Evening star., 1914-05-04
PITCHER COLLIER
GOES TO MINORS
College Boy to Finish His Base
Ball Education With Des
Moines Club.
NAME OF TODAY'S HURLER
WITHHELD BY GRIFFITH
Not Ready to Make Announcement.
Fosters Showing Due to His
Splendid Condition.
BY j. ED GRILLO.

| Harry Collier. the Georgia Tech pitch
er. who has been training with the Ma
| tionals this spring, will finish the season
! with the Des Moines Western League
! team, for which city he left today. Man
aver Griffith. after careful study of Cot
liers pitching. concluded that he is not
/ vet quite ripe for this company. but feels
that with little more experience he VIII
| develop. In order that he may have the
benefit of good advice. he selected the
, Des Moines team to send him to-, where
| Frank Isbell, the former White son
second baseman, is managing lspet
has proved himself a capable manager
in the handling and development OF
youngsters and Griffith figures that ne
will be able to develop Collier THIS
summer.
Just which one of the Nationals pitch
ers will be worked this afternoon hao
not been decided by Manager Gritfith TINS
morning 1t may be Carl CaShlon, ana
it may be Doc Ayers or one OF the o.het et
Youngsters Griffith does not 1eel that
he can take any chances with Inc
Yankees who have several very effective
pitchers on their staff, and he wants 10
be sure that he works against them one
who is in form. hence, he will look over
his twirlers in the warm-up before
making his selection.
Hughey Jennings very sensibiy says ne
will not make any prediction for his team
until he has seen the four eastern teams
in action. He insists that he has abso-
lutely no line on the strenstn OF ms
eastern rivals and that for this reason
he would be unwise to pick a positlon
for the Tigers to finish in.
Jennings probably realizes that the
eastern teams have something on those
of the west, and while he has been apie
to gain comfortable lead in the race ny
his clashes with the western teams. ne
does not feel that the picking VIII be
quite as easy when he comes east.
The fact that Eddie Plank pitched q
shut-out game against Boston saturuay Is
not evidence that the veteran southpaaW
js at his best this spring. To begin Win,
he was hit safely ten times, though not
scored on. and the Boston team Is IAN.
entably weak against southpa" at
ali times. A pitcher who allows ten hlts
and is not scored on is getting his share
of the breaks, and Plank surely had
these.
The prediction that Rankin johnson.
uho had the distinction of winning the
onenine game here from his namesake'
Water Johnson, would not be apt to keep
nm the pace he set here. has been ful-
filled for the Athletics pounded MN
without much trouble in the game Sat
urday.
That condition amounts to much In
playing base ball is shown by the re-
markable work Eddie Foster Is doing
this spring. At no time since Foster
has been playing ball has he been in
such splendid shape as this spring
He virtually started to prepare MIN
self for this season during the WINTER
months when he began to take light ex-
ercise and he was one of the first of the
SQUAD to round into form during the
training season. AS result, roster Is
playing the best game of his career and
at the present gait he will have no
trouble leading the American League
third basemen by q good margin
It has been contended that few play
ers can be improved In batting. and yet
weak hitter suddenly becomes a clever
batter. John Henry, for instance, is
proving this. Until last fall John was
not much with the bat But he changed
hampered stroke he Is now swinging
hard at the ball with the result that he
Is one of the most dangerous hitters on
the team When a player has the eye
to pick out good balls and still does not
hit there is usually something wrong
with his swing. and such failings are apt
to be corrected.
Wagner. The famous Pittsburgh player.
though he Is now more than forty years
old, is still playing brilliant ball. and there
Is no indication that his batting eye has
weakened. as his average of 1867 will
show. With it all. he is still versa
tile player, being able to work in any
position in either the infield or outfield,
and playing 1t like a star. Hans broke
in as an outflelder. and since then has
been stationed at short. second. third
and first. In the last position he was
the equal of any man who ever played
the base.