The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-14
FED PABST TO PLAY HERE Lanky First Baseman An-
 nounceS His Plans. HE Is POPULAR HERE Moore to Play Second and a
 Good Man Third. Pitching Prospects Are Brighter NFoiesworth, Burnett and Stick.
 nsy Will Form outAeld
 Entirely Loccal.

MOhtgomery paSepau enthuS1asaS who watched with keen delight the work of Ed Pabst some years ago will with equal delight hear that the hard-hitting, fast iielding fellow will take care of the ini- tial bag and be held captain of the local team this summer.
 This piece of good news, while it comes
 in rather roundabout way, is none the
 less authentic, being no more nor less
 than an unequivocal statement from Ed Pabst himself. Manager stickney all the winter has been angling for the fast first basennan, but so far he has been unable
 to sink the hook deep enough to land
 him- In letter from San Francisco pub-
 lished in the last issue of The Sporting
 News. 6 baseball paper published in St.
 Louis. . writer states that Pabst told him
 that he intended to play with Montgom-
 cry, Ala, in the Southern League.
 Manager Stickney is evidently adhering
 to the saw wood and say nothing pol
 icy, and if he has heard anything dstin-
 ite from Pabst in the last few days he
 is not shouting it from the housetops.
 The fact remains. however that unless
 something very unexpected occurs, Ed
 Pabst will play first base for Montgom-
 cry this summer, making of the local tn-
 field something swift enough to stack up
 with anything in the South.
 Starting with first base, Pabst has prov-
 ed to the unboundsd satisfaction of local
 fans that he is the very best man who
 ever played first base, not only in Mont
 gomery. but in the Soutli--including Con-
 ley ana Long Ryan. A fast fielder, his unusual height makes 1t almost impossl- ble for 8 ball to be fielded to him too high; then he hits well, is lightning fast on the base lines and uses excellent judg- YnRHf in PTYnnfrT EarAA nt. second, is another man whom the local fans have watched work. His work on second base Is not only very fast, but most of the time borders on the eensa- tional. The only drawback in him is the fact that he is a very poor hitter, but with about a months work--such as standing in front of 8 speedy pitcher sev. oral hours every day--it is more than probable that by the time the champion ship season is we'll under way he will have developed into pretty fair hitter.
 Third base is as yet an unknown quan- tity, though when the season opens a good, fast man will occupy the place Bill Spratt hel last summer. Spratt was a conscientious, hard-working ball player, and at times his fielding, was brilliant he was thoroughly cratic, however, es. pecially after his unfortunate accident with Flanagan. Of course Kid Busch will be at short again, and it is q uties- ton if he will not be the fastest shorts stop in the Southern League this sum- mer. Last year Busch probably had moro efrors than any shortstop in the South. but he got those errors by taking the most desperate chances, going after hne- hits that nine fielders out of ten would not even look at. Towards the end of last summer the improvement in Busch AAR. .rSf1MrAVannNl hfa htkNfnnr lots of them in the League. Link Stckney says that Busch would have hit great deal better but for the fact that in the early part of the season he made tho mistake of trying to use a bat that was too heavy for him. Link bought light bat and gave 1t to the lit. tie shortstop, whose batting improved 70 per cent, but on a trip to Atlanta one of Alb Powells Crackers stole the stick.
 With the benefit of the experience he had last summer Busch should prove a far more valuable man during the conn ing season. It will he hard to find two better catchers than Harry Manners and WilkIe Clark, their throwing to bases, hitting, base-running and general all- round work being above the average.
 George Stultx and Louis Poichow are the only pitchers on the local reserve list. but letter from Clark says that he has couple of pitchers that he win bring q 5wn when ho comes to Montgomery. If they stnd the test and pan out all right there will be four pitchers on the stan to pick from. and there is still a chance of getting both Oscar streit and Otis Stock dale, both of them having said that they would as soon come to Montgomery as 20 anywhere else if they could get the money here that other places offer.
 Heck Burnett was in Louisville last
 week, and says that while there he did not see 5tultS personally, but from one of his friends heard that he did not in' tend oreturn to Montgomery this sum- mer. This would mean that he does not intend to play professional ball. as he could not sign with any other League without his release from Montgomery. These kind of statements have been heard from ball players before; it is mid"winter talk, and long before the trees begin to put on their spring clothes one George Stultz will be pitching ball for Montgom- ery-and he can pitch some.
 The outfeld Is entirely local-Burnett, Molesworth and Link Stlckney living in MontEomery-and when 1t comes to hard hitting and fast fielding 1t will stack up with anything in the League during the
 T AA[am .N