The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-24
STICKNEY A SPHINX
BASEBALL MANAGER WILL
 SPRING SURPRISES
Declines to Give Montgomery Fans Information as to What He is Doing Towards Local
 Team.

While Manager William Stickney of the Montgomery baseball team will not give out anything definite to his team, he intinates that he has several pleasant surprises in store for the local fans.
 ''No," he said yesterday. '1 can't tell you anything yet. I working hard and am keeping quiet because I don't want my plans known to other members of the league. If anybody fishes in tho same place somebody Is bound to come out shy. tell you this much, however. we are going to have one of the hardest-hitting outhelds in the league this summer and an inficld that. while 1t may possibly not be as good with the stick as the outheld, stll the fielding, baserunning and general all-around work will make 1t one Of the swiftest in the Southern League "Bilr' Stickney believes in the policy of saving wood and saying nothing. ." and he is carrying out this policy. !. There is only a little over two months until the opening of the championship season and about a month and 3. half before the. players report to Montgomcry. about the middle cf March Things are in suehta condition now, says Stickney. that tot make some of them public would disarrenge' all plans and per haps result in Montgomery losing some of the most valuable men that will be in the South ern League this summer. .s
 The exhibition dates are not all filled out. but the card so far completed Is unusually strong. The exhibition season opens on the 18th and soth of March with Comiskeys White Sox," the Chicago American League team that made such a favorable impression in Montgomery last April. From Charlie Comiskeys the old Roman who owns the out fit, to manager Callahan and the entire team. they were not only fast ball players but gem tlemen, both on and off the field.
 On the 1st. End and ssrd of April. Al ,Buckeu- berger and his Boston; Nationals will hold the boards. This team will be remembered by the local fans from the fact that Fred Penney. possibly one of the fastest first basemen in the busfpess: Charley Dexter, -Abbatachio and Pitcher wii1is were with them in Montgom- cry last April. t. .r
 The Louisville people in the American As sociation trying hard to get Dexter as manager of their team during the coming sea- son. but whether Buckenberger will turn him loose remains to be seen. Charley Dexter is Sewanee boy. and after leaving school on the top of the Cumberlands, drifted into the newspaper business in Evans vile, Ind. $. Eyansvtlle was in the Southern League at that time and one day Dexter
 'nlled in'' fin the outfield and made good from the jump. That was the beginning. The news paper business, with its beer and ,skittles, was doomed, the alluring field of baseball, with champagne and canvass backs overshadowing 1t entirely. After finishing out the season with Evansville. Dexter gravitated to the big leagues, playing on the out and infelds. When with the Chicago Americans. he did most of the backstop work. ills biggest reputation was probably made in Louisville. and they are hot footed after him up there this year.
 Newt Fisher has been throwing out vague hints about Abbatachio He was the star of the Nashville team in 1902 and the foxy Newt is doing all he can to get him back there for the coming season. g
 On the 4th, 5th and 9th of April, Mugsy Mo Graw and his New York giants will be here. and if arrangements can be made to swap one of his dates; Clark Griffith with his American League New York team will play here.
 What promises to be the sensation of the ex- hibition season will come on the 9th or 7th of April when the "An Cubans'' will open an en- gagement here of several days. Abel Linares formerly sole owner of this aggregation of Antilles stars, but this year he and Guy W. Green, owner of the Nebraska Indians. have formed q combination. The two teams. how ever, are separate and distinct, both appearing here during the exhibition season.
 Billy Earle. who managed Birmingham in 1893, is now in Havana. where he and several other American ball players are playing tho Cubans. '9 Father" Chadwick. editor of Spalding's Of ticial Guide, and ono of the most thorough Hu- thorities on baseball in the world, says that the Cubans are the equals, if not superior, of any National League team. Not man of them speaks a word of English. but they play ball from the jump. Last year Green had an Eastern and Western division of his Indians | genuine redmen. and as fast individually as Norcum of Shreveport.
 Tho Eastern division of the team won IA | games and lost B, shutting out their opponents | 2S times. The Western division won 124 games
 losing "A and shutting out their opponents
 3s times. This year the best talent in the two
 divisions have been consolidated into one team, and is said to be an unusually fast one