Evening Star Newspaper, April 16, 1935, Page 13

CATCHING CORPS FULL OF NOVICES Ageing Arms Make Mound Staff Uncertain as Club Starts Flag Fight. BY JOHN B. KELLER. TRONG afield, well gaited at bat, the Nationals are to embark upon their champlonship quest tomorrow, the opener sched- uled for today having been postponed on account of cold weather, still un- certain of their quality in an essen- tial of base ball—the battery. Whether the Washington ball club s equipped with the pitching and the catching necessary to make it a forceful contender in the chase for the American League championship 15 & question to be answered cnly by its performance in its first month of play mainly on foreign fields. It is in the catching staff, perhaps, that the Nationals may be regarded an unknown quantity. Manager Har- ris is compelled to gamble with a trio of receivers of little experience, not alone in major league base ball, but in professional ranks. Clif Bol- ton, Jack Redmond and Sam Hol- brook do not constitute an impressive catching staff. Bolton, the only one of the corps behind the bat with any length of service in the paid game back of him, 1s 1o polished performer by any means despite his nine years in base ball. Brought up to the Washington club from High Point of the Piedmont League in 1928, Cliff had to be farmed to minor clubs for five years before he even was considered capable of taking his place behind the bat in a big league engagement. Big Order for Bolton. E has served with no less than five teams in the smaller loops and still has no other recom- mendation as a catcher than that of being a good hitter in the minors. Bolton for a time looked good last year when he reported late after de- ciding playing base ball might be more profitable than running a cross- road grocery store in North Carolina, yet he was far from being a high- grade catcher. Never in his big-league career has Clif caught as many as 75 games in & season. Yet he has been nominated No. 1 catcher of the Nationals this year and is expected to be behind the bat in more than two-thirds of the 154 games the ball club is scheduled to play. That's & big order. Not even Man- ager Harris has any idea of whether Bolton can fill it. The club has so many veteran pitchers that the em- ployment of such an inexperienced catcher may not prove a great handi- «cap, but it looks a risky experiment. Extra Receivers Novices. ACKING Bolton are two unknowns comparatively. Holbrook, who started his professional career as an outfielder and was converted to catching only because the club he was with at the time happened to be shy of a receiver, was fairly impressive in the training tussles this Spring, but only mechanically. Whether he is a | base ball tactician is something to be learned. Redmond, undoubtedly the best of the receivers with the Na- tionals, came up from Birmingham with a batting record of only 212 for last season. He has yet to prove him- #elf a hitter. | Hurling to these novice catchers is | & staff of pitchers that Harris consid- | ers quite capable of carrying his club to the heights, but a staff in the main | beyond what is regarded as base ball's | peak in age. Close followers of base ball have expresed doubt as to the ability of these elderly pitchers to earry on. Earl Whitehill, portsider, deemed the mainstay of the curving corps, is B5. Walter Stewart, another lefty, is the same age. Bump Hadley, brought from the Browns to give the club a right-hand pitching balance, is 31. Al Thomas, a right-hand reserve, is 36. Jack Russell, looked to for most of | M the relief work this year, is 30. Monte Weaver, who has not starred on the hill since his remarkable debut season of 1932, is just shy of 30. Only Two Young Pitchers. OB BURKE and Leon Pettit are close to the 30 mark. The only really young pitchers with the elub are Ed Linke, a 23-year-old, who is not so sure of an arm that went “dead” on him last year, and Henry | Coppola, 20, with only a season of pro- | fessional experience back of him. | of the veterans of the staff?> There are those—and they are not few by any means—who fear it has. They have not the confidence in such base ball elders as Whitehill, Stewart, Had- ley, Thomas, Russell and Weaver as has Manager Harris. All told, these pitchers last year won but 55 games. Small wonder many put them on the | doubtful list this year. Harris has said he will look to Burke and Coppola for much of his pitching in this ¢ ampaign. In Burke he appears to have a worth-while hurler. The string-bean southpaw actually has been a good pitcher for years, but short-sighted managers who preceded Harris stubbornly refused to Tecognize his value to the club. Harris Takes Chanaces. '/~OPPOLA is a promising prospect, yet it seems Harris reaches the height of optimism in expecting this inexperienced 20-year-old to blaze the way to a successful year for the Nationals. Defensively, offensively, Washing- ton has a strong ball club. In its batterymen, though, it is questionable. Its fate hinges on the ability of a trio of novice catchers to get the best pos- sible out of an assortment of ageing pitching arms. Despite the highly optimistic regard of the pitchers and catchers expressed by both Clark Griffith, president, and Bucky Harris, mangger, the Nationals are making a greati gamble on'a ball club’s greatest essential—the, battery. Minor Leagues [ 4 | Left on bases—Western. 6; Has the added year taken its toll | T+ of & ' Texas. Oklahoma City, 7; Tulss, 1. Sah Antopio, 4; Beaumont, 3. Dallas, 10; Fort Worth, 3. Galveston, 9; Houston, 4. H Pacific Coast. Holtywood at Oaklsnd, rain. Others not scheduled. e —_— Sports Program In Local Realm TODAY. Base Ball. George Washington at Delaware, Maryland at Richmond. Track. Western. Washington-Lee, Roose- velt and Alexandria High, at West- ern Stadium, 3:30. Golf. St. John's vs. Western, East Po- tomac, 38:15. Gonzaga at Georgetown Prep, 38:00. Tennis. Scarborough of New York at Episcopal. TOMORROW. Base Ball. Philadelphia vs. Washington, Griffith Stadium, 3:00. Long Island U. vs. George Wash- ington, on Ellipse, 3:30, Marblehead (Mass.) Eastern, 3:30. McGuire’s University School at Episcopal High, 3:00. Maryland at Virginia. Takoma-Silver Spring High at Annapolis High. Tennis. Maryland at Navy. 5 St. Albans at Episcopal High, 100, High at THURSDAY. Base Ball. Philadelphia vs. Griffith Stadium, 3:15. Penn State vs. Georgetown, Hill- top Field, 3. Marblehead Western, 3:30. Alexandria High, 3:30. Maryland at Lee. Washington, (Mass.) High at Episcopal High at Washington and Track, ‘Tech at Episcopal, 3:30. Tennis. Roosevelt at Episcopal, 3:30. Golf. St. John's vs. Tech, East. Po- tomac, 3:15. FRIDAY. Base Ball. Boston vs. Washington, Griffith Stadium, 3:15. 5 acohuber High at Alexandria High, Maryland at Virginia Tech. Tennis. St. John's at St. Albans (Prep School League match). SATURDAY. Base Ball. Boston vs. Washington, Griffith Stadium, 3:00. Maryland at V. M. I Tech' vs. Navy Plebes, at An- napolis. Episcopal at Virginia Episcopal. Lacrosse. - St. John’s at Maryland, 3:00, Tennis. Central vs. Maryland Freshmen, at College Park. American U. at Randolph-Macon. Track. Maryland at V. M. L Virginia Freshmen at Episcopal. Alexandria High vs. Episcopal B Squad, at Episcopal. Georgetown Freshmen at Mer- cershurg. Golf. Roosevelt vs. Western, Congres- sional Club. Central vs. Tech, Kenwood. WESTERN HITS TIMELY Gets Only Five Safeties to Beat W.-L. High, 5 to 4. Western High's diamonders made only five hits against nine for the Washington-Lee High team of Ball- ston yesterday, at Ballston, but ob- tained them at opportune times and conquered the Little Generals, 5-4. Score: W.-Lee, AB. Klover,2b L 0 EETEEA-NPR. 12 2W0 omoomHoNol e ol sonmmmmmsel Totals. 36 Western Wash.-Lee Runs—Milstead. Cooper, Moore, Wheeler, Allen (2). Brennan. W Ed —Milstead, ien.” Milton. Wheeler, Washington=~ ase on bal Hinsman, 2: off Bil insman, ‘Umpire—Mr. » McDonaid. i ¢ Foening Btad Sporls WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1935. Griffmen Gamble on Batterymen : Cold Delays Opener Here Until Tomorrow Cochrane Is Sure Club Will Repeat—Gehrig May Be Ruth’s Successor. BY WILLIAM WEEKES, Associated Press Sports Writer. HICAGO, April 16.—The busi- ness of supplying the answers to a set of American League question marks starts today. The younger of the two major leagues comes up to the beginning of its thirty-sixth championship cam- paign with two absorbing questions— can flery Mickey Cochrane's Detroit Tigers repeat, and who will step in to fill the shoes of the man who made the home run famous and prof- itable—Babe Ruth? Without putting it in so many words, Cochrane apparently believes his club, in spite of what it was unable to accomplish against the St. Louis Cardinals last Fall, can lead the pack home. He figures that his pitchers are capable of accounting for 100 viclories and, with the pros- pect of the closest tussle the league has had in years, 100 victories should be ample. A's May Be Factor. HE expert observers, however, fig- ure that the Tiger: will not get the breaks they had last year McCarthy's New York Yankees. or both, may head Detroit off. The league's president, Will Harridge, is not so certain that Connie Mack's Athletics won't be the sensation of the race. The successor to the great Ruth as the magnet to attract steady streams of trade through the turnstiles, may turn up in durable Lou Gehrig, over- shadowed as long as Ruth was with the Yankees, or Jimmy Foxx, whose success or lack of it, as a catcher after a brilliant career at first base, figures to be the make or break point in the Athletics’ bid. To further heighten the fans' in- terest is the case of Joe Cronin and Buckey Harris. Harris, first of Clark Griffith’s “buy wonder” managers at Washington, is back at the Senators’ helm, after stops at Detroit and Bos- ton. In his place at Boston is Cronin, second of Griffith’s prodigies, coaxed to the Red Sox by Tom Yawkey's big bankroll in one of base ball’s biggest deals Mack, -the dean, of major league managers; Rogers Hornsby at St. Louis and Jimmy Dykes at Chicago have made no claims, other than that their teams are improved. ‘The opening battles, with considera- tion from the weather, figured to en- tice nearly 100,000 to the four parks. Tiger Fans Are Eager. ‘T DETROIT, where the fans ap- parently have recovered from what happened in their final visit to Navin Field last Fall, around 30,000 were expected. (Schoolboy) Rowe was named to start against the Chicago White Sox, whose hurling nominee was the 42-year-old youngster, Sad Sam Jones. ‘The Yankee Stadium in New York was polished up to accommodate 35,000 customers, with Vernon Gomez, the league's leading hurler Jast vear, working for the home forces, against Wesley Ferrell and the Boston Red Sox. Sports Mirror By the Associated Press. Today & year ago—Endeavour, British challenger for America’s Cup, launched at Gosport, England. Three years ago—Dazzy Vance shut out Phillies with two hits. Five years ago—Al Simmons signed with Athletics for $20,000 and clouted homer that helped beat Yankees in opening game. Exhibition Games By the Associated Press. Yesterday's results: New York (N.), 9; Army, 0. Boston (A.), Boston College, 0. Boston (N.), 5; Holy Cross, 2. C. U. NETMEN T0 TRAVEL. Catholic University’s tefnis team | goes to Baltimore Saturday to face the * | Hopkins racketers. May Decide Fate of Griffs in Pennant Race With a catching staff manned by three performers, who have yet to establish their major league caliber, the pennant hopes of the Washington club may rest on the extent to which this trio delivers, CUt Bolton (left), ) [ EXPERTS PREDICT | BUNP FORTIGERS and that Cleveland, on the verge of | greatness for several seasons, or Joe | CAME THE DAWN. Lynwood | D.C., BALTIMORE Saturday—Penn Ace to Swim for Capital. N ALL-STAR Washington A swimming team will meet a select band of Baltimore tank- men next Saturday in the Shoreham Hotel pool in what prom- ises to be one of the most exciting | aquatic meets of the indoor season. The Baltimoreans, selected by Louis Funk of the Meadowbrook Club, wil linclude Homan Kinsley, Willlam Meginnis, Brent Farber and Hoffman Wilson in the dash events; Francis Cummings and Mike Paskauskas in | the back stroke and Gordon Barry | and Bernard Goldberg in tfie diving events, l expects to match the Orioles with a band selected from the recently crowned District A. A. U. champions and augmented by George Groff, University of Pennsylvania cap- tain, who will be home for the Esster vacation. The local free-style events will be made from Buddy Hodgson, Joseph La Salle, Dyer Ghormley, John Mullady. Henry Toulmin, George Groff, Ernie Boggs, Robert Jordon and Beverly Carter. In the back stroke the local team will feature Stuart Fitzhugh, William Marmion and James Orme, while such breast stroke stars as Dyer Ghormley and Knox Moncure assure the Washing- tonians of a good representation. John Broaddus and Buddy Hodgson will be the Capital divers. ‘The program of events follows: 50-yard free style, 220-yard free style, 200-yard relay, 100-yard breast stroke, 100-yard back stroke, 100-yard free Penn Star Aids D. C. HE Washington team, however, style, fancy diving and 150-yard med- ley relay. ?u tomorrow, has for the first time, TANGLE N TANK |All-Star Teams Will Meet| “Isn’t this @ pretty dish to feed HE long hike from April to Oc-! tober is on again. And this| double march for a pair of | T | pennants is a record hike in | from 20 to 41 or 42. Unless you take 'wi]l start the | sport. | Two boxers or fighters decide a ;hem‘yweighl championship. A thou- | | sand golfers try to qualify for the | open, but only some 160 make the | grade for three days of play. There are more big-time teams in foot ball, | but the gridiron fandango lasts only & trifie over two months, with an| average of eight games for each team. In base ball, close to 400 picked men, gathered in from coast to coast, battle every day for six months to bring about the final answer: Actu- ally they start in late February and two teams still are left to fight it éut in October. Outside of 20 or 25 exhibition games, each team faces 154 contests, with all intermissions covered up by double-headers. There is no other sporting contest that even approaches this for the number of men en- gaged over such an extended period, And don't overlook the fact that & daily competitive grind of six months takes its toll. This goes for any game you care to tackle. The strain and drain of championship competition is entirely different from the friendly joust, where the popping pulse an the fluttering duck-fit are missing. caught less than 1 lack Redmond (center) and Sam Holbrook —By JIM BERRYMAN 4 | THE SPORTLIGHT Sports’ Biggest and Longest Parade Under Way as Diamond Season Opens. BY GRANTLAND RICE THE PARADE STARTS. Here comes the parade again from April through September— Dizzy, Babe and Mickey—Jimmy Fozz and Frankie Frisch— Ducky-Wucky Medwick is @ name you still remember— So is Pepper Martin, if you want a steaming dish— Terry, Stengel, Warneke—forming at the front— Doling out the menu from a homer to a bunt. It’s a pretty good old 200—Tigers, Cubs and Giants, Pirgtes, Indians, Elephants—in a daily spin— Here is a menagerie that ought to please the clients— Well, until @ few of them take it on the chin. You can hear them babble as the team starts slipping down— our noble town?"” The Passing Parade. HIS parade of the 400 now under way represents every State in the Union, with ages ranging in managers, and then you move up to Mr. Connie Mack's 72 Summers and Winters. They come from the smallest of the tank towns and from the largest of the cities. Lou Gehrig of the Yankees and Hank Greenberg of the Tigers. two of the game’s leading sluggers, report from New York. But the great majority come from the smaller hamlets—Dizzy and Paul Dean, Carl Hubbell, Pepper Martin, Schoolboy Rowe. The cottonwood trail, running through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, has furnished most of the color in the last few years. The widest contrast in base b concerns the Yankees and the Car- dinals. Most of the Yankees are col- lege men, while the Cardinals are composed largely of a rip-roaring young bunch that never oothered about campus life or had any interest in calculus, Plato or Virgil. Their salaries range from $3,- 000 to $25,000 a year, with the average pay not so far from the $7,000 mark for the regulars, Babe Ruth, with his percentage cut on profits added to his salary, should be the 1935 leader in the way of high finance. The Babe will tap some figure between $50,000 to $60,000 if he is able to play from 75 to 100 games. Lou Gehrig and Dizzy Dean lead the other ball players. but Mickey Cochrane of Detroit’s Tigers and Bill Terry of New York’s Giants, on the combined manager-player job, move up into the $30,000 class, with Joe Cronin not so far behind. 1935 Attendance Figures. N 1934 Detrolt led both leagues in attendance—around the general neighborhood of the million mark. ‘The St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, the Boston Braves, the Cincinnati Reds and the Phillies all slipped under 400,000. Even the world series Car- dinals, with the two Deans, Pepper Martin and other stars, stuck in the vicinity of 350,000 paid admissions. This season Detroit again is picked to lead the atiendance output, with something to spare. ‘The biggest jump should gome from the Boston anu,’ with the huge of Babe Ruth luring the clients n judge anything by early should be one of base ball's ‘The 1934 world series put ew steam into the game, and there is prospect of more hustle and scrap this Spring and Summer than base ball has known for some years. There is no one-sided outlook to either race, but the promise of hard, : |receipts is not important. 1.LL00P PEPPED BY NEW TALENT | Three New Pilots, Number of Rookies Appear as 52d Season Starts. ® SIX PILOTS FLOUT 201UB N. L. RACE Won’t Concede Cards and Giants Anything—Babe to Be Coin Magnet. By the Associated Press. EW YORK, April 16—With three new managers and a generous sprinkling of rookies and major league castoffs on | each club, the International Base ‘Bnll League will open its fifty-second | season tomorrow with the prospects of another hard-fought battle for the four play-off positions. There will be no little world series this year, the International League and American Association having broken off relations in that regard, but the two ranking teams in each of the north and south divisions again | will meet in ‘the play-off series with | i1 & special fund | the players sharing |to be set aside during the regular season. [ Opening Day Card. | HE opening games will find the Newark Bears, winner of the regular season race for the last three years, at home to the Rochester | Red Wings; the Toronto Maple Leafs, | victor in the play-offs, at Syracuse; the Montreal Royals at Baltimore, and the Buffalo Bisons at Albany. Rochester, Syracuse anc Albany season with new leaders. Eddie Dyer, a member of the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system for seven = vears, will be at the helm of the Red erstwhile | Wings while Al Mamaux. manager of the Newark Bears, will guide the Senators and Harry Leibold, former major leaguer, will direct the Chiefs. FROM THE Possible, But Odds BY JOHN EW YORK. April 16.—As the ball clubs go to the post, there N nickel, about the possibility of a or subway fare, world series other cities around the circuit. In the first place, it would cost a resident of Cleveland or St. Louis much more than a nickel to watch such a series; in the second place, the natives of Cleveland and St. Louis have no affec- tion for the Yanks and Giants, per- sonally or professionally. But New York is a selfish and hardened hamlet, and so the natives are chattering hopefully about a 5- cent classic this Fall. Some of the have gone so far as to lay money on it—parlaying & deuce or a 5 or a 20 at the current odds of 8 to 1 that Mr. McCarthy’s artillery will tangle with Mr. Terry’s high-grade sappers, come October. Held Bad for Game. HERE is an old rule to the effect that too much strength in New York is bad for base ball gen- erally. The last all-New York series was in 1923, but since then one or the other New York clubs has been in- volved in 6 of the 11 play-offs. Only once has base ball thrown off the shackles of the big village for more than a year at a stretch. That was when Connie Mack struck pay dirt in 1929 and the Cubs and Cards held up the other énd for three seasons running. . I doubt if another all-New York world series would be fatal to base ball, but I think it would hurt. The last series was entirely divorced from New York. It was good in many ways and the non-New York flavor was one of the best things about it. There was a freshness of setting and cast that woke enthusiasm in Omahas, Kansas City, Chicago, Louisville and Los Angeles, as well as in Detroit and St. Louis. It would do no harm at all for Micky Cochragfe to cop the flag again. Base ball can stand another Detroit series better than it can stand a » | reversion to Yapkee supremacy. Vic- tory for Cleveland or Boston would be even sweeter. The matter of gate Maybe there is more dough in & series at Yankee Stsdium, but that dough doesn't MNI’ base ball. It sim- \ 4 is a lot of talk in this vicinity | between the Giants and the Yankees. | No doubt this talk is offensive to | Associated Press Sports Writer. EW YORK, April 16.—A long gave way to Spring and the National League's sixtieth Despite threats of cold weather, fully 125,000 fans, bundled up in heavy | ing welcome to the game which ex- pects to make a decisive comeback, Expert calculations point to a two- club pennant race between the world New York Giants, but managers of the other six outfits concede nothing | Wholesale player shifts during t Winter, plus the customary “breaks, |dark horse to come home in front. The Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Bush. Jim Weaver and Babe Herman to Pittsburgh and Larry French and | as dangerous rivals for the favorites. } Banking on Ruth. offered a sure-fire box office natural at Boston, where Braves Field was the setting for Babe Ruth's National League debut after 21 spec- The renewal of Ruth’'s personal duel with Carl Hubbell, slender southpaw | prospects of a crowd of 35,000. The home run master first encountered all-star game last year, and went down swinging at a third strike. between the Cubs and the Cardinals; at Cincinnati between the Reds and tween the Phillies and the Brooklyn Dodgers—offered features of their The Cardinals, picking Jerome (“Dizzy"”) Dean to pitch the opening nant with virtually the same ensem- ble that nipped the Giants at the wire is the only newcomer. The Cubs, with young Phil Cava- Grimm at first base, nominated Lon Warneke to oppose the dizzy one in a 42,000 spectators planned to watch. i Giants Fear Brandt. tell at shortstop and with young | Hank Leiber in centerfield, faced ! worried about Ed Brandt's left-handed | slants than the power in Ruth's big Against the veteran pirate array, featuring the Waner brothers, Charley an untried combination in which Jim Bottomley was the only infield hold- Traynor’s pitching choice with Paul Derringer or Tony Freitas serving Casey Stengel's Dodgers invaded Baker Field in Philadelphia with few |based on a fine showing during the | Spring. BY HERBERT W. BARKER, and hard Winter grudgingly base ball season today. overcoats, were ready to offer & rous- financially and artistically, this year. | champion St. Louis Cardinals and the | in advance. :may leave the door wide open for a Pirates, whose Winter trade sent Guy Freddie Lindstrom to Chicago, loom | RIGH‘K under the gun the league | tacular years in the rival major loop. of the New York Giants, brought the magic in Hubbell's left arm in the The other inaugurals—at Chicago the Pirates, and at Philadelphia, be- own. game, make their bid for another pen- in 1934. Terry Moore, in the outfield, retta replacing Manager Charley right-handed pitching duel which | 7¥~HE Giants, fortified by Dick Bar- the inaugural game at Boston more bat ! Dressen of the Reds prepared to pit over. Waite Hoyt was manager Pie them up for the Reds new faces but a bag full of hopes “Harmful” All-New York World Series Are 8-1 Against It. LARDNE ply nestles in the jeans of the mag- nates and their hired help. | However, it is tempting to play com- | binations in base ball. You know how the suckers flock to support the daily double at the race track. A double which lasts six months, in which the bettor can employ all his | theory and skill and acumen, is more | fascinating than any track parley. 8-to-1 Is Parlay Price. S MENTIONED above, you can get 8 to 1 against the Giants | and the Yankees finishing on top. That's a fair bet. The price for & Giant-Cleveland parlay, or a Giant- Detroit parlay is, roughly, the same, | the variations depending on whose book you play. Any one of those com- binations is likely to come through. The Cardinals, coupled with one of the three American League clubs, will fetch you about the same price. But if you like to sock the parlay for all it's worth, a little investment in Boston and Pittsburgh probably | would get you 25 to 1. T hardly care to say what you would win on the happy com- bination, of Philadelphia and Brooklyn, or Philadelphia and Philadelphia. I don't recommend any such wager. In fact, I think it only right to mind you, before you catch the par- lay germ, that no manager to date has furnished a written guarantee that his club will win a pennant. No manager has furnished a written guarantee of anything. The most downright confident of them, as usual, is Bill Terry, who expects to win in & breeze—or s0 he says. Terry, Chuck Dressen and Casey Stengel are picking the Giants. The rest of the managers in the National League are picking them- selves or nobody at all. The Amer- ican League pilots are using the phrase “wide open,” which is a pretty neat description of the race in their section. Before I was derailed, I started out to say that the people of New York hope for and expect a subway fare series, featuring the Giants and Yanks. It's a little early to talk series talk, but it's not too early to say that an all-New York series would be the worst thing that the game, in its present wobbly condition, could be subjected to next Fall. s Y% 7 3 forth American , Inc.)