Evening star., 1913-03-02
SQUAD OF NATIONALS
FOR TRAINING CAMP
Continued From First Page

it does not necessarily mean hat any
member of last years aggregation has to
be supplantcd. To have stronger substi-
tutes would he OF the greatest help for
no team is stronger than its, substitutes
1t Is in this respect that Griffith hopes to
make progress. In making up his team
Grlff1th intends to give hitting ability and
speed the preference over good fielding.
He realizes that The more hitting he can
put or his lineup the greater will be his
chances for victory. For this reason 1t is
by no means assured chat the lineup Will
he the same as it was last year. If he
finds among his youngsters htters who
are better than some OF the last season
team changes are sure to be made. but
even il this is not done he is fairly sure
Of having q strong reserve force on the
bench to be used in the>event OF accidents
or slumps which often overcome team.
A large majority of the youngsters who
this spring did enough in the minors
last season to warrant their being
brought into fast company. Every one
OF the outfelders. and there are quite
bunch OF them. hit at clip that
attracted attention while tho pitchers
showed good form and the inficlders gave
evidence of having chance. 1t would
he a rather unlookedfor condition if all
Of them should fail. and yet that may
happen, for after all. only small per-
ceHtdSe VI tic lcdEuSIS WHO COllle
up ever stay for very long. Las. spring
Moeller. Foster and Shanks were de-
velopcd and helped 10 make UP the reg
ular team. There were no more glow
ing reports of their WORK in the minors
than there has been in tho case of a
ma jority Of the youngsters this Year.
The trio mentioned proved remark
able acquisition. 1t cid much to change
the Nationals from a tailender to a PEN
nant contender. and IL Griffith can be
1~4fc -. rp-stl H.
no doubt as to the chance MS team will
have in the coming race
IT seems very much as il the hold -ol.:
quartet 5of the Detroit team has been
split Two Of the diegrLntled players.
Stanage and Dubuc. have signed their
contracts as originally presented and
rumor has it that Cobb has agreed to
report within the next few days Craw-
ford will do the same thing ere long. and
another uprising on the part of the much
abused and underpa.d ball player has
been squelche1. There have indeed,
been few instances in base ball where
players have held out because they could
not get what they wanted. When the
sun begins to warm things up and the
teams start for the training grounds.
not to speak of the influence which ap-
preaching pay DAYS may have, the play
ers on the outside always show a keen
desire to break into the fold The aver
until he is forced to. Most of them hold
on SO long they can draw a salary and
even after that they do not lose interest
In the sport.
The change of front on the part of Doc
Ayres. the Richmond recruit, who has
decided to join the Nationals, gives Grif-
fifth fourteen pitchers to look after this
spring. Just how many of this number
he will start the season with depends
AMI hn hay
ditions justify it he may carry as many
as eight, for no team can be too long on
good pitchers. The rules only him to car
ry only twenty-five players after May Is.
Eight pitchers. four catchers, four In
feders and four outlelders would be
only twenty men, and there could be five
utility players carried before the maxi
mum number would be reached. Two OF
these utility positions are almost sure to
be filled by Schaefer and Atrock, both
of whom are to be retained. 1t seems
extraragant for club to carry SO many
players. and yet under existing conditions
the club that does not avail itself of
this privilege Is shouldering a serious
handicap. for when accidents happen to
strike a team II cannot have too many
meh to plug up the holes which are often
thus created. There was a time some
years back when a ball club carried only
twelve or thirteen players. Those were
the days when the pitchers alternated in
the outf1eld, and II there were two catch
ers one OF them played the infield when
he was not behind the bat. 1t is need
less 10 say that the standard of play has
been materially raised since then, and if
a club attempted to go through race
these days under such conditions il would
make a dismal failure.
Sheer, who reported late last night, was
in the Nationals camp last spring. At
that time he tried for an infield position,
but did not come quite up to the stand
ard, though he gave evidence of being
A natural left handed hitter. After leav-
ing here he played the outfield for
YOUNGSTOWN. where he seems to have
shown to better advantage. He hit .331
I'm l27 games. but did not class up very
high as a fielder He is a fast youngster
and NAV he heard from during the pres
ent training period