The Washington herald., 1911-05-15
By WILLIAM PEET.

Yesterday was a bad day for the East
ern clubs of the American League play
ing in the West, for every one Of them
had to submit to a walloping at the hands
Of their rivals.
The Nationals and New York Yankees
were outplayed in every department,
while Boston and the Athletics went
down by close scores.
Sunday is always a hoodoo day for
Bob Groom. The lanky twirler never
goes into the box on the Sabbath unless
il is absolutely necessary.
Groom said to the writer one day last
spring: THE only disagreeable part of
our Western trips are the Sunday games.
when I am slated to twirl. In tho first
place, my parents have never quite been
reconciled to my playing professional ball,
because of the games on Sunday. They
tried to make me promise l would not
pitch on that day, but l told them 1
could not do as they wished for 1t would
not be treating my manager right.
THE first Sunday game in which I
was sent in the box by Joe CantillOn l
was badly beaten-can't explain just the
reason. for ! had everything. and since
then I have had a horror of pitching on
that day"
Many ball players are absurdly super
stitious, and in the matter of Sunday
baseball. Bob Groom is one Of them.
This may or may not explain his poor
showing yesterday.
Collegian John Henry is proving to be
mighty handy man for the Nationals
Just now He has been behind the bat
in the last three games. and in addition
to handling the pitchers in good shape
is sneaking in his little hits.
The Amherst lad is getting just the
kind of experience he needs. and it would
not be surprising to see him given n
regular berth before the season closes
and stick there.
Second Baseman Bill Cunningham de-
clared while the Nationals were in Wash
ington last Monday that the reason why
he had not been hitting early this season
was on account of the superior pitching
he was up against, as compared with
minor league twirling when the season
was young.
Said Cunny: Last year when the New
England League opened l hit for about
40 the first three weeks out. all pitchers
looked alike 20 me. Later on my hits
did not come so often. II is all because
of the spring training the major league
boxmeH enjoy; they are ready to go the
limit at the first crack OF the gun. The
minor league. does not reach his high
est stan lard until about the lst of June.
There appears to be a whole lot of
truth in Cunningham's remarks.
Dolly Gray will in all probability go
against the st. Louis Browns this after
noon. and il will be interesting to see
how Dolly gets along. as he has never
been very successful against the Mound
City tribe. Dixie Walker and Walter
Johnson had the most success against
ST. Louis last year
Although wee Willie Keeler is playing
ball in the minors now, they still talk
about him In the big show" When the
Athletics paid a visit to our fair city
recently, during a tanning bee at the
Big Chief Bender paid keeler
the following compliment:
Taken all in ALL said the great In
dian twirler, Il think Willie had some
thing on all of them. He was the best
man to wait a ball that l ever saw. and
he never could be dragged into plugging
at one unless it was a good one.
Il pitched a lot to him. but / don't
know of single time when l fooled him
into hitting at one unless it was right
over the platter. I've often talked with
other pitchers who faced Willie. and they
all agreed with me that none of them
can remember when the little man ever
struck at a bid one. 1 think he had
on anybody when It came to
looking them over. He was sure peach.
Willie was"
Baseball Writer Wray, of the st. Louis
Dispatch, seems to take exception to
Manager McAleers statement that the
Tigers will win the American League
this season.
Wray's opinion is summed up in the
following: Detroit is going to un-
dergo its first real test during the ad-
vent of the visitors. There is nothing
in the West to cause the Tigers any
alarm. St Louis can't hurt the Tigers