Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-23
BY J. ED GRILL0.
Special Dispa tch to The Star.

| BOSTON,, Mass, April S-Tom LOne
| Of Gadsden, Ala. who since last fall has
been q member Of the Nationals. may
join the Indianapolis team of the Amer
| lean Association before the week Is out
President w. H. Watkins Of the latter
/ club was in conference with Manager
Grifiith yesterday afternoon regarding the
| securing Of Long for his team and, while
nothing definite was done. Griffith has
named the conditions under which he will
part with the youngster, while Watkins
has promised to either accept or reject
| the proposition some time today.
That Griffith did not intend to carry
Long has been known for some time. His
two utility outf1elders will be Shanks and
Clarence Walker. Longs only failing
| seems to be weak throwing arm. But
for this Griffith thinks him q most capa-
Bile youngster. Watkins has two tenta-
tive deals on with Brooklyn and the Bos-
| ton Nationals. and whether Long will be
secured by him depends entirely on the
outcome Of these deals, which are to be
decided today. Watkins team, which
was figured to be one Of the strongest in
the association. has fallen down, losing
nine Of the last ten games, and he Is q
! busy man trying to strengthen his forces.
Long would undoubtedly be of great Serv-
Ice 10 HlHl, LOT ne Is IdSL anu CctH Hlt,
and hitters, Watkins says, are what his
team needs most.
At the rate that the Nationals are pill
ing up postponed games they are going to
be busy, team later in the season play
ing double headers OF the first ten
games scheduled four have had to be
postponed on account Of the weather. and
| this means four double headers later on.
Boston Is in even worse shape. having
! ~1nry S&,,& >A~ $41A khnk va
scheduled. losing not only opening day.
last Thursday, but two games last Friday,
Patriots day. There was no chnce for q
game yesterday. It drizzled all day, and
while II did not rain hard enough to pre-
vent the players from reporting at the
But both teams took their batting and
fielding practice. which was welcome
President McAleer was at the park and
he renewed old acquafntances with the
! members of the Washington team who
| were under his charge during his regime
at the Capital.
Sir Jeems is playing the role Of the
magnate In more ways than one. He
has no intention. he says. OF taking any
part In the management Of the team.
been insinuated that McAleer. because
| would be unable to keep his hands of
the team sooner OF later. but he vows
IHdt lHCTS Is OUiy OHG UOSS 1OE lHS pay.
| ers and that Is Stahl.
Fenway Field, the new home Of the
Red Sox, is . beautiful ball plant. The
| for the occupant OF every seat to get a
| full view Of the entire field. The field
proper Is not vet finished. needing sod
ding and lots of attention to get 1t At,
but In due time there will be no more
handsomer ball park in the country
than the local park.
Bob Groom was carded to work yester-
| may force johnson into harness again
today, making the fourth series this
| spring that he has opened. Griffith in
tends to work Johnson every fourth day
| this season. and when every one Of the
| other pitchers is thrown out of turn by
| reason Of having the game he was in
tended to pitch postponed, it will not in
terefere with the regular routine that
Johnson is to follow. Johnson Is big
Joe Woods are to clasi, today has
aroused lot of interest among local
fans here.
Griffith actually believes that his team
| Is going to be the surprise Of the pres
| ent campaign In the American Leasue
| The fact that he has broken even in the
nrst SIX games played and has had four
games with Philadelphia, only one OF
encouraging indication to the Nationals
manager. He is especially pleased by
| the fact that his team lost to the cham
pions because of errors, which, while they
game. can be charged to tough luck. On
| the whole the team has shown to good
| advantage. but Griffith expects 1t to i'm
prove as the season progresses. and while
ne Will not make any predictions as to
where the Nationals will finish he seems
to feel that the Washington public will
be well satisfied with Its showing when
| the race is over.
President McAleer is disappointed a.
since the season started. 1t was McAieeI
| who scured Foster and Moeller from
Rochester, and he considered Foster the
| making Of a great ball player.
When / read reports from Charlottes-
vile that Foster was not making q very
| favorable impression I had hopes that
the Washington club would not give him
chance to get down to real work, and
proposed to make every effort to secure
him." said the Boston magnate. ''He
would have At In nicely on my ball team.
for / know he Is a good ball player, for
saw him play lot Of games last sea-
son. But 1t happened just as I suspect
he started to play hiSh-ciass bali. and. Of
course. there Is now no chance Of his
getting away. I look for Foster to de-
lvelop into one Of the best inhelders In the
league by the end Of this season."
Clark Griffith. like Jimmy Callahan OF
the White Sox, thinks the squeeze play
one OF the jokes of base ball, and 1t IL not
likely that the Nationals will ever b
lcaught trying this play. Grinith thinks
that when q right-handed pitcher allows
this play to be pulled on him that he
should be fined. He realizes that mas.
much as q left-hander is unable te
watch third. base runner might get 9
holds that there Is no excuse for a right
handler falling for this game. But Crit
nth has figured a play which is much
more effective to his way Of thinking
For instance. II there is q man on first
and third and none are out, the hrst base
man Is sure to hug his bag In an en-.
deavor to hold the runner on there. Grin
towards first base will assure one run.
and maybe more and that there IL no way
to break up the play since the man on
third makes no effort to score until he
sees the bunt laid down.
With the prospects Of many double.
headers to be played by the Nationals
later in the season. or, according to the
rules. on the second trip to city II
the circuit where q game has been pre-
vented for some reason or other. Grtmth
will need Q strong pitching stan In ordel
70 hold his own when these games pill
up on him. For this reason he has nd
in Ne pnching staik. ana i would no.
be at all surprising Il he carried all but
one Of the many pitchers he now has OF
the list through the season. Becker seeml
to have q chance to stick. All he hal
to do 10 make good Allowing In soma
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