Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-19
NATIONALS AND BROWNS
ASKED TO JOIN STRIKE
Continued from First Page

Continued from First Page)
and he gave this as his opinion: II will
rant that something must be done to
,rotect the players from the abuse of the
ans. but I think the Detroit players
made mistake in not being more diplo-
matte in presenting their case. Had they
waited until Monday the thing would
ave been Strengthened out. But II is
surprising to me that the players are so
.ouchy about the language that Is used
them by spectators, when 1t is nothing
'nusual to hear them use everything on
ne calendar to one another. while the re-
marks that We poor umpires have thrust
t US would frequently justify more
eyere punishment than suspension, yet
10 one sympathizes with u.s.
That the Cobb incident will result in
organization Of a players protective union
here Is not the slightest doubt, but any
me at all familiar with the unwieldiness
# such an organization will realize that
such an institution will be but shortlived.
There have been other player unions.
but not one Of them has lasted long, for
various reasons. Nor has anything ever
,een accomplished by them. To begin
with, the club owners will not give the
players representation On either the ma
lonal commission or any OF its boards,
so that the organization would be useless
bringing about legislation desired by
he players. What is more, a player
lnion would sooner or later want to have
something to say about salaries. and right
iere there would be split. for the play
ers who are drawing big salaries would
lot want to be controlled by those who
ire getting less.
surely there can never be any legisla-
ion which Will give a player the privilege
o assault spectators under any circum-
stances, and there is already a rule which
provides Punishment from the park of in
dividuals who resort to rowdyism. This
rule should be enforced by the clubs and
the president Of the league should see to
it that it is.
Just what the outcome of the present
though the chances are that every
thing will be smoothed over in time
The league cannot afford to have the ar
sistic aspect of its pennant race injured
by conditions such as obtained in
Philadelphia yesterday. 1t will not only
prove detriment to the game, but prove
an immediate financial loss. No doubt If
the players insist upon continuing their
present strike their salaries will be
stopped and there are at least some ball
players who will not relish this condition
Inasmuch as there is every indication
that the Detroit team will be the only
one to take stand against the league
ruling, the movement does not appear to
have the strength which it seemed to
have a day ago.
Joe Lake has ever been a hard nut for
the Nationals to crack and he was par
ticularly effective yesterday. Whenever
Joe's spit ball is working he is a hard
pitcher to hit and 1t was doing all sorts
of stunts yesterday.
Under ordinary conditions it takes high
class pitching to bring the Nationals
home winner. The team is not OF the
kind which scores q lot of runs off of
ordinary pitching and is virtually help
less against high-class pitching. When
ever Johnson is on the slab the Nationals
are a formidable looking lot for the rea-
son that they do not have to score a lot
OF runs to make victory possible. but
whenever their pitchers are being hit at
all their chances are decidedly slim
That the team has won as many games
as 1t has lost has been due principally to
the good pitching which 1t has had to
rely upon. together with the fact that 1t
has had some timely hitting for which
Eddie Foster was largely responsible. 1t
Is noticeable that when Foster happened
to have an on day with the stick his
team fails to gather very many scores.
Dan Moeller gave a splendid exhibition
Of his speed yesterday. In the fifth in
ming he hit little fly over third base
which was allowed to fall safe. yet be-
second base. In the eighth inning his
grounder went through Pratt's legs and
rolled a few feet behind him, but before
1t could be recovered Moeller had slid
into second base. Moeller never allows
a chance to take an extra base get by
him, and this adds much to his value to
the team.
Hughes was going fairly well during the
Ave innings he pitched, but was taken out
in the sixth to allow Williams to bat for
him. There was q chance for a rally in
this inning when. in fact, the score was
was far from effective and had to be
taken out while under fire. Akers and
Becker, who pitched the last four innings.
both did splendid work, and this was
true of Akers. who came into
the game with none out and man on
third, and yet finished the inning without
allowing q run to score. Becker only
pitched four balls in the ninth inning and
retired the side.
Manager Wallace will most likely bring
out his phenomenal pitcher. BaLmgardner,
while Griffith is banking on
Dixie Walker to win the final game OF
the series from the Browns.
Carl Cashion appears to be badly of
Of his batting stride. He struck out twice
again yesterday, and did not land on the
ball hard once. The big fellow seems to
have changed his style of batting In the
last few days, not standing up to the
plate with the same confidence that he
used to. Grif1th. however. has not lost
confidence In him, and Will continue to
play him in right field.
Moeller was the only one Of the six out