Evening star., 1911-06-04
FIELD WILL BE CHANGED
WHILE TEAM is ON TRIP
: CONTINUED From First Page.)

CONTINUED From First Page.)
minor leagues. But a natural hitter
usually hits in any company, and Walker
from all accounts comes by his hitting
proclivities naturally.
report purported to come from Man
ager McAleer to the effect that Elber-
field would not replace Conroy even after
his injury has mended seems to have
aroused many of the Kids admirers, and
communica atiOnS to the writer requesting
that stand be taken to have Elberfeld
back In the game are numerous. 1t is
not known that Manager McAleer has
ever expressed his intentions regarding
Elberfeld, but as 1t seems to have been
the managers purpose on all occasions to
put In the field the strongest team avail
able. there is not much chance of Elber-
field remaining on the bench as soon as
he is ht to play. There is no question
about Elberfeld's value to the team. He
is not only good ball player but he has
lot of spirit and inspires his team
mates. Elberfelds value must not be
judged by the averages, for he does
much for which, figures give him little
credit.
John Henry was spiked at first base in
the fourth inning yesterday, when. in an
effort to avoid Delehanty, who had slid
into the bag after taking Henry's ground
er, he was cut in the foot. He stayed
in the game for several innings there
who appears to know how to play the
bag very well. Incidentally the Dutch
man hit line drive to Jones and got
an infield hit, made possible by his fast
sprinting. Schaefer gave no evidence Of
suffering from charley horse when there
was a base hit in sight.
Barring accident, Oscar Stanage, the
Tigers star backstop proposes to break
the record this year. in the matter of the
Stanage expects to be behind the bat in
every game the Tigers play this year.
barring accidents. of course. He feels
that he can accomplish this feat with
credit to himself. and as Jennings is none
too long on catcherS he Is encouraging
Stanage in his intentions. Stanage. by
the way, has developed into first-class
catcher. He works easily behind the
bat, uses good judgment and makes his
work easy.
Hughey Jennings is not worried about
his pitchers. He figures that since the
youngsters have been doing most of the
work this spring the veterans will be in
able of doing lots of work. Mullin show
ed to good advantage yesterday. His
recent slump was the result of opera
ton on his nose, from which he seems
to have entirely recovered. and he expects
to win majority of his games on this
eastern trip Jennings expects to hold
his own at least while he is away from
home. and by the time he gets back he
expects to have Gainor back on first
base, and this youngster is said to be a
great help to the team, because Of his
hard and timely hitting, not to speak Of
his ability to play first base.
Sam Crawford is twenty pounds lighter
this spring than he was at any time last
season and he attributes his good ball
playing to his condition. '.They had me
going back to the minors last fall. but l
have fooled them" said Sam. Il went to
Hot Springs early In the spring. and
while there / worked like Trojan over
the mountains, besides putting myself on
a diet. The result was that got rid of
my weight and am as good now as /
ever was ! have learned that you can't
play ball and carry a lot Of weight
around with you which is Of no service
to YOU"
One feature Of the game which the new
ball is in a fair way to abolishiIfg Is
sacrificing. 1t is but seldom now that a
team resorts to this play to move up
base runners, for the reason that the
chances for base hits with the lively ball
are greater than before. while errors. too,
are much more apt to be made. Only
batters who are very weak with the stick
are allowed taGD0erifice these days. but
players who can1st are instructed to hit
Detroit is in fair way this year to
break all recent records for number OF
runs scored during season There have
been decidedly few games this season in
which Jennings team has not scored six
runs or more. and no pitchers seem able
to worry them to any great extent 1t is
upon the strength that the team shows in
this respect that it's chances for the flag
must be based. 1t requires high-grade
pitching to hold the Tigers down, and
this fact makes the work OF Jennings
twirlers comparatively easy. The pitch
ers always get bundle Of runs to work
on, and this is a great advantage over
the average team. which makes but few
runs and must hold the opposing teams
down to a very few tallies in order to
win.
At the rate Ty Cobb is hitting here
he will not find it very difficult to
work his way to the front of the other
great hitters again. He has made nine
base hits for total Of fifteen bases
in the three games the Tigers have
played here. and his average for these
thres games was .642. There is moth
ing scratchy about Cobb's hitting
either. His drives are mostly clean-cut
liners to the outfeld. and now and
then he beats out a slow roller to the
infield.
There has been considerable improve
ment in the Nationals fielding and bat
ting recently. Last week the team
hitting. and 1t has moved up three
notcnes IN the former, and has passed
st. Louis in batting work. But the
pitching Of the locals has been far
from satisfactory. Excepting Hughes.
OF the other pitchers displays any form
to speak Of.