The Dickinson Press

Catcher Sweeney's View of the American League Stars.

Asked recently whom he thought were the best base runners in the American League, Ed. Sweeney, the popular catcher of the Highlanders, replied:

"For speed, the best are Cobb, Milan and Collins; but if you asked me to name the most daring base runners, I would say George Moriarty and Jimmy Callahan. I consider Moriarty the trickiest base runner in the country. When he is on base you cannot relax your vigilance a second, and if he got on the paths as often as Cobb, I believe he would steal a full hundred bases a season. As a pilferer of baseball cushions he is an artist.

"George is considered a fast man, but he is nowhere as rapid as Ty, Milan and Collins, so that makes his dazzling performances all the more wonderful. He has the audacity to try anything, and he gets a bigger lead on the pitchers than any man I know of. He works away from the bag inch by inch and then bolts ahead like a streak. He seems to get top speed in half a second and always slides to the base at a point furthest from the man taking the ball.

"When he is on third base he is more dangerous than gunpowder. The catcher is working with the pitcher to get a batsman and before he notices it Moriarty has slid into the plate. He can steal home by narrower margins than any ball player I have to worry over.

When Callahan is playing regularly and is feeling fit he is every bit as dangerous. He deceives you because he never jockeys from the cushion for a lead."

Ed A. Goewey in Leslie's.