Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-04
NO HIGHER CLASS
Can Be Secured by Richmond
Yet in Base Ball.
RUSSELL GOT HIS BUMPS
Former Athletics Twirler Ham
mered by Independent Amateur
Team-0ther Gossip.

Jersey City has decided to stick by the
International League the talk In Rich
mond Of chance to get faster ball for
Virginia's capital will hardly be heard
again until the scribes are hard up for
winter DOPE. Fans who know the base
ball situation in the Old Dominion realize
that Richmond is entitled to faster ar
ticle OF ball than the other clubs OF the
Virginia League can stand for, but just
how this could be accomplished cannot
be worked out. for Richmond is q bit too
far from faster circuits and trifie too
small for the International.
It is true that Richmond generally turns
, out large crowds. but the attendance is
secured by cheap ball. Twenty-Five cents.
with 10 cents added for the grandstand,
Is the highest price, while half OF the
crowds, II not more than half, go to the
fifteen-cent bleachers. Put the prices up
to the standard of the International and
see what would become Of the big attend
ance. OF course, there would probably be
more money, but the attendance would
not run as high into four figures then, as
1t does now.
Another thing to be considered about
Richmond's big patronage lies in the fac.
that it has always been given all Of the
weekend series at home. Any other club
In the Virginia League will draw twice as
many fans Thursday. Friday and Satur-
day as they do Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday. This is a fact that cannot
be denied.
Joe Laughlin Is back in the game for
Petersburg. and incidentally the Coolers
are winning again. Laughlin was laid
low on June q with a broken digit. AT
that time the Petersburg crowd was lead
ing the race by safe margin. but with
Laugh.in out Of the catching department
things were different and in two weeks
the Coolers had lost their lead, and were
in third place. Here the Coolers trailed
until Laughlin went back to work and
then they began to win again. With this
player behind the bat Petersburg is 50
per cent stronger. for his knowledge or
the game stands the young pitchers well
in hand.
Laughlin halls from Woodstock, Va.
and has played in a number Of minor
leagues, having been one season with
st. Paul Of the American Association aft
er a trial with the Cincinnati club.
championship in 1910. and turned the
same trick last year In Petersburg, and
will come mighty near repeating again
this season, for Petersburg is one OF the
strongest factors in the race now. re-
CARELESS Of the fact that Roanoke is still
In the lead. Laughlin Is easily one OF
the best all-around catchers the Virginia
League has. Never brilliant, he Is al
ways there with the goods in all de-
partments Of the game. with an ability
to get every ounce of work out OF his
pitchers they have in them.
The Richmond team has inaugurated
boys days at the Broad street grounds
and the price of admission hereafter
Thursdays Will be a pair of kniGkerbock-
ers. This, Of course. means the return
of many a lad in trousers to a pair Of his
old knee breeches.
Six clubs are said to have been after
Doc Ayers, the Carroll county pitching
giant, who was bought by Washington.
Ayres may have been in great demand,
but he will hardly prove of much value
to the Nationals next year. for he will
almost certainly need another season Of
training before he can go in the big show
Chisel of some OF the rough places by
experience and Washington will have
man to depend on after awhile.
During the last month Jack Grim's
Newport News team won seven out of
thirty-one games played and the New
port News fans now realize that they
far as the Virginia League is concerned.
Grim has tired about forty players since
the season began. but the more he gets
the ranker they appear to be.
Arthur Evans. Newport News utility
player, is out Of the game with a frac-
tured arm
Gordon, the Chattanooga asset, had a
hard time rounding into form, but he Is
pitching great ball for Norfolk now. In
two games recently Gordon famed twen-
ty-six batters.
Lake is doing all of the catching for
the Newport News team since Evans was
put out by broken arm.
Although Erskine Mayer has lost two
of the last three games he has worked in
for the Portsmouth team he is still one
of the leading pitchers of the Virginia
League, and unless he goes to pieces
during the remainder of the season he
will be well to the top when the race
closes in September. Because some OF the
scorers of the circuit fail to include
records of pitchers in their scores. when
more than one pitcher figures in the
game, it is impossible to give a correct
unofficial record. hut Mayors Is nearly
correct for he has only gone In as sec
ond pitcher once or twice during the
season. and he has not been knocked out
of the box q single time since he was
turned over by Atlanta TO the Portsmouth
management.
, Mayer has figured in tweny-seven
games, twenty of which he has won. He
worked in one tie and lost six others,
giving him q pitching average of 100 In
Af4- n