The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-09
HENLINE WRITES
 GOSSIPY LETTER Baron 0utfeIder Becomes Attn
 Ietic Director HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS Says Jeffries Will Meet Johnson. About Close of Winter League.
 Walter Johnson's Stunt
 on Baron Team.
HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS

Under date of February 3, Noah Hen line writes The Age-Herald from Eos Angeles as follows:
 Well. the days of fireside baseball are about over and in three short weeks the crack of the bat will be heard in the land and the black score will greet the eye of the eager fan.
 The California Winter league is on the flag end of the season, there being only about four more Sundays till the bell taps for the last time. San Diego, with it's bunch of big league stars. and material. has the pennant cinched, hav- ing only lost two games out of b played. It seemed to be the general opinion of the critics that the Santa Ana aggregation. the team of which l am a member, would take their meas ure. and the sports of San Diego must have thought so, as Santa Ana money went begging, but last Sunday, in our final game. they took us into camp to the tune of to 3. But it was a much dicate. Walter Johnson pitched for us, but was given miserable support, both in the field and at the bat.
 T want to say just a word in re- gard to a game Santa Ana played against Pasadena a few Sundays since Walter Johnson, for us. struck out IT of the Pasadena batsmen but was touched up for 13 hits. Can you beat that? It seemed all they had to do was to throw their bats at the ball and 1t was a hit I think the fans of Bir-
 
 year that we lost by just such a bunch of luck, or hard luck, which ever you might call it.
 Jim Jeffries returned home last evening and was given a rousing re- ception at the Welsh Music hall. It seems to be a conceded fact that Jeff fries will fight Johnson some time in the future.
 q am kept pretty busy these days coaching a couple of high school base ball teams and I just want to say one thing concerning athletics in Califor- mia high schools. Almost all the high schools are union schools and conse- quently have plenty of money. A large majority of them employ physical direc- tors who have charge of all branches of athletics, baseball, football, basket ball. track and lawn tennis. This direc- tor must be a graduate of some first grade college, and I happen to know that the director at Hollywood high school gets S1200 for 10 months. Each school has a large gymnasium and large playgrounds, and in fact com pares faVorably with the colleges of the east. According to the rules of the A. A. U. a professional coach is not permitted, but two or three of us have slipped in. George Atwall of the Cleve- land Americans Is coaching the Long beach high school team.
 'I suppose Moley is In Birmingham by this time and things will begin to hum around baseball headquarters. I see by the dope that Charlie Frank has landed another big leaguer or two. We'll here's hoping we can succeed in beating him out of the pennant this year instead of aiding him as we did last year. for you will remember we only won two games from New Orleans in the entire season, and Ford had to let them down with but one hit or no runs for us to win one of them-
 sI want to say just a word about the way the team looks to me so far as I know anything about the players per sonally. Everybody who knows any thing about baseball knows that unless you have a good pitching staff you have to have an exceptionally hard hitting and strong fielding team to win pen nants. It certainly was an apparent fact that our position in the race last year was due to the inconsistent work of our pitching staff. But my candid opinion is that the very reverse will be true of this years staff. To start with, McNeal never could win, although he pitched some first-class games the early part of the season and seemed to become dissatisfied as the season went on and didn't care much. His efforts did us very little good Robertaille was our only main stay the whole year considered, as he pitched pretty good ball after the first few games, but seemed to get disheartened toward the last. Robinson, you remember, pitched wonderful ball till he sprained his an- kle sliding to the plate, which put him out of the game for three weeks, and when he did get back into the game they simply slaughtered his curves for four or five games before his ankle was strong. But in the latter part of the season he was a whirlwind. Bauer lacked experience when he landed in Birmingham and suffered from stage fright for several games, and he came out at the short end for some time, all though he pitched good consistent ball. His main fault was lack of control After he got going, I think Lon com pared favorably with any other young pitcher in the league. Fleharty started like a whirwind when he was cut down by a bad case of typh old fever and never pitched a good game afterwards till the day before the season closed. Ford was fairly effective and was good horse when he had his fast ball working So much for last year. Rob inson should start as well as last year and with the added experience should deliver A No. 1 goods from the jump till the finish, barring another acci- dent Bauer, too. I look for him to be top notcher this year, and Fleharty should make a third star. Ford will be as good as last year, so with the new material Moley has to pick from l cannot see anything to it but as good a pitching staff as there is in the Southern and given a good pitching staff there is nothing to 1t but the first division.
 Well. here's hoping the weather in Birmingham is better than here, as 1t is raining pitch forks and baby elephants.
 RAY-GAYETY GAME.
 IobnnU Rov tho comedian and his