protested by the
Pittsburgh club and thrown out of the records, taking a victory from the
Chicago club and a defeat from the Pittsburgh club.

AMERICAN LEAGUE SEASON OF 1912

BY IRVING E. SANBORN, CHICAGO.

Pre-season predictions in Base Ball do not carry much weight
individually, but when many minds, looking at the game from different
angles, agree on the main points there usually is good reason behind
such near unanimity. Outside of Boston it is doubtful if any experienced
critic of Base Ball in the country expected the Red Sox to be converted
from a second division team into pennant winners in one short season. If
such expectancy existed in Boston it was partially a case of the wish
fathering the thought. The majority of men believed the machine with
which Connie Mack had achieved two league and two world's championships
was good for at least one more American League pennant. That expectation
was based on the comparative youth of the important cogs in the Athletic
machine. Yet this dope went all wrong. The Athletics were beaten out by
two teams which were in the second division in 1911, one of them as low
as seventh place.

The reason for these form reversals were several. The Boston and
Washington teams improved magically in new hands, while the Athletics
went back a bit, partly because of too much prosperity and partly
because of adversity. Having come from behind in 1911 and made a winning
from a wretched start, the Mackmen apparently thought they could do it
again and delayed starting their fight until it was too late. The loss
of the services of Dan Murphy for more than half of the season also was
a prime factor.

The White Sox were the season's sensations both ways and for a time kept
everybody guessing by their whirlwind start under new management. They
walked over every opponent they tackled for the first few weeks, then
began to slip and it required herculean efforts to keep them in the
first division at the finish. The Chicago team always was a puzzle to
all parties to the race, including itself.

From the outset there was almost no hope for the other four teams in the
league. Cleveland and Detroit occasionally broke into the upper circles
for a day or two in the early weeks of the season, but not far enough to
rouse any false anticipations among their supporters. St. Louis and New
York quickly gravitated to the lower strata and remained there, the
Yankees finally losing out in their battle w