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Show TIGERS SHOULD MAKE EXCEM011G Fight of Stovall's Band Sticks Out on All Sides. Crouched in the jungle of uncertainty, the Tigers are the real enigma of the Coast league. Every well-balanced league must have an enigma, and Vernon Ver-non is equipped to fill that important function, says the Los Angeles Tribune. As some wise guy once remarked, you can't tell how far a frog can jump by its looks, and the same holds true of the Tigers, although they are not related to the frog family. Therefore, all will be conjecture concerning Sto- vaii s leiines until tney come out ot the tall grass and make the leap on April 3- All sorts of predictions have been made regarding the club. These range from a place in the second division divi-sion to the championship.' AH of which is idle talk, because no man knoweth what a seven months' race will bring forth at the finish. Have Much Fight. The very fact that the impression seems to be quite general that they hardly measure up to the standard of the 1916 Tigers may galvanize them j into a fighting mood and cause them 1 to litter up the league. If not cham- j pions, they will prove to be a bad bunch of buccaneers, and will scuttle many j nrst-division hopes. This is a character- ! I istic of verv club led by Stovall. Although Al-though his club was out, of the race, it Knocked Chicago out of the pennant in 1914 and repeated in 1915 by shattering the prospects of St. Louis. The Firebrand Fire-brand has a lot of rough young men on his pay roll, and they are believed to ! take considerable pride in their profession. profes-sion. Analyzing the club, it is found to be composed of twelve men who helped land it in second place last year, two who were members of the championship Angels, Stovall himself and a few promising prom-ising recruits. The holdovers are Mitze and Whaling, catchers; Fromme, .Mitchell, Quiun, .Johnson, Decanniere and Arrellanes, pitchers; Callahan, shortstop; Daley, Mattick, Doane and (Iriggs, outfielders. The new men are Galloway, MeLarry, Stovall, Conifroy, Simons and a flock of youngsters. Simons is an experienced backstop, who did stellar work with Pittsburg before reverting to the minors. Pitchers Are Strong. This collection of athletes is fraught with great possibilities, either for hotter hot-ter or worse. Last season the pitching staff stuck out as the best in the league. Whether some of the effectiveness effective-ness of the heavers was due to tho extremely ex-tremely tight infield defense remains to be een. However, thore is no sidestepping side-stepping the fact that there are a bunch of high-class flingcrs on the Vernon staff. If the others hold up to their standard stand-ard of last year and Quinn and Johnson show a return to their best form, Stovall Sto-vall will be in a position to shoot high-grade high-grade pitching at the opposition every day in the week. The infield appears hardly as strong defensively as last season, but will have more hitting at first and second, and possibly at third if Galloway has a good year. Callahan, while not as son-pational son-pational as McGaffigan, covors a lot of ground and has a more accurate arm. How he will hit in clans AA company on a full season's piny remains for him to demonstrate with his ample arms and shoulders. For some reason. Daley, Mattick and Doane hit hdow their normal stride in 1916. Should these men bat up to their limit it will make a vast difference in the work of the team. The Tigers appear to be a bit shy on speed, as compared with last season. Daley is their bfst man on the bases, while Doane, Mattick and MeLarry will pilfer quite a few sarks. (jn the paths they are geared up about as high as the Angfls wore in I91i. However, from this diftanrc, it appears ap-pears that the Tigers will dn most of their winning on pitching, hitting and fighting. |