Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-30
ATHLETICS JINX WORKS
/ WELL AGAINST SENATOR'S
(iriffith's Team Never Plays in
Form Against Mack's Men,
Says Collins.
CLUB NEEDS HEAVY HiTTERS
If New Batters Are Unearthed
Team Might Reverse Result
in Close Games.
By EDDIE COLLINS
tStar second Baseman OF the Philadelphia
se Athleticsj

Athletics.j
Griffith and his Senators, next to
Boston. appear to me to be the Ath-
letics' most formidable contenders.
Undoubtedly there are many who
would reverse this order and rightly
So but from an Athletic standpoint,
never. Understand me rightly, not
because OF choice. but fact.
For some reason the Washington
team never seems at it's best when II
plays our club. Whenever they en-
gage us in "a series luck invariably
seems to forsake the Capital city
folks: some one of their best players
either gets hurt, or another Is SICK, or
just the plain luck OF the game goes
AGAINST them. / have heard Germany
Scbaefer say. If ii wasn't for you
Fellows. we would win the pennant IN
awaik. Why, we can beat any other
club in the league series, but wleh
We s2zy against you guys we '''
yBaker Hits Hard Against senators.
Frank Baker alone has beaten the
senators enough games In a season u
put them out of the race; ola IloIile
Rum certainly lives up 10 ms nioh-
Rack i'm 1872 he began TO endeaf ~
himself To them when he hit one on
: Tom Hughes's offerings over the rlght
sold wall with the count Two Strlkes
ON him. two out in the nlnth NUNS
s.ore at The time / TO y, IN Wasnihs-
ton,e favor And victory iof tiieiL
would have meant eighteen stralshl
wins, .,ia- nd
IN, UHfnp. FRANK Nus
asserted his presence too strongly TO
s,,if Griff and his men. We've got
s,!ba,ue to iiN him now, conhoeo
Sohaefer to a group OF us one uaS
towards the close of last season
Every time he comes TO Dat, no mat
tea- If there is a man on base or uot,
rs to be walk him., and then II 3
a einch he cant get more anaii AN U,te
base Which might be some dope'
al that
re walter JOhnsOB--IhaVs All
'l1owere. in spite of the fact that
the Senators have never pthyeu theh
best quality of ban asaihsl 10 Az LII .i
mast. that is no Indication they VIII
continue to do sc in Ihe future, ne
cause as long as a certain individual
IL 20 member Of the Washington club
il will always be u pennant conteh-
der. whats in a name'--so the say
ing goes. Well, believe me, there IL
q lot when a batter hears waiter
johnson" announced as the pltcnef
ANYTHING that / might say mere III
uraise of Walter would only echo the
Ife6yersal opinion of fans and writers
alike As AN opponent, 1 am sure
there is no one have to race VINO
feel has something on me so much as
do when up against this same
catcher. Speed? 1 never saw any
Thing like it. Curves Oh, what
the use of talking about it? He is in
N class by himself, and the best l
could think OF to say about MN
would not be enough.
Dust how big part OF the Washlng-
ton club Johnson is would be nara 10
SAY, but without him ! have my doubts
Ii ii would finish in the first DIVISION.
When one stops to consider that, OF
The regulars, only two men, Gandll
and Milan, hit above 30 and that
the teams batting average last year
was only 254, il is to be wondered at
that the club did as well as it did in
1919. Vfsibly what il lacks is batting
RfrenEth. and "Griff" himself as good
as. admitted this when he acknowl-
edged that he offered to pay the I'M
mense sum of 100000 for Ty COBB.
Griffith Deserves Great Credit.
In spite of the fact that Johnson
stands out SO prominently in the rise
Of the Washington club from the sec
ona division, | think its manager de-
serves lot OF credit for this feat
Griffith instilled the one quality that
the team ehad always lacked--ambi-
ton spirit. pepper, ginger. whatever
Won choose TO call 1T. Up until the
time Grin took hold, the team had
never exhibited any of the character
isties of ambition to any great degree,
bur he soon made the players realize
that something better was in them.
You can do it if you Will, was his
slogan and today, without many
changes, he has about the greatest
nRhting combination on the diamond.
] do not mean fistically, but agrees
aixolN. | am forced to say that l
never saw a team more on its toes or
display more life than this bunch does.
Generally speaking, | am of the
opinion that Grif had a better ball
cluhs in 1912 than he did last year
Atany rate, his pitching staff per-
fortified better While Johnson estab-
lished a greater record last year than
the Year preceding, nevertheless he
wasAa whirlwind in 1912. Tom Hughes
had one of the best years of his long
career the same was true of Bob
t;ru2in and big Cashion for time
also en- ioyed a winning streak. But
last year there was a noticeable diff
ference; against our club, at any rate,
II was apparent.
eliminating the last series our
tea'nf played Washington the closing
week of the season. when a lot of
recruits took the place of our reg
ulars, who were resting UP for the
world's series, Johnson was the only
nnaFsson the Washington Club who
peiTprmed in any way consistent
~ against our club, although Engle
ard .Boehlins both registered one vie,
tors1 apiece over ms out of several
attempts. The latter established a
most oreditable record last season.
II was his first year in the majors,
too-and with Johnson carried the