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Show SKIPPER SILL UNCORKS SOI PERTJEIMS "We Ought to Make Trouble Trou-ble for the Rest of These Clubs," Ejaculates Bernhard. SUCCESS DEPENDS ON ABILITY OF PITCHERS All of Veterans Reported in Excellent Condition; Fielding and Batting Problems Solved. Prom my observations last year, it seems to me that we ought to . make trouble for the rest of these clubs. From the Eubaiyat of Wil-helm Wil-helm Helnrich Bernhardt. A well-gro'tvn clam is a loqxiacious beast compared to Bill Bernhard. We bare never heard a well-grown clam proclaim, and by the same token, we have never hoard Bill Bernhard proclaim. pro-claim. The clam as an institution', however, how-ever, has a wonderful reputation for si-lenr-e; so has Bill Bernhard. Therefore it is an hour of vast importance im-portance when Bill Bernhard says anything. any-thing. We should be just as much amazed to hear a clam yell out at the top of his lungs as to hear Bill Bern-hard Bern-hard whisper something that didn 't have a string to it. In a moment of forgctfulness Bill Bernhard let fly a few utterances, nicely nice-ly concealed in an envelope addressed to Jack Cook, the Saints' business manager. man-ager. Jack was so dumbfounded at Bill's enthusiastic remarks that he forgot for-got to put on his rubbers yesterday afternoon, aft-ernoon, and as a consequence ho is now having like a prairie dog. Heretofore -f'J 's communications to the home of-rice of-rice have been couched in language so diplomatic that one had to turn the VaRe several times to see if there were hidden meaning concealed somewhere in V"fhe writing. F4Ts Loquacity. In the letter which came to Jack's desk yesterday, however. Bill came out flatfooted to say that his ball club is going to make trouble for his rivals, and when Bill says anything flatfooted it can be taken to have subBtance, for it is well known that when Bill stands flatfooted he is covering an enormous area of ground. The shock of surprise having passed in the course of a few hours. Cook proceeded pro-ceeded to read the rest of Bill's missive. mis-sive. One extract informs us that the ''club is coming along well euough 60 far, and some of the new men are doing do-ing fine. Tobin is going to be a help to us and this Carpenter looks mighty good ' ' Bill also indicates that Badger Blake is a promising young heaver, and it may be accepted that Bill will give him every opportunity to make good. Then comes the nptable statement that "From my observations last year, It seems to me that we ought to make trouble for the rest of these clubs, and it is simyily a question of the pitchers. Am not hurrying the old pitchers any, and I don't want them to develop sore arms. Hughes is going fine, nnd so are Hoff and Evans. Evans looks 50 per cent better than he did when we left Halt Lake." Bill dismissed the rest of his club with the brief comment "We know what our outfield and intiold are, now that Brief and Qirnlan are in lino." We submit that these remarks, coming from BilJ Bernhard, are pregnant with import. Salt Salt fnns can rely on it that when Bill Bernhard allows that he has a good ball club he has a good ball club. . A La Mike Yokel. In the matter of excessive use of Xivords. Bill is almost in the class of vtike Tokel, and by way of illustrating Alike's verbosity an incident in point may be related. Several years ago a notable combination of ehamnion wrestlers wres-tlers and fighters came to Salt Lake. The band included Frank Gotch, Farmer Burns and Jim Jeffries, among others. The sporting editor saw a glowing opportunity op-portunity to slip something over on his loathsome contemporaries, so he approached ap-proached Mike with a proposition that the Dutchman "cover" the show. "Sure," said Mike, with readv acquiescence. acqui-escence. "I'll do that all right." That was big league newspapor enter-prise, enter-prise, all right, opined the sporting editor. ed-itor. The other fellows would sit tin straight next morning when they read Mike's graphic, account of the exhibition. exhibi-tion. But the sporting editor began to grow anxious when I o'clock tolled and no Mike. Then 2 o'clock came and still no Mike. Yokel was finally found snugly snug-ly wrapped up in the blankets of his bed, snoring loudlv. "Well, what did you think of the show, Mike!" "Oh. it was all right," cheerfully replied re-plied Mike. "What did yon think of Crotch?" "Oh, ho was all right he's a good man. " "What did vou think of Burust" "Oh, he's all right, too." ' ' And Jeffries? ' ' "Oh, he's all right, too he's a big feller." And that's how Mike "covered" the show: and that's about the way Bill Bernhard talks ahont his ball club. So, you see, when Bill really permits himself him-self to uncork a bit. of language, it is language laden with the essence of vitality. vi-tality. .fornhnrd says that while he has not ,ffefinltely decided upon a date for r. breaking camp, he expects to leave Mon- ( Continued on Following Page.) PILOT BILL UNCORKS SOME VITAL REMARKS (Continued From Preceding Page.) day, March 26, after a final Sunday exhibition game. By leaving on the day indicated the Saints would arrive here Wednesday and "would have six days for work, at Bonneville park before be-fore the season's opener on Tuesday, April 3. It is likely that the skipper w;tll order a few Yannigan-Hegnlar games upon the return of the club to the home lot. There will probably be a serious-minded tussle on Sunday, April 1, so that the fans may have an opportunity op-portunity of seeing what - the 1917 Saints look like at close range.. Meantime, Bernhard promises to devote de-vote much time to his pitchers. The coming week at Porterville no doubt will see some overtime practice, both for the heaving squad and for the fielders. field-ers. The Pitching Staff.' Although the pitching staff looks pretty good, and admittedly should be much better than the corps with which the Salt Lakers started the seasons of 1915 and 1916, Bernhard- apparently is not altogether satisfied that they cau be called invincible. The fans place much reliance in Dubuc and Kirmaycr, the principal additions to the flinging group this year. The Tribune has word from Porterville to the effect that "Kirmayer is much pleased with the way he is coming into condition and Dubuc declares his arm is in much better shape than he expected it to be. thus early in the work. Doc Burke says Hughes and Evans are '100 per cent better' than they were last year three weeks before the opening day. Hoff says he never felt better in his life and his looks bear out the statement." Concerning the youngsters, The Tribune's Trib-une's correspondent says, among other things: "Badger Blake is either a real pitcher or else he has had a pocketful of horseshoes every time he has gone to the rubber. Blanking the Cubs for five frames and giving the same dose to a club that blanked the Cubs is pret-tv pret-tv good for a kid in his teens. Sherm .Tones is going in good shape. Kersten and Wild have had little chance as yet to show what they can do. Lydiatt looks like a find." Need Two More. Shorn of the glow that usually is plastered on training camp news, Bern-hard's Bern-hard's pitching staff appears to settle down to the five veterans. While they unquestionably appear to comprise a capable group for early campaigning and are to be joined in Slav by Stanlev Dougan, it nevertheless looks as though Bernhard will have to gather unto himself him-self two more pitchers of the first class. It is practically impossible to do any gathering until the big league clubs near the end of thoir training seasons. After that thero will be a chance to put over a few deals. With Salt Lake's connections with the St. Louis Americans Amer-icans and the Philadelphia Nationals, there is reason to believe that Bern-hard Bern-hard will find himself in an advantageous advan-tageous position. At any rate, he has enough good pitchers to start with, and he has a club of hitters to back them up, so what more can we askt For the Opener. Preparations for ojening the season in Salt Lake have received a fairly stiff jolt at the hands of .1. Pluvius. Wo should like to pause here long enough to say that, being first on the ground to use J. Pluvius, it will be our constant aim and .endeavor henceforth to give that celebrated personage a well-earned vacation. " The snowfall that visited Salt Lake last week ..and the week before that and the week before be-fore that anil the week before that didn 't overlook Bonneville park. It is breaking no confidence to say that there is a lot of snow at Bonneville park; neither is it a breach of etiquette to announce that the snow at Bonneville Bonne-ville park is, after the manner of snow, liable to the process of melting, and, having melted, to seek lodgment in the ground. Without entering upon exhaustive ex-haustive details, it may be said that the chief requisite at this time is some sunshine, some more sunshine and still some. Business Manager Cook reports a pood demand for women's coupon books, in spite of the weather, and also reports re-ports thnt the sale of boxes will be equal to that of Inst year, with a probable prob-able excess. During the week the first real steps will be takeu toward preparing prepar-ing the opening day programme, and hv the time another Sabbath morn j rolls 'round the details of that momentous mo-mentous ceremony will be well under way. May Be Sacramento. A trifle more than two weeks remain before the opening date of the season. There is, however, a possibility that Salt Lake will not open at home. The possibility lies in the calling of the threatened railroad strike. In the event of a tieup of the railroads in the west Salt Lake would temporarily be transferred trans-ferred to Sacramento. From that point the Saints could reach San Francisco by river steamer or by automobile, and thence could make voyages to Portland by ocean steamship. Of course, the transfer would mean a financial loss to the Saints, but that would have to be borne. |
