The Washington times., 1911-04-12
TEAM IS IN FORM
FOR FIRST BATTLE
AND SHOULD WIN
Each Player Has a Good,
Clean, Fast Practice
Record.
MEN CONFIDENT
OF VICTORY TODAY
Expect to Annex Opening Game
From the Boston
Red SoX.
By SENATOR"

The Nationals opened the season today
prepared to play their very best game.
or those who were in the lineup
against the Red Sox not one is suffering
from the slightest injury or illness.
The Nationals have been favored with
much better weather for training than
ever before. Last season found them
without a pitcher able to go a full
nine-inning game on the opening day,
This season all is different, for every
twirler, with the exception of Tom
Hughes and Doc Meyer. has gone the
distance at Atlanta and is able to re-
peat
The Kind of Practice.
Unlike the Red Sox, who have been
transforming through Texas, Okla
homa, and Kansas since leaving Cali
fornia. the Nationals practiced against
big league pitching. Johnson. Groom,
Gray, Walker. Otey, and Bussey were
in superb condition for work on the
hill, and the regulars were stacked up
against much better pitching than could
have been provided by the best busher
In the minors. This hitting practice is
bound. to make itself felt during the first
few days of the campaign.
The confidence OF the Nationals is not
built upon shifting sands. Dolly Gray
reported at Atlanta fully ten pounds
heavier than he did last spring. Gabby
Street remarked this the first night at
the hotel in Atlanta. and said that in all
the five years he had known Gray, he
never had seen him looking SO well.
Bob Groom, generally an unlucky
Nd
is living up to all the good predictions
made for him around the circuit last
season. Jimmy McAleer thinks Groom
should be one of the best pitchers in the
American League, and sincerely hopes
that the fans won't start after him for
momentary unsteadiness. At Atlanta,
without bowling fans to send him up in
a balloon, the perpendicular pitcher
alighted safely and continued victor
iously to the very end.
Walkers Good Chance.
Dixie Walker. the Alabama beauty,
won half of his games last season. and
this season stands a good chance of at
least repeating, if not bettering that
record. Walker is big and strong and
needs only good support He has every
thing in the line of curves and speed
that any pitcher needs, and McAleer
counts upon him for regular duty on
the mound this year.
Bill Otey. the southpaw secured from
the Virginia League last season, is now
enjoying good health, and that means a
lot for the good of the team this year.
Otey has done excellent work in the
training practice, and will take his regu-
lar turn on the mound against teams
weak against the portsiders.
Another of the assets of the 1911 Ma
uonals is Long Tom" Hughes. the
veteran pitcher, whose record in the
American Association attracted the T.
tention of every big league scout in the
business. Hughes is not quite ready for
active work, but needs only the warm
weather to timber up as well as any of
them.
At the start of the season Of 1910 the
Nationals had never heard of Bill Cum
ningham or John Henry, but before this
year rolls around the whole baseball
world is going to ring with their praises,
for they are simon-pure stars. In John
Henry, whom Mike Kahoe chose from
last season S Amherst College team, the
Nationals have picked UP a first base
man who is bound to waken the thrills,
not only in Washington, but all around
L.
ical lines Of 'Husk'' Chance Of the Chi
cago Cubs, Henry plays game around
that first bag that also shapes up we'll
in comparison with the great Chicago
leader.
Moves Like a Veteran.
Although he had never played game
at first In his life until pressed into
service last season one day in Detfoit
the Amherst lad is today moving around
as IL he had always played there. He
shows not a particle of crudeness in his
work and is going to make many an
eve open wide in amaZement before he
cashes in as a first baseman.
Henry has been stinging the ball hard
at Atlanta and in this department of the
game he is far stronger than John Som
erlot. the Terre Haute lad secured at the
close OF last season. He is now being
coached by McAleer in batting and be-
fore the Fourth of July his name ought
10 be blazoned brightly all over the
country as the best first baseman in the
American League, barring possibly the
mighty Hal Chase of the Yankees.
RiII Cunningham led the ieam at the
bat during his short stay last season,
and promises to do even better this year.
He reported weighing 1S pounds, but
strenuous work clad in a rubber shirt
has brought him down to ia which is
to be his playing weight this season.
The boy has grown heavier Turing the
winter and needs only added strength
now to be ready for the hardest battles
Of the season.
Cunningham is hitter Of the first