Show lo 10 T OS s ANGELES AMGELES the original i purpose of 0 spring training trips from the snow banks of 0 the north into in tole the sun ot of the south was to get a b ball lub club in condition di tion for championship pion ship games in dally dalli battles tor for nearly six months in the last few y years ears that tha t orl 9 inal purpose has been change dand sadly warped in the changing the main in purpose today is to pay expenses through an extend branti and rice itic e td cd and extensive ex hibit lon schedule that Is beginning to run beyond all reason K when winter comes as the late amr M r shelley remar remarked kedo van can spring be far behind well the hounds bounds of f spring are on winters traces and the hour of the sunland march is here again not so much to condition ball bait clubs but 0 to o play from 35 to 50 exhibition games before the season opens exhibit exhibition len trips that cover thousand housand of miles one night jumps different UC erent types of playing childs in shape or out of shape and weather conditions condit ious that are none too helpful talk to the ball players about this tell you especially the old timers who are working to get lading arms and fading legs ready tor for the long haul on ahead they are none n ne too keen about the cold winds and the rains of late march and early april that insist upon ap 1 peering year alter after year above the 1 deep southern belt another angle when you face ace a dally daily cc competitive mp e t tv schedule of games one 0 ot f ah the main handicaps ahead Is staleness s ta leness the big drive u usually comes la in 1 august and early september but in too many cases ball players and ball clubs are worn down at that time they have been hammering away at exhibition or championship cha games fames since early march 1 I know babe ruth told me 1 I could have had a much better record re haddi lor for the pennant season if I 1 b been een forced to play in so many exhibition games in my time I 1 had to play in over exhibition contests largely on the way north that means four full seasons where you i were supposed to give all you had I 1 know I 1 always did I 1 believe 20 games are all any club should play before the big show opens john tIc mcgraw Graw told me the same thing some ome r time before he died twenty games are just about eu enough 0 ugh he said before you open 9 any a n y big league schedule that still means more than ball games in a stretch ills his giants played many more games 9 ames than this because of the exhibition hibi bibi tion money involved mcgraw was thinking at the time of conditioning a ball club tor for a pennant race to have a team ready for the stretch run not in terms of spring training cash mcgraw who liked fight and fire knew the curse of staleness this is what wha t a long exhibition schedule is likely to bring on ty cobbs cobb s example ty cobb thinks along the same lines in talking to ty a day or two ago the citizen of menlo park said I the ithe best thing a ball player can do is keep in shape through the winter either by hunting or playing gou golf I 1 know it never took me over two weeks to be ready for a big league season I 1 nearly always reported late for I 1 never believed in those long exhibition seasons from early march up to opening day A good ball player rest occasionally but earnestly wants to win every game forty or more exhibition games are entirely too many A ball players main job should ie be to keep his bis legs in condition you e can a n do that only by working them b ty y walking and running they used to tell me id wear my legs out but at least I 1 tried to travel at top speed and I 1 managed to last 21 24 years it if I 1 practically lived on my legs all the year around I 1 would have dropped out long before I 1 did best pitchers in discussing the greatest pitchers of all time cobb still believes that ed walsh heads the list tor for any live five year stretch big ed eds five top years were remarkable ty says 1 I recall one year when he be bozi won to 40 games and saved at I 1 least east 10 or 12 others tie he worked in 66 60 games frames that season even a walsh could not keep up this pace any too long so 60 he had no 0 chance to keep going with such p pitchers it chers as johnson John soo mathewson alexander alit and others he added 1 I dont see how anyone anyo ne could name a greater all time pitcher than walter walte r johnson the bli big train had more speed than any pitcher who ever threw a ball he have to be as smart as matty or alexander cobb continued johnson was pitching tor for a weak hitting low scoring club and often had bad to pitch shutouts shu touts to win walter pitched more than a hundred shut outs in his bis time I 1 dont know how many I 1 to 0 games fames he lost but there were plenty of them with a better scoring club I 1 believe johnson would have bave won to 40 games a season |