The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-12-12
4 never HAD
ALAME Arm"
WALTER JOHNSON.
Great Pitcher, in Advising
Treatment for Sore Wing,
Says "Let 1t Alone"
OTHER SPORT COMMENT
New York highlander New Park an
Expensive Proposition-0ther
News and Gossip.

I've got a sore arm-what shall l dc
for it? Can you advise me who to SCI
for treatment?
Thus inquired, a budding young bal
player of Walter johnson, the Nationals
great pitcher, one day last summer.
Let il alone, rest up and don't try and
use your arm until the soreness leaves
II will 20 in time. Keep away from os-
teopatns or quacks' 1 have been pitch.
ing ball quite a number Of years and
never in my life have / had lame
arm" the big twirler added with smile.
All of which is quite true as the writer
can attest. johnson is rated as one oil
the wisest BALI players in the game, as
well as the greatest finger of the present
day school.
johnson knows that a lame arm or
injury to his right wing means good-by
10 a big salary If perchance the injury
should prove permanent. He is in base
ball for a livelihood and although draw
ing a handsome salary, he earns II by
delivering the goods.
Trainer Mike Martin, than whom none
better ever handled a bunch of ball play
ers, wastes very little of his time on
johnson. Walter always has refused TO
let a trainer or Osteopath monkey with
his arm. Several times the great pltch-
er has suffered with cold in the right
shoulder but has cured himself by taking
things easy and working out the stiffness
by degrees.
In the spring, johnson never cuts loose.
He Iobs the ball over for a week or ten
days until the winter kinks are gone, and
then starts gradually to speed up.
After twirling a hard game in the sum-
mer, more as a preventative than any
thing else, Walter lets Trainer Martin
give him a mild rub down, but there is no
massaging or brisk rubbing administered
in the pitchers right arm
" after Johnson's advice to all aspiring
Young pitchers who through over exer-
ton develop lame arms is the rest cure,
and there must be something in this when
Walter himself adopts the method.
Manager McGraw, OF the New York
Giants, made a statement just prior to
he last Worlds Series, that mo ball
club could win a pennant with only two
pitchers, no matter how good the pitch
ers happened to be-"
Truer words were never spoken and
for an example look at the Nationals, a
second place club the past two years.
One more winning twirler in 1872 would
have brought home the bacon in a can
ter. One more pitcher to help out
Boehling and johnson last summer
WOULD nave maze Things mighty inter-
eSting for the --thletics.
With a youngster able to deliver the
goods next year Griff's team will have
to be seriously reckoned with, providing,
of course, Johnson and Boehling come
across as they did the past summer.
When the 1915 American League sea-
son opens the New York Highlanders |
will start business in a brand new ball
Il ed
way.
Work on the new Farrell Field has
been in progress the past two years but |
the task is so stupenduOus and the fill |
ing in so expensive that a full year |
must elapse before the ball yard can be /!
completed.
In talking last fall with Arthur Irwin, |
the Yankees scout. who is Owner Far |
relrs Tight-hand man, the writer learned |
some interesting facts about the pro-
posed new ball park.
The layman cannot possibly appreciate |
what the construction of this new field |
has already cost. There is no way of
telling how much more it will cost be-
fore it Is ready to house its first crowd
In New York it costs SIS a load, for
the hauling of surface dirt. This does
not sound so much when referred to as
Il ton only, but when it is known that
the field is 700 feet long and 600 feet
wide. and that at least a four-fOot depth
will be used, the extent Of the eXpendi-
ture may be realized.
There will be about 1885, 900 cubic feet.
In solid or cubic measure fifty feet Of
timber constitute a ten. One load also
S supposed to constitute a ton. Using
this as a basis fOr figuring with the
known charge of S1.25 load for hauling,
L can readily be found that 1t cost the
New York American League Club close
70 $35,60O for hauling alone. Certainly
every On appreciates what part hauling
plays in the construction of a large build
ng of any kind, and then some meagre
dea of the amount of money that will be
invested in the new field can be cleaned.
Commenting on the Yanks' new park,
Purvius Knox, of the New York Tele-
gram, says:
when Frank Farrell selected 16Sth
street and Broadway as the site for an
American League park some ten years
ago, 1t was said that the property could
&c purchased for $4,000. That same
property is now valued at $1,50o,OOO.
Without knowing how much money
viii be invested in the new park when
is completed. II Is safe to predict that
years hence. at the present
ate Of increasing property valuation in
hat section, the entire outlay will have
'een returned in the valuation, and the
club viii be working on gravy to use
popular yernacular.