Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-08
CULLEN'S LETTER
ON SPORTING TOPICS
Clark Griffith Against Training
Trips-Gotham's Eyes on
the CHARACTERIZATION
of the Turfmen.
BY CLARENCE L. CULLEN.

| NEW YORK. March Z. 1905
| Clark Griffith doesn't believe in spring
| training trips. He went south with his
crew under protest last spring. and he
| feels even keener about it this year.
| His view is that after men have put in
| a hard winter in the north country
| they're always inolned to overdO it
when they hit the balmy south in the
spring. Then. as the ball-playing season
| begins too early according to Griffith
view, and there are others who view it
the same way). the limbered-up players.
| skylarking about the chill parks. get
played upon by the raw. biting winds of
| early spring. stiffen up like blackstrap
| molasses that's been let out on the door
| step all night in snowstorm, and de-
velop all the manifold kinks and twists
of Mr. c. Horse. There are renowned
| fans over here who take Griffith's view
| of this thing. too.
| Griff says that he'd rather train his
| team with couple of Turkish baths
| and three days of Skinny on vacant
| lot than to take them. on two months
| tour through magnolia land. He declares,
moreover. that he's going to start his
! team soft" this year He says that he'd
rather have EN- looking like a detach-
ment of the Jolly Fat Mems Club on
| cDOWuef picnic imam ike Il lOi VI oNtl-
| trained jumpers that have got to handle
| themselves like prima donnas if, upon
! their return to the north, they are to es-
| cape ailments that will lay them on the
! shelf or make them virtually useless till
| midsummer
Muggsy McGraw. however, has diamet-
really opposite views as TO this spring
| training business. The reports which are
| reaching here with reference to the kind
| of all-day stunts Muggsy is putting his
/ 4. 0r
Simon Legree-if that eminent Uncle Tom
mer ever kept a diary. Muggsy is remov-
| ing the winters accumulation of lard
! from his bunch so rapidly as to excite
| the curiosity and suspicion of j. Ogden
| Armour He declares that he's going to
| start in the season with his gang down
| to the proportions of living skelingtons.
| and if they want to pick up pound or
two after that, why, let 'em-thats
| Muggsy's idea. The zeal with which
! Muggsy is going into the thing, anyhow,
| leads the idoliZers Of the Giants to be-
| lieve that McGraw is going to get into
| the ball-managing business sure enough
this approaching season. The tip is out
| that Muggsy isn't going to play a horse
nor even scan a dope sheet all of this
| year. Wonderful remuneration, If it's
true! 1t has been understood that the
| ponies put a crimp in McGraw along
| toward the wird-up of the racing season
| Of 1907 that forced him to go back to
| not to look like somebody just wabbling
around in his clothes; and turf history
| affords quite u few examples of men who
| have quit frivoling with the old gee-gee
thing after they've been made to look
| like a shredded hay biscuit by toying
| with the game.
For some wholly unaccountable reason.
which neither the dope nor any kind of
bunch handicapping that ever l heard of
justifes, they've got the idea over here
| that the Clark Griffith team has an
even money chance to snag the Ameri-
can League pennant this year. Now isn't
that usefulness for you? Talk about the
| confidence of mother in her che-ild!
| The way they figure it, SO far as [ can
| get at it, is that the Detroits were &C
| cidents last year. that the Athletics are
| cutters. that the SoX are good old used
| to- bes-and so on and on, to the end
| of the world. Beautiful dream! But they
| just will insist upon using this kind of
| bhang and hasheesh and the scrapings
| of the old bamboo over here In New York
when they get on the subject of their
| ball clubs. and, after all. it's kind O.
| brutal to laugh at them. If they're able
to dream on that way, with all the gray
world of fact swirling around them, why
| should they be disturbed?
Il wish we'd nailed the Rube.' rumi-
natvely remarked Abe Nahon. the bust
ness manager of the Yankees the other
day. Il know that fellow pretty we'll.
He's got heap more gray matter than
| many people give him credit for, only
| he's sort of natural-born Indian. 1t
would be just like him to turn around this
year and do the heaving of his life for
| McAleer. In fact. that's what l conf
| IDENTIFY expect to see him do. He'll have
| the same natural instinct, after this shift.
to make good. and make good big. tina
| any other ball player would nave in the
| same circumstances; and anybody who
' herds you off into a shadowy corner and
! tries to tell you that Waddell is all in as
a pitcher is one of those poppyeaters you
want. to steer clear of if you don't want
| to get the poppy habit yourself. Waddell
| is just as good today as he ever was in
his life. He's strong as BULL his fin
| is absolutely without a splinter of glass.
and after all of his fooling and trifiing
| around, he knows that right now is the
| time for him to kick in and deliver the
| merchandise; that it's the trial time of
| his life and that if he doesn't do the
| right thing by Jimmy McAleer this season
| he's sure to get can tied to him thatll
make the Tin Trust work overtime.
| That's the way l frame it. and, besides
| that, I've seen two or three letters from
| the Rube to people here that are put la
| entirely different language than the bug
| talk Waddell used to spread raper.
| He writes in d quietly determine sort
| of way that he's going to hand out some
| thing this ysRr. He's fair in his refer
| ences to Connie Mack, and says that he
| doesn't blame Mack for having got tired.
But he writes like pitching somebody
| that has got his teeth together with a
| kind of click, and if the RUDE doesn't
| make all of us sorry this year that we
| didn't break a few blood vessels in order
to snag him before McAleer decided to
| take chance you can put me down for
one of those prophets that ought to be
| sitting ashes.
| One of the funniest breaks that have been
| made in connection with this anti-racing
agitation was made by August Belmont
| when he went up to Albany the other day
with that big delegation of racing folk to
tell the New York legislature what a
| great and beneficent institution the racing
| game in New York is.
| August let slip the observation that at
least 80 percent of all the people VINO go
| to the New York race tracks go to them
| merely for the sake of seeing the green
| fields and breathing the nice. cute fresh
| air. Now this remark in itself was en-
| Pertaining enough, in view of the fact that
about the most crowded place on earth on
| a summers day, and the place where, on
| account of the packing together of thou
| sands of people, there is hardly any fresh
air at all. is a New York race track.