Evening Star Newspaper, March 27, 1935, Page 10

WASHINGTON, D. C., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1935. A—10 o Willroak Camp Tomorsot: Cloveland Hasa Croat Cluh n Making CIBNNE RN, (== STRGEANDBIT | SPORTSqopp it Scribes, Batting for Pilots, Surpass ’Em as Pennant Optimists. —By JIM BERRYMAN WITHMORALE HIGH Griff and Harris Certain Their Band Will Make All Foes Hustle. BY JOHN B. KELLER. Special Dispatch to The Star. ILOXI, Miss., March 27.—An- other day here and the Na- tionals will close their sixth successive annual training eamp at this little town on the Gulf Coast. Following a tussle with the Kansas City Blues the Washington ball club tomorrow night will entrain for Birmingham, Ala.,, where on Fri- day will be played the first of 10| exhibition games scheduled for the trip back to the Capital. i It will be a well groomed ball club that leaves here. Excepting a few suffering minor ailments, all the players are in first-class condition, certainly as good as could be expected at this stage of the training season. There still remain more than two weeks before the American League opens its championship campaign. ‘When April 16 arrives all hands ought to be fully fit for the fight. Right now the only players that appear to be below par are Joe Kuhel, veteran first sacker: Al Powell, the rookie outfielder who seems destined to supplant Fred Schulte in the mid- dle pasture, and Syd Cohen, southpaw glabman, who complains of a slight soreness in his pitching arm. Griff, Harris Confident. HESE ailments Trainer Mike Mar- tin considers trivial. Kuhel's left ankle that was cracked last year has bothered him to some extent, but his leg becomes better daily and before the Nationals get back to Washington on April 8 it should be normal. Powell is getting special work-outs each morning to strengthen his underpinning that always has troubled him in Spring. Another day or two of warm weather will bring Cohen’s arm around, says Trainer Martin. Manager Bucky Harris has nothing to bother him so far as the physical trim of his club is concerned. Nor has he anything to worry over re- | garding his club’s mental attitude to- ward the impending pennant pursuit. Not even two years ago, when a new ‘Washington ball club was in the mak- ing, was the spirit so high. There is pervading the ranks of the Nationals a belief in their strength, a quiet con- fidence that they will be difficult to ————rAT i 15 HAVING AN UP-HILL STRUGGLE TIN Je G o i et BOUND To ADD A TOUCH OF - COLOR To GRIFF'S TO LAND THAT INFIELD BERTH WITH THE NATIONALS... BILOX! - MISS... LARY’S SPEED 1S ALWAYS AN ARGUMENT IN HIS FAVOR... IF HE COULD ONLY s, COUPLE IT UP WITH AN ACCURATE Toss ! BALL CLUB...HE | JUST CAN'THELPIT: L3 GROVE LS SLATED FORTEST FRIDAY | Red Sox “Puzzle” to Pitch Against Phils—Yankees Get Hurler Malone. | By the Associated Press. ! ARASOTA, Fla. — Lefty Grove, \ .’ Priday's game with the Phillies. | The news leaked out last would be large for this first 1935 ap- pearance of Grove. Red Sox enigma, will pitch in night and it was expected the gate | Grove's left arm has been nursed 15 BIGGEST NEED {Johnson Defies Critics and Gets Results—lliness of Shortstop Hurts. (Note—This is one of a series analyzing major league base ball prospects.) BY ALAN GOULD, Associated Press Sperts Editor. EW ORLEANS, La., March 27— Regardless of where he lands the Cleveland Indians this year Big Chief Walter John- son rapidly is organizing a tribe that may dominate the American League, once it develops its full strength. It is not yet fully equipped to go on the warpath, but it will be. Right now it lacks the infield balance and the grade of backstopping es- sential to make the most of its super- lative right-handed pitching staff. The batting order carries explosive power, with more long-range guns than the champion Detroit Tigers. With a Cochrane or a Foxx behind the plate the Indians would scalp the rest of the league without much dif- ficulty. The premature attempt to Johnson “on the spot” this Spring by booming the pennant prospects of the Indians abruptly was checked by the club's loss of Billy Knickerbocker, sensational shortstop and balance wheel of the team's kid infield. Johnson Has No Favorites. NICKERBOCKER was stricken with appendicitis a fortnight ago. He is out of the hospital, but the Indians will be lucky if he can return to the line-up by the middle of May and luckier if then he can | duplicate his brilliant 1934 per- formances. The club is trying desperately to get an experienced replacement, but rival clubs are not eager to be of assistance in the emergency. Their sympathy excusably is synthetic in a league that anticipates a wide open race this year. There should be no doubt of the Indians running 1-2-3 throuzhout the season with the power generated by such fence-crackers as Averill, Vosmik, Campbell, Trosky and Hale, together with such talented pitchers as Harder. Pearson, Hudlin, Hildebrand and Clint Brown. Johnson has played no favorites in revamping the team. His judgment has been vindicated in converting Hal | Trosky from an outfielder to one of [SPORTS ' _BY FRANCI OW that President Will Har- ridge and eight American League base ball managers have committed their annual utterances on the forthcoming flag chase, the Nation’s diamond incur- ables may return to their chores con- tent with the knowledge that once again none of the pastime’s bigwigs are in imminent danger of falling from a high limb and breaking some- thing. President Harridge has made the customary prediction to the effect that the race should be tighter and that the American League seems headed for a big season. Eight managers have murmured hints that their clubs will be stronger than last year and have wound up with the time-honored | phrase: “But you can bet that we will be a fighting team.” Stanley Raymond Harris came closest to committing treason. Stanley Raymond acknowledged a fair feed from the Lions’ Club last Winter when he declared that nothing less than the pen- nant would satisfy him. Them’s big words, but Bucky is a calloused individual. He has been more or less dissatisfied since 1925. | Only last year his dissatisfaction | reached a new high when, after fail- ing to get the Tigers up in the race | for five years, he had gone off to Bos- ton, | gleamed, and had sniffed at Iron Mike Cochrane’s chances with the Detroits. What did Mickey do but spur the | Tigahs home, while Bucky’s Hub en- | try fizzled. To make matters worse. he | woke up one day last October and read in the papers where Clark Grif- fith's son-in-law had his job. Nats Blue-eyed Babies. UT if the managers refuse to break . precedent and tell us where they finish, the war correspondents will. There is nothing bashful about base ball writers. Maybe it is because they proceed on the theory that by the time they are proved Wrong— again—the newspapers will have lowed, the fans will have forgotten, and who in the dickens is going to thumb the files? In a brand new Who's Who in the American League. a refcrmed base ball critic, Editor in Chief Harold (Speed) Johnson, mercifully passes up those managers’ tongue-in-the- cheek “ghost” varns and permits the critics to climb limbs, which, as we hinted before, is the only exerc some of them get. They do in varving degrees in Johnson'’s Who's Who. but in spite of this you will like the boo's (there is one for the National League, | 100). One cannot find what Joe Mc- | Glook batted in 1926 with Hazelton of the New York-Pennsylvania League, | but intermixed among some important figures is the more personal touch, which should prove especially pleasing to the ladies. | where a golden opportunity | S E. STAN | Shaver of the Detroit Times, who | modestly admits he alone picked the Tigers to win last season, winds up his introductory spiel on the champs wit] * * ¢ It is the same club which proved the sensation of the league | last year, more experienced, more as- | sured and with better reserve strength | where it was most needed—the out- fleld and pitching staff.” This is very distressing, to put it mildly. The Tigers walked home last year, winning by seven games. It wasn’t a race; it was a rout. To make matters darker, Tom Meany of the New York World- Telegram ups and debunks the ruthless Yanks. “Marse Joe McCarthy,” he pounds out, “opens the 1935 season with darker prospects than ever have been his lot since he took charge of the Yankees.” Then Meany laments the passing of Ruth’s punch, regrets that Red Rolfe and Don Heffner did not out so well and finishes with: “ ¢ summing up, the Yanks seem weaker than last season.” Ed Bang of the Cleveland News is next. “Plus one important addition (Bruce Campbell), the Cleveland In- dians comprise the same team that many figured, except for injuries, was good enough to win the American League pennant of 1934.” It is not pleasant to recall, injuries or not, that "the second-place Yanks finished nine games ahead of the Indians. With Knickerbocker in the hospital and Pytlak doubtful, the Tribe seems no better than last season, when they finished 16 games behind the Tigers. ° Thompson Banks on Bucky. AUL SHANNON of the Boston Post tries to be cheerful about the Red Sox and the $250,000 son- in-law, but between the lines it sounds as though he figures the Beantowners chort of pennant caliber. If so, he has plenty of company. It is hard to get excited about the Athletics, who finished 31 games back of the Detroits. and Jimmy Isaminger of the Philadelphia- Inquirer doesn't. Jim Gould of the St. Louis Post- Dispatch is in much the same po- sition as Isaminger. The Browns, like the A are youngsters with lots of promise, but not so much balance, Denman Thompson—the boss, v'know—does the honors for Washington. Hisis a tough job. The Nationals are not a sev- enth-plzace club, minus injuries, but how good they are is some- thing like answering how high is up, Thompson is stringing with Harris to build fires under the Hadleys, Stones, Schultes, Weavers and Stewarts and reach the first division. Verily, Bucky seems the big hope. From an unexpected source comes the most optimism. Ed Prell of the Chicago Americans is the source. “After along quietly and without t00 much | the league's hardest hitting first | ado. He has been the most obscure ‘ basemen. | player at the Sox training camp. | Pilot Defies Criticism. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla—The New ESPITE criticism, he kept Knick- subdue once the fighting for the flag starts. | President Clark Griffith insists he | has a good ball club, Manager Harris is sure his outfit is a capable one that will go far in the championship sea- For instance, the color of the eves and the hair is given among the more salient facts, along with a picture, address, and, of course, a statement as 14 years in the second division,” he w there may be hopes far the 1935 White Sox after all.” Prell likes | the Sox's 17 minor league stars and points out that “outsiders”—Wash- RELIEF SLABBING FROM THE PRESS BOX erbocker at short last year son and the players themselves are saying they will form a club to be reckoned with in the title tussling. Two Positions Are Open. HILE the physical conditioning of the club has been accom- | plished here, there still re- main the battles for two positions in the line-up to be settled. At present it looks as though Powell, the Wash- ington boy, has the call over Fred Schulte for the center-field post, and | Red Kress, transferred from the ‘White Sox only last year, seems to be leading the other candidates for the short-fleld berth, Lyn Lary and Ossie Bluege. The definite settlement of these issues will occur during the homeward exhibition tour. | As to the catching department, Manager Harris believes the first- | string receiving should be started by | Clif Bolton, still young in years but a | veteran in service. While Jack Red- mond, the catcher bought from Bir- mingham, is a far better man than Bolton behind the bat, Bolton is a batter of proven worth. Redmond, although he has been hitting the ball hard in the training games, must make way for the known slugger, Harris said today, however, that Redmond undoubtedly will see much service with the Nationals. The man- ager considers the rookie a valuable adjunct to the club. Sam Holbrook, the purchase from Chattanooga, will be retained, but only because the club must have three catchers. Should anything superior in the catching line be found by Scout Joe Engel Holbrook would be on his way back to the Lookouts, POLO TEAMS PAIRED. NEW YORK, March 27 (#).—The National Indoor Polo Association has | announced the pairings for the first round of the high-goal Eastern cham- pionship starting Saturday, with the New York A. C. trio pitted against | the Boulder Brook combination and Jimmy Mills' Westbury team meeting the Aknustis headed by Elbridge Gerry. Sports Program In Local Realm TODAY. . Boxing. Tommy Mollis, Baltimore, vs. Gene Buffalo, Philadelphia, light- weights, 10 rounds, Lincoln Col- onnade (colored). Show starts 8:30. TOMORROW. Wrestling. George Zaharias, Colorado, vs. Sandor Szabo, Hungary, two falls out of three, Washington Audi- torlum. Show starts, 8:30. i FRIDAY. Table Tennis, D. C. championship tourney at Wardman Park Hotel, 8. SATURDAY. Lacrosse. Maryland vs. Alumni, at College Park, 2:30. Bowling. Occidentals vs. Recreation Five of Baltimore, at Convention Hall, Table Tennis. D. C. championship tourney at Wardman Park Hotel, 2 and 8. Boxing. Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships at | Soward U, 8. 1 GANTS PROBLEN Two Obtained for Purpose and Crop of Rookies All Are Failing. By the Associated Press. ALLAHASSEE, Fla.—The crying i need of the New York Ginats is for relief pitchers. Neither Leon Chagnon nor Allyn Stout, obtained by trades for relief duty, has been impressive and | the younger crop including Clydell Castleman and Frank Gabler have been taking bad thumpings in exhibi- | tion games. BRADENTON, Fla—Dizzy _and Paul Dean, who “twisted the Tigers tail” in the last world series, will dish it up for the Cardinals in their ex- hibition game today with Detroit. Sale of Pat Malone yesterday toghe New York Yankees indicates either that a deal is pending for a new hurler or that Manager Frank Frisch is satisfied his rookies will come through. Braves May Let Jordan Go. T. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Buck Jor- dan appears the most determined of the six Braves who have so far refused to accept the Tribe's terms. Manager Bill McKechnie says that if he is given the proper inducement he may let Jordan go as there are three other men on the team who can coyer first. SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—De- spite the run of bad weather which hampered their training, the Pirates are saying good-by to San Bernardino with every player in tip- top shape. After beating the White Sox, 9-0, in the farewell game, the Bucs moved on to Yuma, Ariz., todsy to meet the Sox in another contest. ORLANDO, Fla.—Linus (Junior) Frey, young Brooklyn shortstop, has given up right handed hitting entirely. Frey, who used to be a switch hitter, has been batting left handed against all kinds of pitching after the Dodger board of strategy decided he could make the best use of his speed by hit- ting from the side nearest first base. T WINS FISTIC TITLE. PARIS, March 27 (#).—Maurice Heltzer won the Buropean feather- weight championship last night by outpointing Vittorio Tamagnini, Ital- ian champion, in a 15-round bout. Heltzer weighed 125!; pounds, Tam- agnini 123%. humanity. but it was believed the leadin, and the others tripped over h The pile-u; 1885, when 16 horses fell and the running of the Caulfield Cup. Pilot Wilson’s Optimistic Psychology Makes Rivals Regard Phils as Menace. BY JOHN INTER HAVEN, Fla,, March 27.—There is a confidence and swagger about Jimmy ‘Wilson that you don't often find in second-division managers. To watch and hear him you would think ! that James was the pilot of a pennant winner, equipped with the best ball players in the world and sure of coast- ing home six lengths ahead in the | league race. The Phillies’ boss speaks scoffingly of the great Dizzy Dean. He thinks he | got much the best of the deal which sent Dick Bartell to the Giants. He puts a boom-time price tag on each of his men. He treats them, in con- versation, like so many Cobbs, Ruths and Mathewsons. I think his attitude, more than anything else, is responsible for the fact that other managers regard the Phillies as a threat and a menace. For Jimmy is full of fire. He's a fighting ball player, naming names and nursing his feuds with the care and tenderness of a parent. More- over, he is smart. The ball club he will put on the field this year is a club with its face lifted, resembling in almost no respect the Phillies of 1933. And James is still building. It's only on the coaching line or during an occasional blow-off“ that Mr. Wilson indicates his irreverence for the rest of the league. Talking the club over with your correspondent he was calm enough. I of the boys haven’t had much ex- perience. two fellows who just began working for me last year and two total strang- ers. I have & new man in the out- fleld. Two of my starting pitchers broke in last year. But I like all of them. This club will work together, smooth and even, and when it begins to click we are going some place.” Jimmy is no more optimistic about the Phils than are two or three other managers in his own league. Casey Stengel says they are improved. Bill Terry calls them a threat to the first- division clubs. Bill McKechnie be- Heves they are considerably tougher than last year. “I think the infield is better, even without Bartell,” said Mc- Kechnie, “Vergez will hit in that Phillie park. Ryan will, too, because he hits a ball strong to right field. ‘The right-field fence there was made to order for Watkins. The infleld is, even now, better balanced.” 5 As noted above by Manager Wilson, the vital need of this ball club is co- operation, click. The Phils do not Strangers, but Promising. T'S a new club,” he said. “Some Three Horses Killed and Ten Riders Hurt in Race Pile-Up YDNEY, Australia, March 27 (®—Three race horses were killed and 10 jockeys injured today in a pile-up during a hotly contested race. ered 2 furlongs when 10 of the 14 starters were sud- denly thrown into a flailing, struggling mass of beasts and The cause of the accident was not ascertained, The horses had cov- horse fell with a broken leg m. Eight jockeys required hospital treatment. was the worst on the Australian turf since one jockey was killed during In the infield I have | LARDNE! shine very brightly as individuals. | Watkins and ' ‘The outfielders, Allen, | York Yankees' purchase of Pat Ma- | lone from the St. Louis Cardinals 'brlnxs the veteran right-hander back under the wing of the manager for whom he did his best work. Malone pitched fine ball for Joe John Moore, have been cast off by McCarthy when Joe was managing the more clubs than I care to count. Two | Chicago Cubs. of the infielders, Vergez and Ryan, were failures with New York last year. Only one of the pitchers. Cu | Davis, can be safely classified as a star. | Ryan Working Up Inspiration. | But the team may be dangerous as a whole. Wilson is an authentic in- flamer of men. The players, most of must rely on his veterans to carry them young and willing, will work most of the pitching burden this yea: hard for him. And when Jimmy gets | tired of inspirations and knocks ofli ing rookies more than an average | | for a while the club can fall back on | chance this Spring, McCarthy tried to buy him last December when the Cubs rt | frst put him on the market but had to wait to get him via the Cardinals. | Chisox Rookies Flivver. | UMA, Ariz.— Manager Jimmy | Dykes of the White Sox is more | convinced that ever that he | Although Dykes has given his hurl- most of them that versatile, free-style, right-and- | have fallen down. But for that mat- | | left hand, all-around inspirer, Blondy Ryan. Blondy is practicing some new acts of inspiration this Spring. He thinks a couple of his ideas are surefire. ‘The best pitching bets on the club | are Davis, who collected 19 victories | last season; Euel Moore, the strong and promising Redskin; Pidgety Phil | Collins, a much-beaten but effective pitcher of the Benge-Sweetland fu- tility school, and Snipe Hansen, an average southpaw. Joe Bowman and Sylvester Johnson will support these | boys in the style to which they are accustomed. Jim Biven and Orville Jorgens, leading heavers of the Galveston club last year, seem to be the most likely | of the recruits. There are two orchard replacements, Boland and Arnovich. In the infield Wilson is leaning -303 in his freshman year. The catch- ing, with Al Todd and the aforesaid Wilson at work, is very good. So there you have a ball team which doesn’t sound like much on paper, but may create a lot of trouble and strife in the National League. I hope it does, because Jimmy Wilson is an industrious, deserving gentleman with a sharp tongue and wits that | are even sharper. (Copyright. 1935. by North American Newspaper Alliance. Inc.) | Exhibition Games | By the Associated Press. Cleveland (A.), 9; New York (N.), 8. Montreal (I.L.), 9; Brooklyn (N.), 8. NBllmnore (I.L.), 4; Philadelphia, ), 3. Cincinnati (N.), 5;,Boston (A.), 0. St. - Louis (N.), 25; Columbus (I.L), 18. Philadelphia (A.), 5; Birmingham (8.A), 4 (10 innings). St. Louis (A.), 4; Buffalo (L.L), 3. Seattle (P.C. L) 14; Chicago (N.), 3. Detrolt (A.), 11; Rochester (I.L.), 1. Pittsburgh (N.), 9; Chicago (A.), 0. Today’s Schedule. At Pensacola, Fla.—New York (N) vs. Cleveland (A.). At Bradenton—St. Louis (N.) vs. Detroit (A.). Chicago (A.). Montreal (I.L.). At Tampa—Cincinnati (N.) vs. To- Portland (P.CL.). At Birmingham—Philadelphia (A.) vs. Birmingham (8.A.). At 8t. Petersburg—New York (A.) ve. House of David. ) Boston (N.), 4; New York (A), 3. At Yuma, Ariz.—Pittsourgh (N.) vs. | At Orlando—Philadelphia (N, vs. heavily on Lou Chiozza, who hit for | ter so has almost everything elese in one of the most dismal Spring sea- sons in years for the club. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla—This | one-run business has Manager Rogers | Hornsby “of the St. Louis Browns tearing his hair. When the Browns defeated Buffalo, 4 to 3, yesterday, it was the team's seventh game this Spring to be decided by one run. While the Browns have won six of them, Hornsby recalls only too well the 51 games lost last season by,a one-run margin. : Where Spor 8th and D Sts. but you'll best buys REGULAR $1.35 for 3 DUNLOP & Pennsylvania until the youngster found him- self. This Spring he benched the veteran Willie Kamm, shifted Sammy Hale from second to third base and put the youthful Bozie Berger in the keystone spot. Berger will be a fresh- man in scphomore company. If and when Knickerbocker takes his regular post. the Cleveland infield will be the youngest in either major league, averaging little more than 22 years, but it will be one of the rangiest and hardest hitting quartets. It will be up to the diminutive Frank Pytlak and either Glenn Myatt or Bill Bi sas City, to hancle a pitching stafl that has great equipment. Mel Harder, ace of the right- ¢, handers, should excel his splendid | 1934 record and rival New York's ship. Monte Pearson and Willis Hud- lin, the best golfer on the team, have the stuff to be 20-game winners. The ! veteran Clint Brown and Oral Hilde- | brand, off form for various reasons last season, look ready for comebacks. 1f Joe Vosmik steers clear of further trouble with his hip, Johnson will have no outfield worries. Vosmik, Earl Averill and Bruce Campbell, ob- tained from the Browns to play right field, all pack a .300 punch. Milt Galatzer, a capable understudy last season, and Ab Wright, recruited from Minneapolis, have clinched the re- serve roles. tsmen Meet CENTER Metro. 6444 Tennis Sensation! One-Day Sale! 1935 Gut and Silk Strung 12,515, %18 Tennis Rackets We can’t mention the nationally known names because of the sensationally low price THURSDAY ONLY 7.45 We can’t mention their names in this ad because of the big reductions, see them on the rackets— and they're all 1935 stock, too! Come down early! Remember the go first, RESTRINGING—the Hoover Way, $2 up 3 for 89¢ Tennis Balls. ... .. renzel, acquired from Kan- | to whether the gent is married or single. Of the 25 Nationals listed, in case any one is interested, 20 have blue or gray eyes and only 5 own brown optics. Nineteen of the boys are married. Upon request and a self- addressed envelope, with stamp, we will furnish gladly the names of the six bachelors. B at the beginning, which would be the Tigers, of course, We Tun into bad news right off the bat. Bud . Say It's Not So. UT back to the race and beginning | |'Lefty Gomez or Detroit’s Schoolboy | | Rowe for the league pitching leader- | 2 and lasting comfort *Open ington and Detroit—have captured the last two flags; that first-year man- agers—Cronin and Cochrane—have been at the helms; that Dykes is start- ing his first full year at the head of | the White Sox. It is optimism in the highest degree and refreshing after a month of managerial mouthings to the effect that: “But you can bet we will be a fighting team.” As we said before, Johnson's new Who's Who packs plenty of stuff that no diamond record publication It is worth four bits if you like your base ball. ASK THE SALESMAN ABOUT OPENING A CHARGE ACCOUNT WEAR and EcoNnoMYy make FLORSHEIM SHOES Easters Footwear Favorites ® When you’re buying shoes for Easter, remember that the real test of your selec- tion will come many months from now. Leaders in style, Florsheim Shoes will in= sure your satisfaction by giving long wear ...making them the soundest shoe economy.” MOST STYLES ,XgZS 14th & G Sts. 7th & K Sts, *3212 144h St - Nights