Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-03
CATCHER JOHN HENRY HAS
NOT SIGNED WITH NATIONALS
But Will Play Here if He Plays at ALL
Groom Pitches Today-Schaefer
to Replace Killifer.
! Street always come in for a lot of stares
| and admiration from the fans.

\ d
and admiration from the fans.
| The split digit of Elberfeld, which has
caused his temporary retirement from the
| game. was considerably improved this
! morning, but it is decidedly doubtful If
/ he will be able to get in the game for
| some days yet. About all one hears the
players of the team complain about is
| Elberfeld's injury, and in view of the fact
| that the Kid had the reputation of being
disorganizer and unpopular with his
I teammates this is remarkable condi-
! ton, and only shows how Elberfed has
changed in every way since joining the
| team. There is now no more popular
! player in the team. and every man on 1t
| is loud in his praise of the Kids work
! this spring. The players believe that
there would have been different story to
tell of the New York series had the Kid
been able to play, and there is no doubt
that his absence made a wonderful diff
ference.
Cy Young is spending much of his time
! around the hotel where the Nationals are
stopping, and Cy 1t must be said is just
as much of a fan now as any OF the
youngsters who go to see him pitch. The
discussion came up this morning, and
Cy Nentured the opinion held by many
other players, that Crawford is Ty Cobb'S
master at welding the willow. 'You
see. said he. Cobb gets 4. lot of hits
because of his speed Crawford doesn't:
,
marks in the score. and we all know that
he gets them. He has it on Cobb, but of
course there is no compari son as to the
value of the two players to a team. Cobb
is wonderful ball player. There is moth
ing the can't Go. He has a close rival.
however. in Speaker of Boston, though
that young man lacks the energy and am
bition that Cobb possesses. This is my
twenty-first year in major league base
ball, and l don't remember ever seeing
! two greater outfielders and all around
ball players than Cobb and Speaker,
though l will admit that Cobb is the
greater of the two"
1t is really surprising how much straight
away base ball the teams Of the Ameri-
can League are playing these days. In
this respect there is no denying the fact
| that the game has not advanced. One
seldom sees team use strategic methods
to get runs or prevent them these days.
1t is the same old game day after day.
Though there are few exceptions where
ball teams use their heads as we'll as
their hands and feet.
Under the guidance of Hal Chase the
New York team is pulling off a lot of in
side stuff which has won them a lot of
ball games. The Cubs, in the National
League. are believed to be the headiest
outfit in harness, but as d general thing
the game is played in a straight-away
fashion, without anything unusual and
unlocked for being pulled off. Many of
the older players, who have been in the
game for years, complain Of this.
They can remember when it was nee
cessary to keep a strict watch Gil the Op-
position to prevent them fro.n doing the
unexpected, but those days seem to be
past and it is only once i'll a great while
now that a player attempts to do sonle-
thing out of the ordinary. and then usu-
ally only when the game is one sided
They don't take the chances they used to.
nor dc they seem to be asked to use their
hoo. oh, fsNv- ,or-ly-
This Cleveland team is in bad way
for hitters. Lajoie is the only man ON
the team who is getting hits, while none
of the others is batting up to his
standard. 1t is no longer a question of
how many 800 hitters the Maps have in
the lineup. but how many are hitting
near 200. 1t has been the lack of hitting
that has caused the numerous defeats OF
the Maps. who were picked to cut figure
in the race this year. 1t is, Of course, by
no means too late to make a start and
work near the top, but the team has fall
ed to show any Improvement since it
started to go poorly, and the fans here
have lost all hope.
Hughey Jennings in an interview in
Detroit picks the Nationals to finish in
the first division, fact over which The
players do not seem to enthuse.
I'VE may finish that high. but the fact
that Jennings makes the prediction does
not make II ClnCn. f1uSney you know
had to give some sort of an excuse for
the games we beat his team in Wash
ington. so he pictured us as being par
ticularly strong this year" said one of
the players. "All / hope is that he has
sized us up right and when We get
Elberfeld back in the game and If our
pitchers keep on working as they did we
may make good all that Jennings has
said of us.
Charley Street is SO thoroughly dis
gusted with his failure to get hits that
he wants to talk of nothing but his bat
ting slump. Though never q great bats
man. Charley prided himself on being
able to get many of his hits in pinch,
thing he has not accomplished this
year, excepting on two occasions. and
this, he thinks, is particularly humilitat-
ing 1T seems strange that just when
l can't get a hit il l paid for it, 1 am
always coming up with men on the
bases" said he. Il tell you it is awful
to have to go up there day after day
when hit might mean victory and fail
to get it, l am thoroughly disguised
with myself. for l have tried everything
imaginable to improve my batting. but
| simply can't get the ball to go into
safe territory.
Il have been very consistent in my hit
ting heretofore. always batting around
80 but this year L can't get started.
and il may be an off year for me. But
] shall keep on trying, and no matter
what happens. if McAleer is satisfied
with my catching I'll work in every
game this year to make up for my poor
hitting"
Harry Niles, recently purchased by