A ground rule of two bases into the crowd was established, and the New York players, who were the opponents of Brooklyn, took advantage of it to drive the ball with all their force, trusting that it would sail over the heads of the fielders and drop into the crowd. They were so successful that they made a record for two-base hits and Brooklyn was overwhelmed. This unfortunate beginning appeared to depress the Brooklyn team. The players recovered slightly, but had barely got into their stride again when accidents to the men began to happen. Some of them became ill, and the manager was put to his wits end to get a team on the field which should make a good showing. Fighting against these odds Brooklyn made the best record that it could. As the season warmed into the hotter months the infield had to be rearranged. There was disappointment in the playing of some of the infielders. It was also necessary to reconstruct the outfield. Unable to get all of the men whom he would have desired the manager continued to experiment and his experiments brought forth good fruit, for unquestionably the excellent work of Moran, who played both right field and center field for Brooklyn, was a great help to the pitchers. By the time that the Base Ball playing year was almost concluded Brooklyn had so far recovered that it was able to place a better nine on the diamond than had been the case all of the year. Boston never was expected to be a championship organization. The material was not there for a championship organization, but Boston did play better ball than in 1911 and that is to the credit of players, manager and owner. The club had changed hands, but the new owner had not been able to readjust all of the positions to suit him. He put the best nine possible in the field with what he had. Never threatening to become a championship winning team Boston played steadily with what strength it possessed and always a little better than in 1911, so that the year could not fairly be considered unsuccessful at its finish. * * * * * Going back to the beginning of the year and looking over the contest for the National League championship of 1912, it is not uninteresting, indeed it is of much interest to call attention to the remarkably odd record which was made by New York to win the pennant. In that record stands the story of the fight, with striking shifts from week to week. The first game played by the Giants was against Brooklyn, as has been related, and it was won by New York and that, by the way, was the game in which Marquard began his admirable record as a pitcher for the season. The Giants lost the next three games. Two of them were to Brooklyn and one to Boston, and the players of the New York team began to wonder a little as to what had happened to them.