[Big Six]

Boston Globe, June 23, 1926

RED-HOT O'FARRELL TOPS BATTING LIST

BOSTON--Pat O'Farrell's birth certificate asserts that he is thirty-eight years of age, born September 16, 1888 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. When a baseball player reaches that age, there are usually certain ways in which he begins to show the signs of wear and tear. That is, of course, if he is still active in the game.

O'Farrell, however, is demonstrating that one can never be too quick to draw concusions. His recent streak, in which he has terrorized one American League pitcher after another, has vaulted him to the league lead in batting average, with a crisp .357 mark.

Over the last ten games, Pat has belted twenty-one base hits in forty-three official times at bat, for a .488 average. Six of those hits were doubles, three were triples, and four were home runs, so Pat has produced an extra-base hit three out of every ten times he has stepped to the slab over this period. He has scored thirteen runs and--perhaps most amazingly--has driven in twenty-one more.

You read correctly; O'Farrell has 21 RBI in his last ten games. He has tied Babe Ruth for the American League lead in that category as well.

"I can't really explain it," a smiling O'Farrell said. "All hitters have spells when the ball seems twice as large as usual, and we all have spells when everything we hit falls in safely. Lately, I have been enjoying both of those at the same time."

Unfortunately, O'Farrell's teammates have been so inconsistent that over the course of those ten games, the Red Sox have been a .500 club. That prevents them from gaining any ground on the three clubs that precede them in the standings: the Athletics, Browns, and Tigers. Only two games separate the Sox from second place, however, so a winning streak could vault them back into a position from which they could directly challenge the Athletics.

"Philadelphia has an outstanding club," Boston manager Bill Carrigan said. Ace lefthander Bob "Lefty" Grove leads the major leagues with a 14-1 record, and a lineup starring veterans like Joe Jackson and youngsters like catcher Mickey Cochrane and outfielder Al Simmons has the Athletics out in front as the season nears the halfway mark...