Chilly breezes –
Daniel: Series to rate as vast exploit of strikeouts
By Dan Daniel
St. Louis, Missouri –
The baseball classic which is rapidly drawing to its immortal close here will go down in the imperishable records of the national pastime as the series of the strikeouts.
So vast has been the production of whiffing exploits in the five games thus far contested by the Cardinals and the Browns that the indigenous temperature has dropped some 20 points, from a torrid 8 to a comparatively shivery 60.
No fewer than 78 batters have fanned, with the American Leaguers showing a slight advantage, 40–38. That is unmatched by the past Johnny Hopp and Ray Sanders, of the Redbirds, between them have split 14 strikeouts.
Sneezes from bleachers
The epizootic of whiffing which, in the 2–0 shutout hung on the trailing Browns by Morton Cooper in the fifth game yesterday, caused the stands and bleachers to ring with sneezes. Handkerchiefs have gone on the local priority list.
You should have heard the lusty cheers of the Benzedrine and Argyrol lobbies as Mort Cooper climaxed his gorgeous shutout performance with a drug store flourish.
Tired of seeing his regular workers blown down, Luke Sewell swept up his bench in the ninth inning and presented Milton Byrnes, Chet Laabs and Mike Chartak as pinch-hitters. All three looked like competitors in an Indian club swinging tournament. They whiffed with a gusto that sent the customers rushing home for their heavy underwear.
Since Floyd Baker, whom Sewell for some reason as yet determined sent in to swing for Don Gutteridge in the seventh inning, also fanned, it is believed that if Mort did nothing else, he established a record for striking out four consecutive minute men.
Cooper’s work a joy
In only one inning, the sixth, was Cooper in serious trouble, and the way he sneezed the Browns out of that opportunity was a positive joy to the ephedrine and Copenhagen snuff section near the Cardinal dugout.
Mike Kreevich organized the revolt with a single to right. Then Mort made a peach of a play on Gene Moore’s bunt, and forced Mike out of the picture. However, Vernon Stephens, who tapped Cooper for three hits, singled to center and George McQuinn walked, loading the bases.
Now came one Allen Zarilla. He swung and he swung again, and out he went, one of the whiffing dozen. That was the ball game, chums. Then Mark Christman stepped to the plate and whiffed and whiffed and amid a thunder of “gesundheits,” ended the only real disturbance against Morton Cecil from Atherton, Missouri.
When you recollect that in the second game Max Lanier and Sylvester Ulysses Blix Donnelly struck out 13 Browns in 11 innings, you discover a two-contest World Series record lying under your very nose. Achoo!