OCR Text |
Show GRIFFITH HAS PUT 6INGES? INTO WASHINGTON TEAM By TOMMY CLARK. yASHlNGTON 1b the sensation of the American league this season. Do you understand it? If so, you have something on tho great majority of baspball followers, who alwajs have been accustomed to look deep in the second division for tho percentage of the Washlngtonjans And tho good folks in Washington aro astonished, simply wondering If it can be true They fear It's a dream Clark Griffith has put new life into tha Senatorial aggregation. Ho has put In his own savings Into tho club and has Instilled a new brand of ginger gin-ger In his team, new at least for Washington Wash-ington In other years tho Washington Washing-ton team has gone on the field merely for the formality of plajlng the scheduled sched-uled gam, apparently convinced that ? r1Q. xaj?Wl. iT 3 5 M f "r ' vi I'vJ -A n '- a , dh n x 1 "GERMANY" SCHAEFER I it had only an outside chanco to win. But Griffith's 1912 club Is a cocky oho that goes Into tho combat with the bo-llef bo-llef that a vlctorj will result or the other fellows will have some battle on their hands. It Is team spirit, tho Washington baseball critics say. Griffith has been fortunate In his pitching Walter Johnson never has shown to better advantage than he has this season, and Groom has pitched great ball In tho games he has entered en-tered Chick" Gandll. whom Griffith recently recent-ly purchased from Montreal, bas mado good. He has been putting up a grand game nt tho Initial sack and hitting the ball hard. Clvdo Milan, the Senators' Sena-tors' star outfielder, Is also playing a sensational fielding game, running the bases well and walloping tho ball hard Poster at third Is the sensation of the team and works In great style with George McBrldo. the shortstop and captain of tho club roster's stick work also has dono much In keeping tho Washington tnam high In the race and "Germany" Schaefcr looks hotter, than ever before In his long and event-I ful baseball caroer. Schaefcr has ben I hitting well, his long wallops being a potent factor In tho Washington of- fense. I In looking at tho high standing of, Griffith's men and considering the low-( ly position Washington usually has held the question naturallj arises Will the club blow' Has the team tho class to koop up tho present pace? Washington I? admiring and wondering won-dering TT Is rathor strange that tho average pnlron of baseball lacks the confidence confi-dence In tho manager Just as soon as thlugs are not going right. Let a few garnet be lost and every nine out of ton so called fans will be thero with a suggestion for changing the lineup of the team It stands to roason that the individual individ-ual most vitally Interested In a team's 8U"cccs3 Is Its manager, and when that man has had twenty-five years' 0-prrlcnco 0-prrlcnco In baseball It would be wise to display confidence In his JudgmenL But It is perhaps the reason for the popularity of tho sport that tho spectators spec-tators consider themselves capablo of doing tho managing. It Is a privilege which goes wl'b w-ery w-ery admission ticket. Incldcntaly. It is but natural that tho so called fan should havo no troublo convincing himself him-self of tho logic of his argument when the team 13 not doing what it should, gut It also stand to reason that the only way success can be attained Is to havo ono man use his Judgment! QMIE advisability of changlnp players from one position to another has froquontly been questioned, and yet somo of tho stars In certain positions have boon switched there from others. Take, for Instance, Eddlo Foster of th Wasbingtons. He waa not figured a being capable of plajlng anything but bhort field, the position In which he started out In professional baseball, jet roster developed Into a star at third In a verjr few weeks, Jimmy Collins, rankod high among tho very best of tho third basemen, was an outfielder out-fielder and was shifted to third by on accident Herman Schaefcr furnishes another Instance where a change has helped a plaj or. Schacfor made h'mself a left handed baf'nr nt a time when ho seemed f'os- Bl -9VP36S"' A JnlBSsra Photo by American Proas Association. MILAN, WASHINGTON'S STAR OUTFIELDER. tlned to return to tho minors, and he Is today u better ball plaj er than ho over was, TT pays to bo a star athlete In more than one branch of professional sport ns 13 quite fully exemplified In tho case of "Newsy" Lalonde, the lacrosse la-crosse and hockey star. Playing la-crosso la-crosso last summer for Vancouver, "Ncwbj" earned S3 G40, and to this was added J1.600 in the hockej' season recently re-cently closed at tho coast, a mero trifle of 56,240 for tho year. |