Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-03
BY j. ED GRILLo.

In order to be a successful manager
something more than mere knowledge
of the game. when to bunt, when to hit
and run or when to change pitchers, is
required. Resourcefulness is perhaps
the greatest asset a manager can have.
To be able to select from raw material
that which will benefit a team is the
art which has made managers success
full. This cannot always be done on the
spur of the moment. 1t takes time to
make ball player out of green re-
cruit, but the manager who can see the
future star in the fellow who impreSses
no one else is usually the one who will
eventually build up a winning aggrega-
ton.
To date Griffith has made decided
hit with patrons Of the game Every
move he has made has met with
unanimous approval of those who fol-
low the game here, and the impression
seems to have been created that Grit
fifth is going to make success of a
job at which so many have failed. and
give Washington a winner.
But too much must not be expected.
TO begin with, the present team, bar
ring a player or two, probably knight
and Williams, is not a team of Crit
fith's own selection. He may find play
ers who are not of his kind or liking,
and not until next year will he be able
to bring into vogue ideas of his own
so far as the players are concerned.
What is more, this team has been a
near tailender when it hasn't grabbed
the BOBBY prize, for many years, not
because the men in charge did not know
the fine points of the game, but because
the material was lacking. 1t is hardly
to be expected that by the acquisition
of a lot of material which has shown
to advantage in the minor leagues, such
team is to be made pennant con-
tender in single year. 1t will take
longer. and while there may be a GER
son. it is going to be task to bring
this team up to standard which war;
rants it being real pennant contender
If the team will be nothing else it will
be an interesting one, for the reason that
there are so many new faces on it and
so many youngsters trying to earn regu-
lar positions. It may prove surprise
and gain higher position in the race
than any one anticipates, but to do this
Griff will have to be unusually fortunate
in his selections, and Dame Fortune. too,
will have to cast many smiles in this di-
rection
The fact that Griffith has his team
signed and is about to start south to pre-
pare it for the campaign does not end his
work. There is much more to he done
take us seriously. but he looks like the
right man to turn the job over to.
Griffith is starting south with his mind
made up in but few instances so far as
having selected players for certain posi-
tons is concerned He figures, of course,
to stand pat on his catching staff, knows
Walter Johnson is great pitcher, and
that he must get heipmates for his star
from the others he is now carrying: that
Milan would be hard to improve upon
and that Mcbride is a brilliant fielding
shortstOp. OF the others he knows little
or nothing, only what he has been told.
Positions which he has not allotted in his
mind will have to be fought for and the
the picking of the probable team is moth
Ing more than guesswork. In few weeks
from now, when the players will begin to
get down to real work, it may be possible
to eliminate many from having chance,
but just at present they all come under
the same category. They have a chance
and will be given one.
Last season the Nationals finished sew
enth, 81 points below New York. which
was sixth with a percentage of exactly
900 Even with the teams which finished
in front of the locals going at the same
gait they did last year, Griffith's team
would have to show material improvement
to forge ahead of any one of them. But
there is just as much chance Of these
teams improving, If not more than there
organized team last season, and but for
this would have finished higher, while
Boston did not play its game. Eighty
four points Is a whole lot to overcome,
and yet Il the Nationals should get an
even break the coming season their work