- “Kid” Huggins, 37 Years Young, Too Smart For Cubs
- Despite Injuries He Pulls Play That Wins Game at Time When Score Was Tied.
- Doak Improves Record to 14-4 With a 2-1 Complete Game Win Over Cubs – 6 hits, 1 ER, 6 SO, 2 BB, 2.02 ERA
August 16, 1914 Age 23
By W. J. O’Connor. Of the Post-Dispatch Sporting Staff.
CHICAGO, Ill, Aug. 15. Lumbago Bill Doak today became the undisputed leader of the National League pitchers by beating the clawless Cubs, 2-1, in a restful siesta at the West Side grounds. Bill aimed at a shutout and would have acquired the game had Jack Miller not slipped a cog at short. It was a miscue by Johnny that gave the Cubs their only run in the fifth inning.
Hippo Jim Vaughan, the heftiest southpaw in any league, was generous to the extreme, and the Cardinals imposed upon his good nature to the extent of walking away with the large end of the box score. Jim was stingy with hits, proportioning only five among all the Cardinals, but he tried to paper the house with passes, issuing seven, which is more than Herman Seekamp has given in a season. Each of the Cardinals’ runs materialized from a pass.
The winning run, though, was propounded by Mr. Huggins, who, at the age of 37, possesses more cunning and daring than a lot of young men who have not rheumatism in one leg and a shoulder. Hug is only a shell of himself, these days. He injured his shoulder in Boston, sliding into the plate, and he can’t lift his left arm high enough to button his collar. His right leg gives him loads of trouble, and after a hard game he almost needs a cane to move around. But, despite all these infirmities, Hug still is the premier base runner on the Cardinal club, and that includes Cozy Dolan, the firebrand of the tow-paths.
One on Jim Archer.
Hug pulled a trick play yesterday at the expense of James Archer, than whom there is no greater thrower, unless it be Frank Snyder. With the score tied in the eighth inning and two out, Hug bummed his way to first He then wandered far off. and when a strike was called on Magee he was so far toward second that Archer snapped the ball to Saier.
By the time Saier finished tagging the thin ozone around first base, Hug was beating his way into second. But Saier up and threw the ball at Boshter Bill Sweeney, and Boshter Bill did nothing to prevent it from rolling to left field. Hug then scampered to third, reaching that station just in advance of Schulte’s shot to Corriden. Magee then busted one, and Schulte couldn’t quite connect for the catch, Huggins scoring the winning run. Magee got credit for a double despite the fact that Schulte had the ball in his hands after a long run and dropped It.
It’s Kid Huggins Still.
But that’s the way the ball game was won by Mr. Huggins, at 37. Hug may be 38 or 40, but he insists that he’s 37, so we’ll let It go at that. A few years hence when Hug has his pictures in display advertising, with signed testimonials for a breakfast food or smoking tobacco, we all may know the Rabbit’s real age. At present, though, he is rated as 37 years young.
There was another run made by the Cardinals in the seventh inning, and Old Chief Wilson, the silent man from Texas, pumped it home. Dolan opened the inning with a walk, his third in a row. Miller hit through short as Dolan darted for second and Derrick couldn’t right himself for the stop, Jack getting a single. Wilson went up to sacrifice and failed on the first pitched ball, thereby putting Miller in a trap where Archer’s throw to Saier nailed him. The blame mostly was with Wilson, so the Chief took a hitch in his belly band and a reef at the next ball, delivering a single that consigned the speed-mad Dolan to the plate.
The Cubs’ only counter came in the sixth when Wildfire Schulte bumped a double off the right-field wall after one demise. Sweeney rolled to Magee, sending Schulte to third and then Derrick hit to Miller, who kicked the ball into Cook County, scoring Schulte.
The Cubs were tamed easily by the premier pitcher of the National League in the seventh and eighth, but in the ninth Miller caused Willie to worry by booting Sweeney’s grounder. Doak saved the day by taking Derrick’s bunt and tossing to Huggins for a force out of Sweeney. Archer lifted to Dolan and Johnson, who was put in to run for Derrick, was picked off by Doak and Magee.
Cards as Close to Giants Today as When They Departed on Trip
STRANGE as it may seem the Cardinals, by winning today, can start home tonight only as far removed from the pace-making Giants as they were when they left home on this disastrous trip. This fortunate condition exists because the Giants, in their stand at home, which closed yesterday with the third defeat to Boston, won eight and lost 11 games.
The Cardinals on this trip have won seven and lost 12. So they are today only 5 1/2 games behind the leaders, while a conquest this afternoon when Sallee opposes Pierce will cut the New York lead down to five full games.
The buzz of the pennant bee has been silenced almost entirely, but the Cards are set upon beating out the Cubs and believe that they can overhaul the Braves unless Stallings’ men maintain their killing pace.
Yesterday’s victory over the Cubs elevated the cards to within a fractional game’s difference of third place. Another conquest today will put Hug’s entry back on its own stamping ground.
Willie Doak has won a game in every town the club stopped in this trip but Pittsburgh and Boston. He was sick in the Hub. He started against the Phils, then blanked the Superbas, beat Matty 3-2, and the Cubs 2-1. He has won seven straight.
Wagner a Real Manager.
Don’t overlook the closeness of the National League race. Pittsburgh to day in last place is only 11 1/2 games behind the Giants, while the Athletics have a bigger lead than that over the Red Sox who are the runners-up In the Junior organization. And there’s as much chance of the Red Box beating out the Mackmen as there is for the Pirates to subdue the Giants and Braves. At that the Corsairs have improved since Fred Clarke took sick and quit the bench. Hans Wagner is running the club and under his tutelage the Pirates have won four straight. There’s a rumor now that the big German will succeed Clarke.