| OCR Text |
Show What Coasters Are Gossiping" About . in Off-Season Pel Howard, pilot of the sood ship Hope, home port Oakland, has dropped anchor for the inter ;U I'aso Robles. Howard has been marline around Illinois Illi-nois and Missouri, visiting fond relatives and ehattins with ivory hunters. Howard has ihe toughest job ahead of him of any manager in the leusue. Ho has to ftep into jack pot with a pair of deuces and depend on the draw to give him a hand i;ood enough to warrant even a call. W hether Howard succeeds or not is largely a macer of luck. The odds fa voi him. lor it isn't in the nature of tilings mat tlie Ion- string of misfortunes that have 1 efallcn the Oakland club are to eominue. L'el Howard pulled the Heals out of a hole and built up the e!ub with which Harrv Wolverton won the 1915 pennant for San Francisco. May !v? do as much for Oakland ! Celling down to ease-:. Howard's most difficult task v.-ill he to jimmy a capable catcher out. of ihe majors. That's one iob on tlie hall field that can't bo intrusted in-trusted to an unseasoned player, no matter mat-ter how skillful or promising he is. The Oaks have l.nd some sweet mask-men mask-men in the paid. We can recall tn our day Chester Thuinas. 1-1 onu? Mltne, YVal-tor YVal-tor Alexander and Rowdy Klliott. '4 Howard makes no bones of his desire lo see Rowdv KItiott back in harness with the Oaks, hut he will find stiff opopsilion from Loa Anele?, which has a working agreement v. ith ihe Cubs. Most fans figure that when Frank Chance induced 'he Ouri- to bnv Klllott last season ho did so with the idea of seUii.fr the player himself in Rowdy, however, went so well with the Cubs that the billikln mav be retained. Ifowever. Speed lartin's sale to the White Fox will probably he made on the terms of part cash and part talent, wherefore, if we mistake not. the man who comes to catch for Oakland will have bad experience with the Comlskey , regime. Brooklyn does, not appear to have any , green youngsters in its backstop crew. In fact, the majors are as hard up for catchers as ever, otherwise Elliott and Spencer would never have been taken up last fall. , . ' Oakland fans did not worry a trifle over the catrhinc; work of tbi Oaks up to the time Elliott left to join the Cubs. When he left the team had only a couple of youngsters to fall back upon and as a result the work of the pitchers and the entire team was affected. Without Rowdy the Oak twiriers, already a poor outfit, out-fit, were woefulv a t sea. The case of : Speed Martin can be taken as an example. ex-ample. Speed won several straight panics and tossed corking ball with Elliott catching him. Anf( wlin Rowdy left he , developed a losing streak. Oakland Tribune. Trib-une. Jack Ryan of the Angels bos been pressed into service by the Fullerton ; team, which is battling with Pnsedfina ; for the supremacy of southern California. Decannlere. Boles. Mo Larry and several , other Coasters are regular members of the two teams, and considerable baseball base-ball is dispensed in the weekly clashes j between the clubs. PHILADELPHIA. Dec. 9. Connie I Mack, manager of the Athletics, returned todav from a orit: session oh the Pine Valley golf links, and "for tho first Lime , unburdened himself with respect to Piner Bodie. from tho tenor of Mack's remarks, Ping will either hit the trail for the east or hu-g his tent in Frisco either suits Mack perfectly. "Bodie was not my personal selection." -JV said Golfer Mack. "We leased him last August from the Frisco club at- the sug- Tt gestion of Ira Thomas; he'll play with us ; or not at all, and he should be mighty glad at the opnortunlty to get back into v the American league. "I'm against players kicking through the newspapers. I asked the club to eem! : me his home address, intending to write . him a personal letter. So far I have not received the address. There is ample ! time to write Bodle. All T can. say Is that ; his salary will be more than he has received re-ceived in two years." The mystery of J. Cat Ewing's alleged peace move has been solved, according to some who claim to have a knowledge knowl-edge of his Intentions. To speak frankly, frank-ly, his motives were questioned by many i when he came south on his "Hague hike" a month ago. Later, it is claimed hy a man who should be in a position to know the inside of the Coast league politics, poli-tics, that Ewing's no-en lied "peace mis- 1 sion" was in reality nothing of the kind, but the first step in a coup hy which he honed to gain control of the leagoe. ; Ewing at one time was recognized as the "czar" of the circuit, and never ap- . peared to have any particular trouble ' in lining up sufficient votes to control the situation. According to the party providing the information. he always could bank on the votes cf the San Francisco, Fran-cisco, Oakland and Sacramento clubs, while Berry general! v swung with hitn solely as a matter of friendship. ( However, Ewing's influence waned j from the dav that he was charged with ; controlling the Oakland club while owner own-er of the San Francisco team, and a little more than two vears aso he sold the Seals to Henry Berry. It was generally believed that he had permanently retired re-tired from baebaH. Later he bobbed up ' as owner of the Oakland club, displacing Frank Leavitt. Berry bought tlie San Francisco club, not through preference, but for the good of baseball It. meant a great personal sacrifice, as his home was in this city, and many of his interests. Men representing repre-senting certain gambling interests were endeavoring lo purchase the San Francisco Fran-cisco club, it is alleged. As it seemed necessary for Ewing to retire. Berry sold the Los Angeles team to Johnny Powers, Pow-ers, and purchased the San Francisco property, and in that way blocked any designs which the gambling element may have had on the Seals. Ewing, it is claimed, was not merely satisfied to remain as owner and presi- L dent of the Oaks, but became imbued M. with a desire for his fonrc-r power. It is alleged that he needed, the Vernon vote in line with these reported ambitions, ambi-tions, and hence his so-called "harmony j plan." Vv hat progress he, will make in this direction is at present wholly proh- ; lemat'cal. Action taken by the directors iat Salt Lake on certain questions may provide Die answer, and again it may . not. Ewine is not a better baseball man ! than his assoeiate directors, but he is a ; I better parliamentarian and a shrewder 1 I politician, and this generally gives him f the edge in the inner councils of the league. I Ewing wires as follows: "When fn I Los Angeles I was not there in the interest in-terest of any individual, but in the in-I in-I terests of the whole league. My object ' i jwn and Is to harmonize the corporations of the league, and not individuals." As the corporations are eomnosed of invidu-! invidu-! ale. it is difficult to see how they can be j harmonized unless the individuals can bs 'induced to bury the ax. Piture develop-i develop-i ments should prove whether there was janv foundation for the reports of Ewing's j new alms and ambitions. Meantime, his explanation, while nor wholly clear, is I accepted, and J. Cal given the benefit of any doubts which may exist. Los Ange-i Ange-i Ten Times. |
