Evening star., 1912-02-04
NATIONALS NOT CERTAIN TO .
FINISH BETTER THAN SEVENTH
No Line on Strength of Griffith Team,
While at Least Six Rivals Appear :
to Have Improved.

| thing out of his team, which in a way
Will better conditions over what they
Were Hut he is not /. lizard after ALL
and hc must rave material with which
10 york. The mystic wand stunt does all
right on the stage, but not on The ball
fed. That is where real ability counts,
and If manager does not possess the
right Kind of players he is helpless
and yet it is to be hoped that all the
foregoing rather discoura cine though
truthful predictions viii be upset. There
nave De6n so many winters when hope
has been sowed into the breast of the fans
never to reap a harvest that perhaps a
change is due There is always chance
Tor the unexpected 10 happen in base
bail 1fat is why the game is so popular
1t is much like the story they tell of the
uncoH;h youth who went to an old
trainer on race track ard asked him if
certain horse had a chance.
Ire reply was, Certainly, he has q
Bride and saddle op."
But to get back TO this ball team of
ours. Griffith starts out with one ont
fe-cer. >one infielder, one star pitcher
! and = soOd catching staff. These have
heen tried and not found wanting He
or no one else knows what there is to
the rest of The material OF course we
Rave heard most of them praised, and
no doubt not without reason but it re-
mars for them to make good. A team
which has five positions to ill. not to-
speak of Strengthening q pitching staff
furnishes pretty knotty proposition for
the man in charge That is what Griffith
Is up against He may succeed but
surely the managers of at least six of
the other teams have easier work cut
out tor them. 1t is expecting whole
lot to fill five positions competently in a
single year. and it should not be over
looked that only since Griffith took
chaIse has real effort been made to
build Up team of youngsters here
But for all that 1t is hard to figure how.
the team can be worse off than it has
been uniess we have all greatly underes-
t.mated the value of those players VINO
Were turned adrift
Morning practice and a system of play
which viii be up to date and conform
with the material OF which the team will
make ~ may make & great difference in
the I. ans showing. Griffith will see to it
that taese essentials are ,iEaugurated.
There has been too much of the go-as-
Sou-piease system in vogue on the local
team. Some players have always given
the club their best efforts: others have
looked upon their stay here as sort of
vac alton. doing just enough to make their
appearance 1T the ueasurer's desk ON the
first and fifteenth OF the month possible
III is no wonder that good players have
deterioIated and Youngsters failed to inn
prove Under such conditions. 1t is because
to have the best chance to make suc-
cess of his stay here. He is a hard worker
himself and viii insist upon every PLAYER
drawing salary from this club giving the
club his Very best at all times Under
such conditions only car ball team pros
Per.
Twenty seven days from today the first
squad of the Nationals will leave here for
Charlottesville to begin training. and in a
little over twice that time the season of
19i2 will be here. When the entire squad
has reported il is figured that Griffith will
have about thirty-tWo men in camp from
which to select his team. Twelve O: these
are pitchers. and he hopes to select six
out of the lot who will be able to hold
their own in this company. He may of
course, carry more, for there is TO likeli-
hood Of his turning down any player
who shows chance of eventually becom-
ing valuable, for ball players are too hard
to get to take any such long chances.