The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-31
OUTLOOK FOR LOCALS
oBRIEN THINKS HE HAS WINNING
 TEAM.
Negotiations Are Under Way for Sorae Additional Players and More New Faces May
 Be Seen.

When the bell taps on April 18th for They're off" in the Southern League championship race 1t will certainly not be the fault of Manager OBrien or the directors of the local club if Montgom cry does not have bunch of Pretzels that will keep a lot of teams on the jump from the start
 Manager OBrien is determined to have a shortstop that in hitting as well as fielding, will balance the in- field and make it one of the swiftest in the League. With this in view, he has opened negotiations and about closed d deal with Downey, the fast shortstop of last summers Memphis champions.
 In batting Downey and Tamsett of Birmingham were tied. Downeys re- cord being: 1O4 games, 36S times at bat. SO runs. S3 hits. 26 sacrifice hits. 30 stolen bases and an average of .225. In fielding he was fourth in the League shortstops. Smith af Shreveport. Atz of New Orleans. Bennett of Nashville and Donovan of Shreveport being ahead Of him, Bennett and Donovan only playing Downey really third. His record was: 104 games. 200 putouts, 294 assists 494 chances-and A errors with an av- craze of .91S.
 At the end of last season Downey was sold to Kansas City, Arthur IT, win being made manager of that team.
 Some dissatisfaction has arisen about the salary question and some tart cor respondence has passed between Dow ney and Irwin. The joke of the affair Is that Downey got his mail mixed. sending the letter addressed to Irwin to Manager O'Brien and letter ad- dressed to the Pretzel manager to Irwin. It has been strengthened out, Irwin has released all claim he had on Downey and the latter has virtually accepted O'Briens terms. This will make four candidates for short-Busch, shannon. Lowney and Downey--for in spite of the talk of the Doctor" open ing his office there Is possibility of his coming to Montgomery.
 A good deal of gossip has been in- dulged In locally in the last few days in regard to the chances of Ike Dur rett coming back to Montgomery. The full draft of $750 has been paid by the St. Paul club and the last letter that Manager O'Brien had from there said that Durrett was sure to be fixture in the Saints outfield. In case he does not make good In the American Asso- citation, however, he will have to be returned to Montgomery. OBrien Is not depending on that, however, and has almost closed a deal with another fast man for the lots This Is Denim ger, a hardhitting pitcher and outfeld- CT who. with Brouthers. now playing third for the Pretzels, jumped the To- ledo Club of the American Association last summer. both of them going to an independent team. where Denninger
 
 In batting Denninger's record with Toledo was: 66 games, 254 times at bat, 2S runs. 60 hits, twelve of which were two-b -baggers, four three-baggers and two home runs, two sacrifice hits, ten stolen bases and an average of .236. In fielding his record was: AZ games, 5S putouts, assists and errors. an average Of .956.
 Negotiations were opened yesterday for Doherty. who led the New York League in fielding second baseman last year. and ranked well up in hitting He was with the Albany Club of that League and in batting had 126 games Al times at bat, 63 runs, 112 hits with an average of .254. He played second base for Albany, though he will be tried at short for the PretZels, for there Is not a player in minor league circles who could even partly fill the shoes of Charlie Schwartz His fielding was: 126 games. 2S6 putouts, SIT assists-691 chances-2S errors and an average of 959. He had fourteen sacrifice hits and twenty stolen bases.
 Cy Swain has accepted terms and a ticket to Montgomery was sent him some days ago. Nothing has been heard from him yet. though he is liable to drop in any day.
 With this showing and the team all ready here. there is not the shadow of d doubt that the Pretzels will finish way up in the first division this sum mer.