t grace they could and played
ball with what success they could achieve, whether they had their best
team in the field or their poorest.

Strangely enough they played an important part in the results of the
race. Frequently they defeated the Chicagos, all too frequently for the
comfort of the Chicago Base Ball enthusiasts, and when the loss of a
game or two by the Philadelphias to the Chicagos might have turned the
race temporarily one way or the other, the Philadelphias, with decided
conviction, refused to lose.

It may not be necessary to call attention to the fact of absolute
fairness in the contests for championships in the various leagues which
comprise Base Ball in its organized form. The day has passed when the
Base Ball enthusiast permits his mind to dwell much upon that sort of
thing, if ever he did. But if it were necessary to advance an argument
as to the integrity of the sport and the high class of the men who are
engaged in the summer season in playing professional Base Ball, there
could be nothing better to prove that the price of victory is the one
great consideration, greater than the fact of Philadelphia's success
against a team which was a strong contender against that which finally
won the championship.

As much as Philadelphia desired that New York should be beaten, for
there was no love lost between the teams in a ball playing way, the
fighting spirit and the predominant desire to add to the column of
victories as many games as possible brought forth the best efforts of
the team of ill fortune against Chicago and struck telling blows against
Chicago's success at the most timely moments.

* * * * *

As a whole the St. Louis team did not play as well in 1912 as it did in
the preceding year. There was some bad luck for St. Louis as well as
Philadelphia. The players did not get started as well as they had in the
previous two years. Their spring training was more or less disastrous,
for they were one of the clubs to run into the most contrary of spring
weather.

Perhaps the worst trouble which the St. Louis team had, take the season
through from beginning to finish, was in regard to the pitchers. There
were two or three young men on the team who seemed at the close of the
season of 1911 to be likely to develop into high class pitchers in 1912.
They pitched well in 1912 at intervals. One day it seemed as if they at
last had struck their stride and the next they falter