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Show What Coasters Are Gossiping About in Off-Season Special to The Tribune. PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 22. Babe Bor-ton, Bor-ton, the first sacker turned over to Portland Port-land by St. Louis, telegraphed today that ' he would sign his 1917 contract, provided i Manager McCredie will promise him a S bonus. In case Portland will not do this, j Borton wants to purchase his release. 1 Ey International News Service. LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22. Offering Arthur Ar-thur Butler. Angel shortstop, in trade for Wade Killifer, Frank Chance wired Joe Tinker of the Columbus club today. Chance expects to get three players from the Chicago Cubs for Harry Wolter. "LOS ANGELES. Feb. 22. No real holdouts hold-outs are numbered among prospective Los Angeles or Vernon Pacific Coast league ! players, according to the managers. Both ! managers said today that players were ; signing as rapidly as they arrived and i that the benches would be full when i spring training starts Monday. The chief element of weakness in the Seals present makeup Is the pitching staff. Spider Baum can be depended upon to keep above the .5t0 mark. There is always the hope that Bill Steen win "come back," and if he does he will be a big asset. But "Hill was not particularly particu-larly valuable last season. Erickson and Oldham were pitching great ball at the close of last season. If they can get control they are certain to be stars, and they are big, strong fellows who can go twice a week without difficulty. diffi-culty. But if they don't gt control well, no fan will have to scratch his memory ty recall the two wild men of last season sea-son and the frequency with which they were yanked out of the box. These four heavers are counted on for the bulk of the work. Rudy Kallio is to be given a chance, and he might live up to the big boss" hopes. Rudy has a won-! won-! derful curve ball, but he was a few chips shy on control last fall and even more chips shy on experience. Pitcher No. 6 is Lefty Dougherty. This bov, who comes from the Wilkes-Barre club of the New York State league, is highly recommended, but there is little in his record to indicate that he is a wonder. won-der. He won fourteen games and lost fifteen for Wilkes-Barre, keeping just about even with his club's record of wins and losses. He was responsible for 2.n9 runs per game. Only four men in the league issued more walks than he, and each of them was In many more games. Several bushers are to be tried out, and, of course, there is always the pos-sibilitv pos-sibilitv of unearthing a boy who can deliver. de-liver. But the possibility is remote. However, Wolverton appreciates that his pitching staff Is nnne too strong, and, he is going to strengthen it. But he is In no hurry. "I'm not going to take anybody on a guess." said Harry yesterday. "Few of the men the big leagues are willing to let go of right now are of the class I j want. After the major clubs get Into training and the 'weed ins-out' process begins, I'll be able to get hold of a couple of high -class twirl ers. Until then I'm going to go along with the men I've got." San Francisco Examiner. Manager McCredle's Beavers this year may prove to be well fortified with pitchers, pitch-ers, batters and fielders, but there is one department of the game in which t he : team bids fair to be weak, even more ! so than last season. That is base running. run-ning. Of the new players added to the team, Floyd Farmer is the only one possessing even a fair base-running record. Borton, SI pi in and Hollocher. the other players coming with professional experlenr-e, were anything but fast on the bases last season. Take Babe Borton's record. In sixty-six sixty-six games with the St. Louis Browns the former Vernon first baseman stole only one base. True, Borton was In big league society, but it is doubtful if he will do much better In the Coast league, which Is onlv one class lower. Borton did not play iull nine innings in all the games, but surely with any speed he should have made a better showing. Piglln took part in 142 games for Rochester, Roch-ester, In the International league, and stole only seventeen bases. In eighty-nine eighty-nine games with Rock Island, in the Three-I league, Hnllocher swiped only eleven cushions. None of these records Indicate that the holders will be speed burners. Lloyd Farmer's record Is a little more Impressive. In forty-eight games with Louisville last season, the new left fielder stole twenty-one bases. Marshall, the new catcher, stole only five bases in eighty-one games, but few catchers are fast on the bases. None of the newcomers compares wfth Wllie and South worth, the fastest men remaining in McCredle's employ. Wille stole thirty-six bases nnd South worth turned the trick thirty-two times last season. Rodgers, Stumpf and Williams, Wil-liams, the others considered aa regulars, are not particularly fast men and it looks like the Beavers will have to depend on the sacrifice game rather than stealing bases. Portland Telegram. 'Umpires. " mused Nick Williams, Spokane Spo-kane manager, recently, "are perhaps to be classed as one of the necessary evils of baseball. "I ought to know. Didn't I try it once? I umpired in the Pacific Coast league or, at least, I thought T whb umpiring. Never again for me. Sim 'a tha t time I've bad an admiration for umpires I never had before. "I figured when I started in that all the players were friends of mine and that we d get along in gren t style. We did not! Why some of the birds who had been close personal friends were 'on me' from start to finish. They made my life miserable. They kicked at me during the games and they greeted me with cold nods of contempt when thev met me on the streets or In the hotels. And tha fans, too I'd always been a good fellow with them everywhere. My disposition Is portable. I like to get around and chat a bit. Well, after I had been umpiring a f-w weeks I began to wonder if I had a contagious disease. Nobody wanted to Hssocinie with inc. The only companion I i-rii'M - hn I- was the other umpire, and ti.,.- imcvVfrj .low sufferer. I'm not constituted for that sort of thing, and so I quit. "But take It from me. I haven't forgotten for-gotten any of those fellows who made my life miserable while I was umpiring. I'm a m ana per now and all I'm hoping for Is that some of those one -time 'friends' come to me one of these days and ask me for a job. 1 Qh, Juftt Walt till that day a.rrtvaIM |