The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-12
GIANTS GO TO-DAY
Recruits Will Start Work Early This Season at Marlin
 Springs.
GRIFFITH'S SPRING PLANS
HishIanders Report March 6 at At lanta to Begin Practice Series of
 Twenty-Five Games.

Leaving New York to-day the first of the baseball buds take their flight for the sunny south and the training grounds of the Giants at Marlin Springs, Tex, where they will try to develop into real ball players.
 McGraw has picked up some prom ising youngsters this season, of whom much is expected He will try some thing new this year in the way of ante-season training. Instead of the recruits and regulars beginning the preliminary work together, the new men will get two weeks start. On February 20 McGraw and seven of the most promising youngsters will start the hall rolling at Marlin Springs The regulars will not get into action until the second week in March So the beginners will have two weeks by themselves.
 The little manager thinks this plan will work out well. In the first place, they will have the managers undivid- ed attention Then as they will all be in the beginners class there will he no petty jealousies. which often crop out when the regulars and the recruits start working together. Another req son is that the youngsters will have no occasion to overdo themselves in an effort to show their ability to the veterans.
 Tho rn11 nf tlo t1.iIl Include such tried veterans as Shan non, Penney Seymour, Donlin, Dev- lin, Bresnahan, Mathewson, McGinni- ty, Taylor, Ames, Strang and several others. But if the youngsters make good" on the southern trip there will be a number of new faces when the fans pour into the Polo grounds for the first game in the middle of April.
 Merkle at this time is the star. of the new men. McGraw thinks that he will make baseball history this season or next. He can hardly be called a new man for he played fifteen games with the Giants at the tail end of the 1907 season. He is only twenty years old. but he is already a strapping big fellow, with an ideal build for a first baseman, which position he filled last year.
 He came to the giants from Tecum- sch, where he played in the Southern Michigan league. taking part in 106 games, making batting record of .271 and a fielding record of 967, He got thirty stolen bases and ten sac rifice hits.
 James, the next recruit. is a grad uate of Washington and Jefferson col lege. where he played guard on the football team and was captain and catcher on the baseball nine. He is about twenty-four years old, six feet tails and weighs 200 pounds. His work behind the bat and with the bat while in college was phenomenal Although a heavyweight he Is fast on the bases and can hit like a demon McGrav thinks he can find plenty of use fol James, now that Frank Bowerman i: Beaneater. He is left-hander
 Larry Doyle is not new man, bu he will go south with the cubs. The New York National Baseball clut bought him from the Springfield, III. team for s4.500 at the middle of thu season He played at second bas' with the Giants in sixty nine games last season. and had fielding average of .917 and a batting average of .260 His work toward the end of the sea son was handicapped by an injury.
 From the Fairmont. w. Va, tean of the Western Pennsylvania leagu comes Evans. the first baseman Tn Fairmont team won the pennant in it league. Evans was picked up by Dal Brothers. the Giants scout. He mad A great record last season as a heav hitter. There will he little chance fo Evans at first base, however, witt Tenney and Merkle as his opponents.
 Another Pennsylvanian who will g south with McGraw is Barley
 member of the Franklin team of tn Interstate league who finished tn season with a batting average of 294 and a fielding average of .971. He an outfielder.
 Two of the new men are pitchers Malarkey of the sharon team of tn Ohio and Pennsylvania league. an Mckinney, a native of Oyster Bay, l I. Both are big men. Malarkey Ina pitched in thirty-seven games las season and won eighteen of them. Nc Kinney has the build of Amos Rusi and the speed of cyclone.
 Of the three new men from tn Boston National team little need h said. Penney has been playing pro fessional baseball since 1892 He is graduate of Brown university. Whe he first joined the Boston team he wa used behind the bat, but he was 500 transferred to first base, and has play ed that position ever since. He play ed in 149 games last year. and had batting average of .273 and his field ing average of aS9.
 Bridwell, the new shortstop, is e'