inced that they would have a hard time to hold their title,
and after the season was over both factions were fairly well satisfied
with their preliminary forecast.

The runaway race which New York made up to the Fourth of July gave
abundant satisfaction to those who said they would win, and the setback
which the team received after the Fourth of July until the latter part
of August afforded solace to those who were certain in their own minds
that the New Yorks would have much trouble to repeat their victory of
1911.

It must not be forgotten, too, that the New York team had the benefit of
excellent pitching throughout the year. In the new record for pitchers,
which has been established this season by Secretary Heydler of the
National League, and which in part was the outcome of the agitation in
the GUIDE for a new method of records, in which the various Base Ball
critics of the major league cities so ably contributed their opinions,
Tesreau leads all the pitchers in the matter of runs which were earned
from his delivery. Mathewson is second, Ames is fifth, Marquard seventh
and Wiltse and Crandall lower, and while both the latter were hit freely
in games in which they were occasionally substituted for others, they
pitched admirably in games which they won on their own account.

In the opinion of the writer this new method, which has been put into
usage by Secretary Heydler, is far superior to anything which has been
offered in years as a valuable record of the actual work of pitchers. It
holds the pitcher responsible for every run which is made from his
delivery. It does not hold him responsible for any runs which may have
been made after the opportunity has been offered to retire the side, nor
does it hold him responsible for runs which are the result of the
fielding errors of his fellow players. On the other hand, if he gives
bases on balls, if he is batted for base hits, if he makes balks, and if
he makes wild pitches, he must stand for his blunders and have all such
runs charged against him as earned runs.

Nothing proves more conclusively the strength of this manner of
compiling pitchers' records than that Rucker, by the old system, dropped
to twenty-eighth place in the list of National League pitchers, finished
third in the earned run computation, showing that if he had been given
proper support he probably would have been one of the topmost pitchers
of the league, even on the basis of percentage of games won, w