The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-13

In about three weeks Ryan and some of the twenty y-eight men round ed up for his 1908 Climbers will begin to drop into Montgomery and Tn lew days after the list of March the Sprlns work will begin. Ryan has ms teanl ficult part of his work this Spring VIII be in deciding which of fourteen men to sell.
 When he lands in Montgomery he will have five outfielders. eight in- fielders, three catchers and twelve pitchers Of this number he will nave to sell two Outfielders. four inrlelders, seven pitchers and one catcher, and as above the average the task of locating the best place to let the axe Tall VIII not be a sinecure.
 It is probable that Ryan will dispose of several of these men before ne comes to Montgomery on the list or South Atlantic Leagues. Lewis will pc sold to some club and the third man to be sold in the outfield will be either Henline or Persons.
 The outfielder who will be turned over to Ryan is Curtis Elston, young ster, who will be brought South by the Cubs next month.
 Elston last year virtually led the hitting of the Ohio and PennsylVa nla League. Tate and Roach were first and second, but they only played rifty and eighteen games respectively. Els ton was third in the official batting of the league with the following average: 115 games, AIS times at bat, 59 runs, 133 hits, 12 sacrifice hits and a batting average of .31S.
 In fielding he had 115 games. 1l5 putouts, 9 assists, errors and field ting .311. HenliDe hitting .27S and Per- sons hitting .233, everyone of the four fielding over .950 and being unusually fast on the paths there is an outtleld Aa l. rNFNGy anything in this league fade away.
 As between Persons and Henline, Persons is a good deal faster but his arm is not as good as Henlines. There is very little difference in the swatting abilities of the two, but on account of his speed 1t looks like Persons. The local lots this summer therefore look like Ryan, Piston and Persons, and it doesn't look So bad at ..m that? ma WohlebeD look like the goods in the infield, with Fully. Hassett. Pepee and Baxter for the chutes. Joe Pepee will be turned back to Macon, Malarky has already announced him in his lineup. Baxter has been offered chance to buy his own release and if he don't buy 1t somebody else will be glad to. The Moose is as fast a man as there is in the business. He can shove clean hit about a often as any of them. was one of the fastest base runners In the league last summer and unquesttonably the best man in the league on Inside work and bunts.
 But Baxter was getting more money last summer than any man on the Climbers and he wants an increase this summer. Ryan has determined not to give 1t, and hence the offer tol his release. He will undoubtedly be a loss to the Climbers this summer but Wohleben hits better than he does and while he is not as fast will i'll the bag pretty well.
 The most complex problem thai Ryan will have will be in wedding out the box staff. with the exception oi Helm. Murray and Burkett the pitch CTS all look good. Almquist ana De mare are unknown quantities in league ball, but Ryan seems to have the great est confidence in both of them. San Weems should be better this summer | than he has ever been and the UE:of | Springs boy pitched some great bal | towards the flag end of last season Merryman, Bliss, Van Anda, Thomas l Stackpole and Crystal form a seXtett' | that will be hard to turn down. and fl
 is safe to figure that Ryan can easily pick five topnotchers out of the las | nine mentioned. If Bert Maxwell comes back to Montgomery there vii
 be ten A. 1 men to get five pitcheri 1 from.
 The easiest proposition pf the wnol' outfit looks to be the backstop depart ment, If Messftt and Shanpon have no | gone back Ryan will hayA a brace O receivers that should be a9 good if no