Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-13

poor rnortals-cannot get out to the ball
parks and yell their heads of for their
favorites. These are the presidents OF the
two leagues. ban johnson OF the Amerl-
can and Harry Puliam of the National
Their positions demand that they snail be
absolutely impartial. They draw big sal
aries. but from the time game begins
until il ends they are not to he envied by
the poorest lad who has to carve through
knot in order to get peep at what is
going on inside park. The most tfat
Johnson and Pul!iam can do To enjoy
themselves is to observe the umpires and
see that they obey instructions. are inn
partial and know the rules perfectly
The teams which Will be watched the
most at the start of this season are the
New York and the s.. Louis Americans.
for who could help keeping eye on a
team when has "Rube'' Waddell AS the
base ball tale unfolds itself there will be
others that will be carefully studied from
day 10 day. These will be the teams
which were considered weak at the start
and which make a surprisingly strong
showing and those which looked to be
pennant prospects at the opening of the
season and failed to live up to expecta-
tons.
Deals for Players.
All of those teams made deals last win
ter by which prominent players were
switched from one club to another The
New York Americans have added to their
list Jake Stahl. formerly of the Boston
and Washington Americans; Second Base
man Niles Outfielder Hemphill and Pitch
er Glade of the St Louis Americans. and
have a lSo decided to keep Wild COnroy
regularly at third base. This team will
have its first real test tomorrow. when
the Athletics will open the American
League season in New York
The St. Louis Americans, in addition to
,k,fr, l,T
have been stars for years. These are
Jimmy Williams. former second base
man: Infielder Joe Yeager and Danny
Hoffman of the New York Americans and
Hobe Ferris. formerly of the Boston
Americans.
close as ever. The Athletics are stronger
than last sea son. They have a better in
field for this time in 1907 Nichols was an
experiment at shortstop. and Manager
Mack was trying to fix up the third base
corner and didn't secure Collins until
June Now Connie has an infield which
cannot be beaten by any team In the
American League. for Nichols is a fin
ished shortstop and Collins. when his arm
gets into frst-class condition should be
far and away better than any man who
tried to play third base for the Athletics
during the first two months of last season.
Collins, too. should do even better work
than he did in 1907, when re was many
pounds overweight.
The Chicago team is another that looks
considerabl stronger than last year. Da-
Wis will surely outplay Isbell at second on
account of the short throw, while Parent
apparently has regained his form of three
years ago. when he was a wonder at
shortstop. Tannehill will be back on third.
and this boy is about due for run of
good luck. as he has certainly been in
jured enough in the past two years to
make up for the next ten.
Detroit is the same old gingery team of
last year. and the defeat in the world
series by Chicago was just the right
thing to reduce head swellings and make
the men do their best for Jennings all the
time
Cleveland, ST. Louis. Boston and Wash
ington will be the tail-end quartet. and
a merry fight should result to head the
second division. The Washington fans
are not at all ambitious. but they would
liketo see the Nationals head off these three
clubs. and Manager Cantillon is net bit
backward in claiming that his boys can
do it.
Here's luck to the Washington club, the
American League and base ball In gen.
eral. May the season be the greatest on
record for all.