BASEBALL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 17

BASEBALL

(B,y ; "First Base.")'. ■ After .four successive wet" Saturdays, baseball was resumed last week inj weather that was worthy of summer. Some little apprehension was being felt in baseball circles that, owing to the long period in which no games could be played, some trouble would be experienced! in getting all the players together again. .. ■

The-result of the game was that the A team, under M'Girr, made up for- their succession of defeats, by'handsomely defeating: the' B team, captained by F. Alexander, by fifteen runs to eight. The credit of the victory was to a great extent due to the deadly- pitching of Balkin, the splendid work on first base by M'Girr, and the baiting of M'Girr and Hawkins. Balkin's pitching was the finest that has been seen this season. Some of his swerves must have come in two feet, and frequently he' developed a break at the.end. At times he "was quite unplayable. Owing to his not having played for so long, he tired towards the end of' the game, and was relieved, by M'Girr. This change, however, 'did not give any, relief to the opposing batters. M'Girr. mixed his ' deliveries ,bo effectively that only' three runs were scored off. him. in the two innings in which he pitched. His performance on firßt base, prior to his taking the position on the slab, was almost faultless. He brought off some amazing catches, in spite of the glaring sunlight, which bothered most of the other players considerably. His batting performance was also excellent, and stamped him as one of the finest ; all-rounders at present in the game. Hawkins was also in great form with the bat, and achieved the distinction of hitting the second home of the season.

The rest of the A team played up well and all contributed their share to the victory. J. Alexander's catching was one of his best performances to date.'He handled a number of wild throws to the plate like a veteran. Solomons batted well, and did a lot of useful work in the outfield. Bade, although not performing so well with the bat, showed a great improvement on second, base.

The play of the B {earn was rather better than the score would suggest, although they never looked like winning. On two occasions they were two men down, and the bases full, but a hit that would have at least brought one man home was not forthcoming on either occasion. The B team tried an experiment in' placing Wakelin, ; their leading catcher, on third base, and ■ putting Cohen in the catcher's box^ The experiment seemed to be quite a successful one. Cohen, who generally plays on second base, has had a little experience at catching on previous occasions. His only fault was in shedding the mask too slowly to go for foul flies. Otherwise his work was good. The play of Wakelin. on third base was one of the features of the day. As I'have remarked in previous notes, this position is one of the most difficult on the whole field, aand Wakelin, who was occupying the third sack for the first time, showed a mastery of the position that would have been a credit to any third base specialist. His play was frequently unorthodox, but invariably effective. . .'. ".

The pitching for the B's was shared by F. Alexander and Catchpole. The latter's was the more successful, and kept the opposition batters fairly quiet. The only other performers of any note in the B team were Powrie, on second base, and Kaye, right field. Kaye put a lot of energy into his work, and played his position particularly well. The chief failing of the B team was in batting. No doubt the excellent pitching of the A's had a great deal to do with this, but the want of practice was also a factor. Nevertheless the, game was productive of some of the best baseball that has been seen in ,the city this winter The exhibition games that the .Baseball Association ' intends to stage before the winter, is ov«r should bo wpl) werth witeiuog. ■