any time. Wood was one up at the eighteenth but missed his drive and lost the hole and the match was all square. Both got away well from the tee at the nineteenth but neither quite reached tho green. Wood’s second was about ten feet short of the cup, while Steinmehl was about four feet beyond the flag. Wood putted and barely missed his three but was dead for a four. Steinmehl put liis ball qftuarc into the back of the cup but it hopped out and the hole was halved in four. I was stand ing where 1 could see his face plain ly when the putt hopped out and he didn't change his expression. He didn’t make a move or say a word. The putt was just a little too hard and he knew it. The next hole was halved. Both drove badly at the twenty-first but the kid made th»* better recovery and got his four and won the hole. This was the second time he had been forced to go’extra holes to win and he had done so w ithout a flicker. He had proven to all that he knew, his clubs of W’hich he only carried four—a driver, a mashte, a mid-iron and a putter—but would the strain of tiie gallery, which would follow' the final have its effect on him. Those who thought that, it w’ould didn’t know him. He didn't know that they were there. He played better than ever. At the thirteenth he had bis opponent, J. H. Doughty, four down with only five holes to play. At this point Doughty by playing mag nificent golf succeeded in winning three of the next four holes and halv ing the other one and so came to the eighteenth tee one down witii one to play. • • • T HE ninth and eighteenth fair- greens are parallel and the green is a double green—the ninth being to the right. On his drive Doughty sliced but his ball just reached the edge of the ninth green, leaving him a long run-up shot across the ninth green to the cup. Steinmehl sliced badly his ball fi nally reaching th«- rough to the right of the ninth' fairgreen. When tfie ball was found in the rough it was about fifty yards from the hole. Just short of the green and about ten yards from the flag was a large mound fully ten feet high, which was in a direct line to the flag and which had to be carried if the green was to be reached. In addition to all of this the ball was lying under a tree the limbs of which were so low that the ball had to be kept low in order to keep from hitting them and yet the mound had to be carried and the ball held on a small green. Picture yourself In such a position and figure out the shot. • * • I WAS standing at the back of the * ninth green with George Oliver and we discussed the shot we would attempt under the same circum stances. Mr. Oliver was of the opin ion that he would take an approach ing cleek and attempt to run the ball over the mound and take a long chance of pulling oft* the shot and getting the green. On the other hand I was of tlie opinion that it would be best to play the ball onto the ninth green and trust to laying a long approach putt dead and get ting a half in four. But young Steinmehl did neither. Using a mashie, after carefully studying the shot, he hit the ball awful firmly. It Just grazed the leaves of the tree, cleared the mound easily, struck the green and came to rest about three feet from the hole. So great was the amount of cut put upon the ball In making the shot that it ran less than three feet after striking the green. It was a grand shot and one which Willie Anderson in his day would have been proud to have pulled off. It was the best shot, which has ever been my pleasure to witness. Girl Magnate Is Now Forming Ball Club Miss Ida Schnall Sends Out Call for Athletically Inclined Girls to Join Team. NEW YORK, May 24.—Flock around, girls, and listen to this. How often have you envied the snappy playing of the Giants? How often have you longed to play ball yourself, and bewailed the fact that the girl ball players are about as un common as a snowy day in July? Well, here’s a chance for athletically inclined girls to develop into female Wagners. Matties and Marquarde. And don’t forget that “the female of the specie.s is more deadly.” etc. Miss Ida Schnall is the boss of the New York Female Gianta. Back in 1908 she started the team, played ex hibition games—with male teams— for charity. Now’ comes Miss Ida with a new scheme. She will be a magnate Just like Charley Ebbets and will spend money. Another nine is to be formed, and the two teams will play exhibition games, mostly for charity’s sake; but of course Ida ad mits that she doesn’t expect to lose mor.ey. Ida Is supposed to be the champion all-round athlete in these parts. Re cently she did a diving stunt at the Winter Garden, but she decided to get back into the baseball game again. She has sent out a call for ten girls who know something of baseball, and w’ho are there with the muscle and nerve. So if you’d shine in this com pany drop a postal to Ida, and Ida will tell you when to report for duty at the Bronx oval, where her cohorts are getting back into trim by practicing on Sundays. MARATHON RUNNING IS SEVERE STRAIN ON BODY "Football, baseball, rowing, boxing and some of the other sports all are a great Mrain on the body/* says Ar<* thur Du/fey, the former champion am ateur sprinter. “They call for the strictest train ing When 1 was an athlete som4 years ago I was credited with run ning 100 yards in 9 3-5 seconds. Al the time it was said such a perform ance was a terrific strain on the heart and the muscles of the body, but how can such a performance be compared with a Marathon race? “A Mamthon runner must go through the most arduous siege od training. He must be prepared to stand the gaff for over two and a half hours of the most nerve-racking ex perience. He must have, untold nerve. strength and endurance. There is no chance for the quitter in this gam* Yes, no matter what may be said, a Marathon champion is a champion of champions.” Most mileage—< fewest tire troubles, greatest riding pleas- ! ure and relief from road worries—these/ are yours with— Ytreston NON-SKID TIRES Made in all types to j fit all standard rims. Ask for book “What’s What in Tires," by H. S. Firestone. THE FIRESTONE TIRE & RUBBER CO. s Largest Exclusive Tire and Rim Hikers" 253-255 Peachtree Street. Atlanta. Home Office and factory: Akron, Ohio. Branches In All Larga Cities.