Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-01
n0ERTINE emit O1NENT
alzSsr Happenings 1Sportdom

team. and when they do it is going to
make big difference in its standing.
Looking over the personnel of the club
owners of the National League one is
amazed at the number of new faces that
have crawled into that organization dur
| ing the last few years. Garry Herr
mann. Charley Ebbets and Barney Drey-
fuss of Cincinnati, Brooklyn and Pitts
! burgh, are the only ones left of the old
guard. The Robisons, who once owned
/ st. Louis and Cleveland, are both dea ..
Jim Hart. famous in the old Chicago days
| is out of the game. Conant. Soden and
/ bllings retired several years ago in
| Boston. John T. Brush died only a few
| days ago. John I. Rogers got out OF the
! Philadelphia club some time back Most
of the club owners of the old league W. re
! unknown to base ball seven or eight
years ago Charley Murphy was not identi-
/ fled with the game at that time and Jim
! Gaffney, now of Boston. was only an
| occasional spectator. Now there is a
man named Wier at the head of the
the nominal leader of the Cardinals
though that club is owned by a woman.
| The American League now really can
| boast OF the veteran owners. With one
! or two exceptions every one of the club
| owners has been in the league for ten
years or more In one sense it has be-
| come the parent organization, being bless
ed with eight club owners who have had
experience in the game. While the burden
| of handling the National League falls
almost entirely on the shoulders of Herr
mann and Dreyfuss.
| This modern foot ball game is becoming
almost AS uncertain as base ball Form
| is rather unreliable on the gridiron these
| days and that was demonstrated at Annap-
oils yesterday when Navy scored a sig
nal victory over Army IL there eyer
was year when followers of the Navy
gave up all hope of being able to beat
their rivals it was this yea 1t was MOI
| figured that the middies had a chance
against their enemies from West Point
and Yet they scored shut-out. There
| have been innumerable upsets in foot
ball this year, and those who have made
a practice of predicting the winners of
the big contests are sure to go a little
slow about it in the future.
Willie Richie. who took the lightweight
/ crown from Ad Wolgast the other day,
| has not been lighting long enough to get
| his name in the official record book. Vet
| he is the champion today His sudden
i rise may not be an indication that the
| class of fighters before the public to-
day is not good ii was a few years
ago, and Yet this is being charged by the
| fistic experts all over the country But
! lots OF champions have come to the front
! in year so.
In fact, in many instances ii is an adj
vantage not to have fought too much be-
| fore entering into a crucial battle Sue
cess in the ring brings with it more or
| 'ess dissipation. and Richie has been
able to avoid this because he is virtually
| only a beginner
Griffith said in Chicago the other day
that he would most likely not attend the
annual meeting to be held I'm that city
December II, because, as he said, he had
nothing to trade. Certainly he has moth
ing TO trade Players that other clubs
would be willing to take off his hands
he cannot spare. and ninety-nine times
out of a hundred the players that other
clubs want to get rid of are not worth
having. Griffith can we'll afford to stand
pat with the material hand. If he
does not find it feasible to make a single
change he could have a better ball team
next year than he had last and he will
have quite bunch of youngsters to try
out in the spring from which he may find
material with which he can bolster up
his team. Not in late years has any club
been materially helped by what it could
secure in trades. There was time when
this was possible, but that was in the
days when good ball players abounded.
because there was only one major league.
But those days have passed. and the
manager who expects to get winner
now must hold on to what he has and try
to add TO it by developing youngsters