The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-23
POINTERS ID RANDOM
BY HUGH W. ROBERTS.

The Montgomery Pretzels lack the az gressiveness that characterized their early performances and caused the wild gossip in the beginning that they would win the pennant.
 To begin with, Montgomery did not pos sess d team that could possibly finish high.
 However the men got together and under shower of horse shoes, walked away with the first dozen games in which they appeared.
 Then came illness and injury, and in ternal dissention. With several of the sick in the hospital, and with others numbered among the dead, or other wise departed, the Pretzeys have about reached their stride
 They have lost several games in a row. The fans at home are boiling over. The team is getting "dumpy'' and the play CTS are performing in an indifferent man. ner.
 Manager Ryan is making strenuous ef- forts, however, to get new players, and to keep the ones presently the salary list in as cheerful and willing a mood as possible.
 At the present time, he is not out of the running by any means, and within another month, he may have his bunch higher in the race. In spite of the crippled condition of the Barens they should have little trouble in winning every game of the current series.
 The Pretzels are crippled themselves and as stated above, are not playing as az gressive a game as they should.
 In spite of the relative standing of the two aggregations, it takes no expert to recognize that the Barons are better than the Pretzels that is, the Barons do not possess as many weaknesses as do the visitors.
 Inasmuch, therefore, as the Pretzels have thrown aside their aggressive tactics and are weaker even than they naturally are, the chances are that the Barons will win a series from them. The Barons, as stated, should take every game.
 A glance at the standing will indicate that it is not impossible for the Barons to beat the Pretzels out in the race.
 Should Birmingham win five and Mont gomery lose five, there would be very little difference between the standings of the two.
 And there are more than 90 games yet 1 remaining on the schedule. Reference to the Southern league race above reminds that the current scrap is perhaps the liveliest in the history of the league, and one of the closest in the country.
 New Orleans is still swinging to the lead. Nashville, by defeating Atlanta yesterday, crossed the Boosters and is strongly entrenched in second place. At lanta is third with Memphis fourth. Mo- bile heads the second division and Little Rock follows with an even 300.
 Montgomery, while being below the .5O0 mark, is less than 20 percentage points off color, and it will require but very few victories to put the Climbers again to the fore.
 Nashville is playing the most brilliant baseball in it's recent history, and better than any other club in the league. Are you aware that the last defeat that Nashville received was administered by Birmingham yesterday a week ago.
 Since that time the Volunteers have won six straight games.
 But it requires no effort to realize that the Volunteers are presently pacing out of their class.
 Doc" Wiseman is no shortstop, and while Hunter performs creditably in the gardens and at the stick, with McCormick gone, the Volunteers cannot hope to main | tain their present gait until his place Is acceptably filled.
 Incidentally, Heline is playing magni- fcently
 His fielding is par excellent, and his hitting just now is keeping Jimmy Ryan awake at nights.
 Henline certainly shows Reagan up, or, rather, did yesterday, and that trade was perhaps the wisest thing that Harry Vaughn accomplished before his with T 4 tl,a narf Frank according to a report last night, has acquired a Cleveland performer. It seems that "Cholly'' is determined to fly the rag this fall. However, since he has annexed Baxter the internal dissention of which mention has been made, seems more certain than ever. We expect to hear of deadly slump be- fore the conclusion of the season.
 Charlie Murphy has written Harry Vaughn a letter expressing sympathy and surprise that he has parted company with the Birmingham management.
 The former Baron manager, and the present president of the Chicago Cubs have for a long time been on the best of terms.
 Little Rock has acquired the services of new man, an outfielder answering to the euphonious name of Becker
 He was the whole cheese yesterday, and had he not been in the game Mobile might have triumphed. Will three Alabama teams in the South ern league finish "six, seven, eight?'' We hope not. On account of a technical misunder- standing it was necessary to use Man ming yesterday.
 And we desire to state right here that Manning's work has been of a high order since he joined the Barons and there will be regret when he leaves. He plays well wherever he is put. and willingly On account of the accidents befalling his team, and the consequential need of all available strength, Manager Moles- worth yesterday afternoon wired Bill Douglass to come home at once
 It is said that Rip Ragan is still in Birmingham. He was seen Sunday night all right enough, but mayhaps he slipped out yesterday afternoon.
 St. Louis yesterday supplanted Cleve- land as second choice in the American league.
 In the National, the leaders became ola h pbad af