Evening star., 1914-05-11
BY j. ED GRILLo.

Il Douglas \en the Virginia University
+: PLAYER tyho was signed to a Washington
contract by Coach Ryan saturday, had a
! long conference with Manager Grifhth
/ this afternoon Nef does not finish his
course At Virginia until June and will
leave the night of that day to Join the
/ Nationals at Chicago day or SO later
I Whether Neff will break into the lineup
/, at once after joining the team Will de
pend entirely on existing conditions. II
i the present in;ield is souG good he Will.
! of course, not break up the combination.
| but if any of he regulars show weah-
| ness Nef will get into the game.
J Jack Ryan. who has coached the Nir-
| Ginia team for the past two seasons. is
| very much impressed with Neff. Il have
never seen a more capable college PLAYER
| than Neff, said he this morning, and
! am sure he will make good with US.
! There We're no less than six major league
! clubs after Neff and We were lucky 10
, get him. Nef PLAYS ball much after the
| style OF Kid Elberted, when he was IN
| his prime. and believe that ne mas
! better pair OF hands than the hld couic
/ ever boast of. He IS undouht" iiy 4 most
promising youngstel. and staHiS eoou
| chance to make a star in fast company.
Either Joe Boehling or Walter Johnson
| will he pitched against the Athletcs IN
| the final game of the series this after
noon OF these two twirlers the one show
| ing the better form in the preliminary
warm-up will be chosen. for Griffith Is
particularly anxious to have good pitch
\ ing in the hope of the winning the
ma iority of the games of the series.
/ While Connie Mack would not say
definitely which one of his staff would
be sent to the slab today. 1t is very apt
to be Joe Bush, though Chief Bender also
is to be in readiness.
Dan Moeller hopes to get into the game
today While his shoulder is still bit
sore he thinks that this will not handi-
cap him much and has expressed a will
ingneSs to play.
Acosta. who sprained his ankle Satur-
day is improving rapidly and 1t is hgur-
ed that he will be ready to play in a
couple of weeks
The Chicago White Sox make their ini-
tial appearance of the season here to-
morrow. the first of the western invaders.
Griffith hopes to have his pitching staff
in better form than heretofore, in which
event he expects TO win majority OF
the games from the western teams.
The reason for Amos Strunks being
out of the game is an injured finger on
his throwing hand which handicapS him
both in fielding and batting. AS soon
as the injury heals Strunk will 20 back
to his position in center, though Pete
Daley has filled the place very salts
factorily ever since Strunk has been out
of the game.
Milan has stolen but two bases so far
this season: One of these came in a
double steal in Philadelphia a few days
ago. in which he brought up the rear. and
the other was a steal of third in the
game Saturday. If "Zeb" expects to be
prominent among the base runners this
season he will have to get a move on
him. There is nothing lacking so far as
his speed is concerned. but Milan has
not been making as many attempts for
the reason that he is always feared by
the opposing batteries, which waste a
lot of balls when he is on first, and this,
of course. is advantage for Chick
Gandil. who follows him in the batting
order.
Branch Hickey, the new manager of the
Browns. whose strict discipline is credit
ed for the improved showing of the