The day book., April 07, 1915, NOON EDITION, Image 7

About The day book. (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

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BASEBALLSPORTS OF ALL SORTS BOXING
Jess Willard is on his way home.
A special boat is bringing him to Key
West, Fla., from where a triumphal
tour through the south to New York
will be begun. Jess is entitled to all
the adulation he gets. Derided, fac
ing the natural handicaps of all
"white hopes" a now defunct spe
cies, almost human he went against
Johnson and won the title. And he
shad to go some to win.
The big black man has done many
things in the past that have not been
to his credit, but his star sets bright
ly, for he fought as game a fight as
was ever seen and proved himself a
physical marvel. At that, Jack was
whiter than some of the company he
kept.
Only one or two things dim the
pleasure we take in Willard's trium
phal tour. Tom Jones will probably
stand on the back end of the train
and tell the folks what he did to make
the cowboy a champion, the only
thing falling to Jess' lot being deliv-.
ering the punch. Rather an import
ant part of the program, in our es
timation, but Tom won't see it that
way. And if Tom is allowed to finish
his talk at each station, the train
won't get to New York before July 4.
Jack Curley will probably have a
place of honor beside Jones. Curley
promoted the fight and is now pro
moting the Willard tour, which has
its peculiar aspects. Just what Jack
will talk about is not known.- Some
of us would like to hear a few words
about the Gotch-Hack match at the
White S.ox park a few years ago.
But even Jesse James never talked
much about his hold-ups.
Give Willard credit. He has done
a big thing and will keep the title for
five or ten years. In the meantime,
overlook some of the camp followers
who will attach themselves to him.
Sam Langford, another fat color
ed man, outpointed Jim Johnson in
eight rouilds at New York.
TheCub team this year, in spite
of some rough work in its early
games, looks like an aggregation
that can give a good account of itself
in the coming National league cam
paign. As an example, a portion of yester
day's game against Chattanooga is
cited. For five innings the big
leaguers were helpless before the
shoots of Cunningham, a right
hander. They managed to scratch
one run across, but failed to deliver
in the pinches, despite the fact that
runners were getting on with regu
larity. Then a southpaw was injected intov
the pastime against the Bresnahans.
Zimmerman tripled. That was all
right, as Zim is a slashing right-handed
batter and supposed to be effective
against left-handed pitching. Up
came Saier, who swings from the off
side of the plate. Vic promptly sin
gled, scoring a run.
Next was Cy Williams. Those who
remember Long Cjs efforts against
southpaw pitching in the past sea
sons would not expect much. But
Cy, who is not the Cy of last year,
belted a choice left-handed offering
for four bases, winning the ball
game, 4 to 3.
This stout clouting by Saier, Wil
liams, McLarry and Schulte against
left-handed pitching is one of the
most encouraging signs about the
1915 class of Cubs. The team will
not be a soft spot for portsiders to
be dropped in against, as it has been
for the past two seasons.
The pitchers that are facing the
Cubs now are minor leaguers, but
they are advanced in their training.
And it should not be forgotten that
earlier in the season, when the Mack
men and Phillies were encountered,
the west siders pasted the ball with
even better results.
Bresnahan's pitchers are still back
ward and neither Cheney or .Vaughn
H
. - . r.V-
J