games in the lead and their constituents were dreaming of another
world's pennant almost every night.

Even the doubters were beginning to believe Manager Callahan had found
the right combination. Just then came the awakening. The luck which had
been coming their way began breaking against them with remarkable
persistency. Plays that had won game after game went wrong and youth was
not resourceful enough to offset the breaks. The White Sox began to fall
away fast in percentage, but managed to cling to the lead until June 10.
Boston passed them right there and the Chicagoans kept on going.

By mid-season Manager Callahan was fighting to keep his men in the first
division and their slump did not end until they landed in fifth place
for a couple of days in August. Then in desperation Callahan began
switching his line-up and by herculean effort--and the help of Ed
Walsh--climbed back into the upper quartet and stuck there to the
finish. It was a desperate remedy to take Harry Lord off third base,
where he had played during most of his professional career, and try to
convert him into an outfielder, a position in which he had had no
experience at all. But Lord was too good an offensive player to take out
of the game, in spite of his slump at third base, and he was willing to
try the outfield. Results justified the move. Lord learned outfielding
rapidly, and Zeider proved that third base was his natural position. The
acquisition of Borton for first base enabled Callahan to put Collins in
the outfield, and the White Sox in reality were a stronger team when
they finished than when they started their runaway race in April. With
one more reliable pitcher to take his turn regularly on the slab all
season the White Sox would have kept in the race. Callahan's men made up
for some of the disappointment they produced by beating the Cubs in a
nine-game post-season series, after the Cubs had won three victories.
Two of the nine games were drawn and one other went into extra innings,
making a more extended combat than the world's series.

* * * * *

Cleveland's 1912 experience was almost identical with that of 1911, even
to swapping managers in mid-season. Harry Davis, for years first
lieutenant to Connie Mack, took the management or the Naps under a
severe handicap. He succeeded a temporary manager, George Stovall, who
had made good in the latter half of the previous season, but who could
not be retain