Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-27
SLUMP OF THE
BOSTON TEAM
intelligent Handling of the Ma
teriai on Hand Recon-
mended as Remedy.
Special Correspondence of The star

fIlcTueO as hcIHcQy.
Special Correspondence Of The Star
BOSTON, May 20. 1903.
To all appearances the champion Ath-
ietics and the CIevelands will make the
fghting for the American League pennant
Cleveland has proflted by the example OF
the champions. and has well-rounded or
sanfzation and IS prepared for every emer-
gency. Messrs. Kilfoyl and Somers, the
owners of the club. well know how to run
team and will not stop until they land a
pennant winner
'One has little idea said Mr. Somers
when he was here with his team on its re-
cent trip, what a strain and a worry
base ball team is 1t keeps one guessing
AMI thinking all the time. Look at the
time 1t took us to secure a shortstop that
could fill the bill and to secure pitchers
who could stand the gan. Then one must
not only have team strong in regulars,
but in substitutes. 1t Is very amusing to
me to have people allude to the Clevelands
as cutters, They are nothing of the sort
l consider them as game lot as you can
find anywhere. We haze been handicapped
great deal in the past In various ways,
they break well for US this year we will
make very strong bid for the first place
In the procession. l have every faith in
the ability of Lajoie to make good this
year. He is in splendid shape. and his ex-
perienee of past seasons has been worth
deal to him, and l am sure he will profit
thereby. Lajoie Is a man who takes the
very best care of himself. He realizes
fully the responsibility that devolves upon
him. and it Is his ambition to show people
how the thing is done this season"
One can never tell how things will break
In base ball, however, and this year is
signal proof of that same thing. Any one
who would have ventured to predict that
the Boston Americans would achieve a rec
ord for home defeats this year would have
been deemed out of bis head. AS the vet
eran Morrill, said theSother day, things can
break badly for a long time, for
very long time. Surely the local team Is
not so bad that 1t could not win a single
game in a month. The principal han
dicap that was suffered was the weather
nothing like 1t has been seen here since
the American League had a club in Boston.
In month there were but a couple of
days that were at all of the kind liked by
the pitchers, and these not in success
sion What men of the Young Dfneen,
Harris and Tannehill type demanded was
sustained warm weather-weather In which
1t was possible to get up real good old
fashioned sweat. but such was not forth
coming. In addition to the pitching staff,
Boston mas veteran players WHO 10 bol
tbaw out, as it were, until the weather gets
right. The best judges of the game refuse
to admit that the team got stale to such
extent that 1t was not capable of max
Ing a better showing than was the case,
and it is the belief of many that once the
club gets going it will be sure to win
good percentage of games.
The fact too that the men have been
more or less out of keller has been an
other reason why things have gone as
badly as has been the case. Collins has
been unable to play his game owing to his
bad knee, while Ferris has been limptng
for a long time.
There was some talk about President
Johnson butting in on the scene here, but
that IS entirely untrue. Mr.. Johnson came
here because he was asked to do so by the
owner of the club The situation needed
his presence for several reasons. One was
the failure to bring Pitcher Dineen to
terms. The idea of trading Dineen came
from Mr.. Johnson, who was not at all
pleased at the behavior of that player re-
garding the signing of his contract; nor
was his work at all satisfactory, and Mr..
Johnson felt confident that a trade would
benefit the club. There was every truth
In the story sent out, therefore. abop' the
trade of Dineen for Washington players.
and if Mr. Collins did not know it it Was
because Mr.. Johnson did not tell him.
There is much that the head of the Ameri-
can League keeps to hlmSelt.
p X
Where a club develops such a losing
streak as did the Boston club radical &C
ton should be taken in quick order. The
outfield should have been strengthened
without any delay at ALL OF course it is
no easy matter to strengthen a club at this
stage of the campaign. but money will do
anything, and anything done to bring
about better condition of things would be
sure to secure rich returns.
Where can players be secured? may be
asked. They can be had without doubt.
Take Jimmy Callahan. for instance. He
would make fine outfielder for the Boston
team, and he in himself would come very
close TO landing a winner for that club.
Link" Lowe of the Detroits. while here
the other day said that Callahan had such
a good thing in his Independent team in
Chicago that it would take mighty fine
offer to land him. Doubtless he could earn
a very fine salary for the Boston team.
Pittsburg in the National League had
somewhat of a slump recently that alarmed
Its owner. but the material in the Pttsburg
aggregation is younger than in the Boston
Americans and after little outcry 1t did
not take long for the club to get going
again, and Fittsburg is doing fully as We'll
asst did a year ago and Is very much in
the race for the pennant. Dreyfuss won't
stand for loser and IL things go wrong