The San Francisco call and post., 1913-12-20
CARTWRIGHT
IN LINE FOR
FIRST SACK
: Howard Is Thinking of Doing
= Some Experimenting
With His InfieIderS
By Joe MURPHY

Oy JOE A " M II
Guardians of the different positions
on the Seals inheld. with the excep-
tion of first base, have been selected
by Manager Del Howard. but the man
an doubt
There is plenty of material on hand
for Howard TO select from There is
Harry McArdle, regarded as the best
fielding first baseman of the league.
and Walter Cartwright. who played
the third sack for the Seals last sea-
son. Manager Howard is some first
sacker himself If he decides 10 get
busy and get In the game.
In stating that McArdle is the best
fielding first baseman of the league it
would be naturally asked why How
ard should look for another man to
hold down this position. Well. the
answer is that Mac bats like a Mil
dred and at the end of the season his
sticking average looks like sprink-
ling Of bird seed in the distance.
If McArdle could hit he would be
IN the hmelght in either Governor
Tener's organization or else IN the
one that is being ruled by Ban John
son. He~ yer. he is a weakling with
the old slap stick and there is little
hope of his ever producing a healthy
batting average.
The man that Howard has hopes of
Milling the bill is Cartwright, who
played q fair game at third base last
season for the Seals. He is what
might be termed a fair hitter, and If
he manages to handle himself as well
around the initial sack as he did at
third he has a bright chance of be-
coming the regular custodian of this
particular bag.
It might be well TO consider How
ard out of the running at this time,
when he IS talking of making a first
baseman out of Cartwright. Del
has given out rambling stories at
various times of getting back into the
game himself and being the regular
fellow TO play the first bag. but he is
not to be taken seriously.
He is getting pretty heavy and his
underpinning is none too sound to
carry him along through a strenuous
season around first bag. The writer
recalls DePs debut to the local fans.
In his first trip to the bat he sent
slow grounder to the infield, which
looked like sure out, but Del went
down TO first with every ounce of
speed that he possessed and he fairly
few over the ground He beat the
ball to first by a nod, but he struck
the bag hard with one OF his legs and
as the fans will remember, he was
limping around for some time. Del
put himself to a severe effort to make
an impression with the fans on his
first appearance. but he paid for It
II looks as il McArdle and Cart
-f-r5,+ mill 6crh& Co. ~
first, with the chances that the for
mer will eventually win out Cart
wright will have 70 show a lot of
ability at first If he hopes to be a
regular. While McArdle hit like a
weakling last season. he was more val
liable 10 the club than Cartwright.
McArdle's weakness with the stick
was overbalanced TO some extent by
his superior fielding and his clever
work as a sacrifice hitter, in which
department he excelled every other
player in the league.
Charley O'Leary. the infielder Sc
cured from the St Louis club of the
National league. Will be played at
third base. Notwithstanding some
of the poor reports of OLeary's abil-
ity that were published IN eastern
papers. the fact remains, according to
the baseball averages. that OLeary
ranked very high as a shortstop. The
figures show that he WAS very busy
individual around short. Good play
ers often look bad with a weak club,
and this might explain OLeary's case.
Roy Corhan has a strangle hold on
the Job at short. as he has no supe-
rior in the league, and 1t is mighty
doubtful II he has an equal. In this
particular spot Roy Is some pump
kins. Jerry Downs will be player at
second. Much improvement is ex-
pected of the Titan haired tosser. He
is a fair fielder and a murderous slug
ger. He had lot of bad luck in his
hitting last season, as the breaks
went against him.
Walter Schmidt has been trying to
Iegislate himself into the big league,
and the local club is allowing Walt
the opportunity providing that he can
make a deal whereby the Seals will
not suffer. Schmiddy has been acting
as his own agent for a transfer to
one of the major league clubs, but
so far he has been unable to do any
business.
It is a certainty that Mig Clarke
will be one of the Seals mainstays in
the catching department next season.
There seems to be but one outfielder
VINO Is sure Oh MS JODs II looks as IL
Schaller viii make good. If Artie
Hoffman comes TO the Seals he can be
counted on for an outfleId job.
There will be several candidates
hghting for the other outheld job,
with Howard Mundorn looking to
have the best chance of capturing It.
President Dugdale of the Seattle
club OF the Northwestern league. on
his return home after attending the
meeting Of the Pacific Coast league
magnates in this city. was profuse
with his boosts for the people down
this way.
Dug says that the San Franciscans
are the greatest hosts in the world.
He accused J. Cal Ewing of keeping
him too long in San Francisco after
the meeting.
Two banquets and three dinners in
FIVE days is all right once in while.
but not as a steady diet" is the way
Dug is quoted In Seattle paper
x y
Oakland viii open the season at
Portland next year. Last season the
Angels engaged the Beavers in the
opening conflict of the season. and
the fans witnessed one of the great
est games ever staged in the north.
The two teams played II innings TO a
to L tie before 1900 spectators. 1t
was the largest crowd that ever wit
Pacific Coast league. Krause pitched
for the Beavers, while Poll Perritt
6ea1t than out for the Angels.