Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-02
BASE BALL

After almost three weeks of good, hard
practice at Charlottesville. Va, the players
of the Washington Base Ball Club return
home today and for the next ten days will
continue their preparatory work at Ameri-
can League Park in this city. This week
all the big clubs now in the south will be
steering for home. and it is question
whether any of them had better weather
or more continuous practice than the Ma
tionals. American and National League
clubs took their spring practice on the
Pacific coast and in states bordering on the
Gulf of Mexico, and while few of them
enjoyed warm weather. several ran against
cool rains that continued several days,
throwing them back in their work. At
Charlottesville the air has at all times been
of the clearest. and even when COOL did
not retard Manager Stahl and his COM
panions in their practice work AS a re-
suit the entire team is in tip-top shape
and ready to give any of the opposing teams
a run for their money.
Just how well off the Nationals are, phys
ically. can he CLEANED from the opinion of
Trainer Quirk expressed TO a Star reporter
in Charlottesville last Thursday. He said:
Il have handled many base ball teams
In my career as trainer. but this spring l
had the unique experience of turning over
IL team IN WnlCn tnerC is not a MEMBER VINO
is lacking the splendid condition necessary
for a hard game. When l first took hold
of the boys there were several who COM
planned of sore arms and legs. but they
readily rounded to under my treatment, and
during the last week there has not been a
complaint.
'Mullin. Hill. Cassidy. Mil, Hughes and
Jones We're the chief sufferers during the
early training season. but each one receiv-
ed sprai1s or bruises through accidents
over-eXeruon. Mullin was the last to round
Into good shape and the only one whom the
high barometer down here appeared to af-
feet.
Many Teams Backward
News has come to me from the other
teams down south showing the trainers
have had their hands full getting the play
ers in condition to so on the field. This
was caused by the wet wea Their and low
barometer, and it will require a week of
good. hot sunshine to place several of the
teams in the right condition for the open
ing games of the season."
As to the playing ability of the boys,
Trainer Quirk very automatically refused
to single out special cases. and confined
himself to the remark that he thought the
infield would prove to be one the fastest
in the American League. He said that Cas-
sidy and Nil were working like clock ma
chinery around second, and that Hill had
assuredly rounded into the form of 1903
when his work at third was the talk of
the country.
Trainer Quirk will come home with the
team and probably continue his work with
the boys until the openin gof the season. if
not longer.
The batting of the Nationals has worried
Manager Stahl great deal, but reports
along the same line from the other teams
In the south should give him great en-
enlargement. With the exception of single
games by the Clevelands, Boston and Ath-
letics, when these teams got into double
figures in the base hit column the pitchers
have had easily the best of the argument.
Should this state of affairs carry into the
championship season. fast base running and
lightning fielding will be big factors in
winning games. and these two features are
possessed to an unusual extent by Mana
ger Stahl and his companions. The Ma
ttonals' pitching staff is strong enough to
take care of itself at any stage of the race
and there is bound to be many small score
contests in which good base running and
fielding will assuredly turn the tide of bat
tie one way or the other. Looking over
the lineup of the Nationals i. will be found
that Huelsman and kittredge are about the
only slow runners, and with six out of the
nine players who go on the field for
game, counting the pitcher, able to keep
the opposing battery guessing as to their
intentions on the base lines, the average can
be said to be very high. Chicago and New
York may have something on the Nationals
In the matter of speed, but the other five
teams fall off very noticeably by compari-
son in this respect.