Show a- a f wt Ill t s s e o. o By Dy Billy Evans vans The battery men mep the advance guard of tho the baseball army that will soon Invade the South have arrived o on the the scene t Pitching g as s In years gone none by will continue to pl play y a bra big part In the winning of a pennant Without g good od pitching no team gets very far Major league club owners are well aware of the fact That is one reason why l a special effort is always made to perfect the pitching to the highest possible degree e e en n ir r r Some idea of the value of pitching can be gleaned from the fact that two major league clubs who are taking forty men South have nineteen pitchers in the collection V While the ratio is not that great with most of the teams team yet a perusal of the lineups of the various various clubs shows that about third one of of- the tho players taken South in the spring are pitchers I The The pitching problem is the h hardest task a manager faces e each ch spring At least a half dozen gazen major league leaders would rest much easier if f they felt their pitching staffs would b be able to carry the burden y I t Lack Lack- of consistent pitching was a severe blow to the St. St Louis Cardinals last year During the first month of the race the Cardinals had only two pitchers capable of going the route Rickey's Rickey s 's team had ad trouble winning a b ball 1 game That bad start was fatal fatal faal to to 0 t the e Cardinals Cardinals' pennant chan chances es tX k ft T The Tho e pitching problem again confronts Kid Gleason of Chicago He He has s two great stars in Faber and Kerr but those two men cannot do all the work That was proved last year e Lack Lick of consi consistent tent pitching kept the Cleveland team from repeating in inthe the 10 American league last year What can Speaker expect from Bagby Morton Uhle and Mails Only Coveleskie Coveleskie stands out as a certainty M i w Pitching is certain to be Clyde biggest worry If Washington Is Isable Isble Able able ble to develop a dependable staff the the Na Na Nationals are certain n to be e dangerous The Chicago Cubs suffered last year from pitching Alexander seemed to io be off his game and Jim Vaughan was lost through suspension b. b e e In the final dash for the National league pennant the Pittsburg staff faltered with the rest of the team ft qI w.- w. e The New York Giants won the pennant and the worlds series because because at at crucial moment the pitchers came through H S Pitching is the big punch in baseball From now until the opening of the season we will be regaled by stories stones of the bush league t. t e a J Yet if each major league picks up two star pitchers each year year among the recruits tried out in the spring it i is regarded as a big season r |