Evening star., 1914-02-08

mended look out for him. Shaw. I am
convinced. has the making of a great
pitcher. So far as Groom is concerned
| believe that il he reports to us ne
will have good season. 1t is up to these
young pitchers as to how far up in the
race we shall finish. Johnson. of course.
not have to equal his performance to
make it possible for us to finish mighty
near the top"
The one department in which Griffith
expects to see a lot of improvement is
batting He expects nearly every man
on his team to hit at a better pace the
coming season than last. Gandil, who
really led the team, got off poorly and
will do better Morgan, too has i'm
proved steadily every year since he has
been playing regularly. and Eddie Foster,
now that he has entirely recovered from
the effects of his illness of last spring is
pretty sure to display just as much PROV
ess with his bat as he did the season be-
fore, when he was easily the sensation
among the youngsters who broke in that
year.
Nor is it to be supposed that Milan will
have another off season with the stick.
"Zeb' hit worse than his average would
show. for it WAS not until very late in
the season that he got to going up to his
usual stride and brought his average up.
and that will make a wonderful differ
ence In his general playing.
What is true of Milan ought to be true
of Moeller. The latter did not bat any
where near his regular form last season.
though he played the best ball of his ca
reer in all other departments. His fleet
ness the bases allowed him to be the
runner-up to Milan for base running hon
ors. while his fielding was better than
during his previous year
If this improved batting which Griffith
fooks for materialzes there is no ques-
ton that the Nationals will be prominent
III the race from start to finish
There is nothing like being prepared for
most any emergency. and, believing in
this policy. President Minor has had
architects investigate the construction of
the pavilions at the local ball park to de-
termine whether 1t will be possible at
some future time to make double deck
ers out of the present ffty-cent stands.
He has been advised that this is feasible.
and some time in the future the work
will be begun. If. for instance. the team
should look like pennant winner in the
coming campaign the seating capacity
will be increased in this way. while sew
eral other schemes will be utilized in
giving the local plant seating capacity
Of nearly :0.h0.
One of the changes apt to he made at
the park before the season opens is the
building Of a new press box on the
roof of the Srandstand. 1t will be deter
mined within the next few days whether
this can be done.
The fact that a player is identified with
a pennant-wIning aggregation does not
necessarily mean that he is capable to
manage {: ball team. This has been
proven in innumerable instances. Take
the old Boston team. for instance. There
were Herman Long. Charley Nichols. Bob
Lowe. Fred Tenney and Jimmy Collins.
Every one of them had chance at the
them failed Collins came nearest to
being u success. 1t was his good for
tune to fall into team of stars. who
were all at their best during his regime
at Boston, and he won a couple of PEN
nants But when the time came that it
was up to him to rebuild his team he
fell down lamentably.
Tenny failed on two different occasions,
and so did Charley Nichols.
Connie Mack's players are having
similar experience. Neither of the Cross
boys. Monte and Lave. ever made good In
handling a team, though both tried on
several occasions. Harry Davis was a
failure at Cleveland and Topsy Hartzell
did not last long at Toledo. Surely these
players could not have had a more capa-
BILE tutor, yet none OF them displayed the
ability that one would expect of them
when it came to handling ball teams
1T is. of course. by no means certain
and Won can't bank on il, but feel prettv