- Doak Has Highest Winning Percentage with 18-5 Record
September 8, 1914 Age 23
By W. J. O’Connor. St Louis Post Dispatch
BILL DOAK, with 18 victories and five defeats, is the undisputed leader of the National League pitchers. By winning the morning game from the Pirates Labor day, Bill climbed to the top of the N. L. ladder and stands a reasonable chance of remaining there. James and Rudolph of Boston and Tesreau and Mathewson of New York all have won more games than Doak, but they also have lost more, making Doak’s percentage of victories high.
Some persons have claimed that Doak is lucky, inasmuch as his teammates always score a flock of runs behind him. This claim cannot be sustained In the face of Doak’s 1-0 victory over Marquard and a similar conquest over Alexander this season. Willie didn’t get the soft spots by opposing such hurlers.
Cozy Dolan as Lead-Off Man Is Factor in Reviving the Cardinals
MILLER HUGGINS, recognized for years as one of the best lead-off men in baseball, has himself determined that there is still a better man to top the Cardinal batting order. Hug has promoted Cozy Dolan to first place and effaced himself from the top of the list. The new combination has proved a winner.
And there are reasons why it should, to wit: Dolan is a good waiter, an average hitter, with the speed to beat out a bunt. All in all, Cozy is a dangerous man at the plate, a batter likely to get on by hook or crook any time. But it is after Cozy reaches first that he’s transferred from a second-rater into a star. There are few better base runners than Dolan; some people say none.
Now, if Cozy can get on, he is sure to worry every pitcher in the National League. He has worried them all season. He takes such a desperate lead and is so prone to run wild that almost invariably the pitcher will waste at least two balls.
Then you have a combination of unquestionably the best base runner of the League on first, with the hardest man to pitch to in baseball – Huggins – at bat. What’s a pitcher going to do? If he keeps an eye on Dolan, he also will be menaced by Huggins, who crowds the plate so successfully that annually he leads the League In walks. It is hard enough to pitch to Hug without wasting an occasional ball to prevent Dolan from pilfering second. But the pitcher has this alternative: Either waste one or Dolan will steal. Therefore, Hug, a dangerous one-base hitter, is either going to get good balls to hit at or he’ll walk.
This looks like the best lead-off combination Hug has hit upon this season.
Sport Salad by L. C. Davis
“Hickory Bob” Harmon Gave ‘Em a Hiding.