The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-02-25

SotA0tSNiiIS vi III btit GFo VI II
pitcher, and one manager-and dom
sforget the manager.
The Braves have just one chance tc
crawl out Of eighth place, and that is
the new manager. They figure sc
close up now to Brooklyn and the dis
organized and broken Cardinals thai
they have a chance to finish sixth
but it looks a scant chance. But write
down now in your note book that Bos-
ton will finish with at least SO points
better percentage than it did last year,
and if 400 per cen doesn't beat out
either Brooklyn or st. Louis, or per-
haps both of them, / miss a hard
guess.
The team at present is mere guess
work, and the only calculation possi-
BILE is on its present strength-and
Manager Stallings. And now for an
essay on S%tallings.
Personally there isn't a man in base
bali dislike and distrust as much as
do Stallings. But what a mar may
be personally doesn't have much et-
feet upon his ball ability maybe. ana
Stallings is one of the pest baseball
men in the business. and just the man,
from that standpoint, to take the
wrecked and broken Boston club n
whip it into shape.
Stallings handled Detroit well untll
there was a showdown on the cit
that caused the president of the league
to make libellous charges gains
Stallings, and resulted in his quick
disappearance from the league, John-
son declaring that he never would be
permitted to return. Evidently PRANK
Farrell wasn't tipped Off, n before
Johnson knew what was coming OIL
Farrell had tied himself up in a con-
tract with Stallings and had made nm
manager in New York There his
methods were effective until some or
the players rebelled against him ana
crippled the team. Then he went back
to Buffalo and made that club play
ball. Boston now has him-and he is
lust the mar necessary for the situa-
ton there, from the standpoint of
creating a club.
I believe that Stallings a get more
baseball out of a player than can al
most anv man. and NE knows the game
backwards, even if he has the tendency
to do considerable sharp work. lie is
an excellent judge of players ana
closely in touch with the minor
leagues, to which he must look for as
~sistance.
= 800. J., va .or Sc Gto1ip orc Ina 1f-
tle hone of doing much strengthening
of his club just now. He has little
money behind the club, is up against
a championship team as a rival for
business, and he cannot trade, be-
cause he has only two men the others
want. His chance is to make a couple
of shreWd exchanges OF ms surplus
PLAYERS for minor leaguers OF promise
or to claim out the players the other
major league clubs want to send back.
I expect Stallings to watch the re-
quests for waivers closer than any
thing else this season, and believe he
more about the eastern MINOR
leaguers especially than any manager
in the business does. He has to pick
up at least three over average regu-
lars, a catcher, and a 500 per cent
pitcher, to have any claim to class
above 400 per cent in the league.
The Boston team is an odd one. 1t
is a hard hitting team in spots, and a
better team really than it looked last
season. 1t was compelled to keep hit
ting all the time to cover the weak
nesses of the pitchers, and a team that
is forced to hit at all stages cannot
win. They had to score an average or
five runs to a game to hope to win,
and had to play that kind OF baseball.
with four even average pitchers the
team would have been high up in the
percentage column in spite OF a LOT
of weaknesses in other spots.
This season Boston is likely TO be
much harder to beat, and under STALL
ings is certain to play a lot of m
proved baseball. The trouble result
ing from the differences between own
ers has been eradicated, and the care
lessness and slipshod and indifferent
work tha marked the teams carrier
course will be gone. It hasn't the
strength to win any great percentage
OF it's games, but it will push the other
clubs harder, and woe betlde any
pitcher who tries to loaf or save him.
self gains the Braves. 1t is a team
likely to beat the best pitcher ia the
world at any time, and just as likely
to lose to a weak club with a bad
pitcher on the slab-Which makes IL
an interesting team to study.
The ball player of the team IS
Sweeney, perhaps the ranking short
stop Of the country on his seasons
work. He is a wonderful man, ana
had it been his fortune to be with a
GOOD club he would be II OF the
famous heroes of the decade. he MT
.34i last year, drew a whole lot OF
bases on balls, got hit often, stole 81
bases. made 80 sacrifice hits, and,
while not at the top of the second
basement, was n Of the best de-
fensive players in the country. he
tries for everything and hustles, WIN
ming or losing. Oddly enough, he has
been handicapped by the dislike OF
some of the players on the team in
the past, possibly because he was a
friend of Herzog when Herzog was
with Boston, but most of those VINO
did not like him are gone.
The real cause of BOSton'S failure TO