The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-17
DONOVAN PUTS TEAM
UNDER RIGID TRAINING
No Loafing About Camp of the
Cardinals at DIAL
las
PLAYERS SHOWING UP WELL.
PLAYERS SHOWING up WELL.
Manager Has Not Yet Announced
Assignment Of Players, but
Declares That He Has Ma
terial in Plenty.
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.

was the busiest spot in Dallas yesterday.
Patsy Donovan. inspired by the good work
OF his great lot of athletes. keyed them up
a few notches higher when the hell rang
for morning practice yesterday. He sent
out orders to the effect that the twirlers
would be expected to forget lame arms and
stiff shoulders and get down TO putting
them over the rubber.
The day was hot and the sky clear as a
bell
Dusty Rhodes, "Yank'' Yerkes. "Curls'
Curry and Collars Murphy shone in the
initial hard loosening-up exhibition. Curry.
though handled pretty hard or the third
sack for the lSofs Sunday, toed the scratch
yesterday In good condition. The little fel-
low slammed them over in good shape to
Jack Ryan.
Murphy and Yerkes pitched alternately to
''Buck'' Weaver. Both men are in better
shape by far than they >, were last year,
and be had JACK oSei ON i1 hts H fnss out
of the time.
Manager Donovan, in the afternoon.
Farrell. Williams and Brain in the in.
field. and Barclay, Smoct and the manager
captain in right.
''Topeelie" Smith went on the rubber
and the surplus players enjoyed themselves
hammering out hard ones.
bunting, base running and signals were
Again, the fast and accurate team work
or the infield attracted the attention of the
several fs I hundred fans; who daily swarm into
Williams and Farrell are going together
like team. Brain, over on third, continues
his sensational work.
The news that the Browns are experience
:ng difficulty in their practice matinees at
Baton Rouge has worried the Cardinals.
Aleer bunch of all-stars will return to ST.
Louis in fit condition and battle gamely for
the local championship.
Burke, Hackett and Dunleayy are still on
The failed-to-report' list.
Saturday marked the close of the third
days practice of the Cardinals OF 1903 TAX
ing into consideration the fact that Man
ager Donovan has been compelled 10 look
after about two dozen players to date, the
work OF the team has been extraordinary.
Dallas Is nicely situated, and the climate at
this time of the year is warm and just suited
for such work as an athlete needs in the
the, water is said TO be the best in Texas.
and. taking everything into consideration,
the selection of Dallas as a training ground
showed good judgment on Donovan's part.
On the arrival OF the team here Wednes-
Gay at midnight Donovan made up his
mind that the three weeks stay down here
would be no child's play. From the jump
ne started things going with vim, and to
GATE saturday evening at o'clock. he has
the fact upon every player in his charge
that II was his intention to secure a first
division team He wanted good, honest,
man to do his share of work.
The players to a man place explicit conf
oence IN what their manager says, and he
started them out labortng under the belief
that every one of them had a chance for
nice, coy berth. providing, of course, they
displayed big-league form
The pitching staff is probably the largest
number ever selected by any one baseball
club for spring, practice. Players have been
drawn from all parts of the country There
Is good talent among them, and Donovan
knows it
Up 10 Saturday he did not venture an
0nfnfnn nm -Ia L..
team but after the hard weeks drilling
had been closed he walked into the Oriental
culiar way, asked the correspondent
playersT'
The reply that they looked good and that
he surely should secure a good strong team
out OF the bunch made Pat smile again, and
he remarked,
well, 1 feel almost certain that nv club
will be in the hunt. The work of the in
field so far has been to my entire salts
faction. The matter of selecting my pitch
Ing corps. however, at this time is utterly
impossible. 1 will not mention any names
but l have few recruits in that big lot
who VIII, II am not badly mistaken, make
good in the National this year..
While the team was practicing out In the
trolley league grounds Friday afternoon a
about the field. All the players saw the
bird. and some looked upon the appearance
as bad omen. Little Nichols. who is al
subject preached, suddenly said, after
gazing few minutes at the bird:
We'll, the old boy seems to have got into
the right field. 1 guess he is looking about
bit for a few dead ones"
The remark, though taken in the light of
a joke, had the ring of truth to II. when one
comes TO think of It. But the question
naturally arises: Who are the. dead ones?
Davy Brain has captured the third sack
without much of fight. He will undoubt-
edly make a great hit with the st. Louis
fans. He Is neat. well-mannered Young
man. He plays fast, aggressive bali and,
best of all. he can hit hard He is also
an adept at bunting the sphere. At short
Otto Williams seems to have everything his
own way, unless Smith. the Kansas City
boy, makes sudden squirt and surprises
every one.
OF the new twirlers MacFarland, Milton,
Brown and Rhodes have exhibited the best
brand so far.
Monday Manager Donavan announces that
the sprinung exercises will be placed on
tap. This will be done in order to work off
the winter fat OF several of his players. The
weather here is very warm and the sun
beats down as though II were the middle of
July to the boys from Missouri
All the players are anxiously awaiting the
chance to take fall out of the Browns.
From the way they are talking one would
think that the gang has the championship
OF St Louis already in its grasp.
Now that the infield fight seems to be set
tied. the tussle for jobs in the pitching de-
partment Will go on harder than ever.