The Detroit times., 1914-08-08
Situation at Cleveland Came to
This: To Keep Manager or
to Keep a Team
GREGG is FIRST OF
NAPLES TO GET AK
Lajoie, Johnston, Olson and
Others Are Slated to 60 Be-
fore Season Ends
BY RALPH l.. Y0MKEK.


Over at Cleveland the situation In
the Nap camp came TO this: Manager
Birmingham or the Maps must GO
owner Somers had the situation
pointed out to him very plainly, II he
hadn't seen It before, and he decided
that Birmingham would stay
That meant the wholesale slaughter
OF the Nap players. Yean Gregg was
the first to go. He was traded to
Boston. LaJoie. Johnston, Leibold,
Olson and Banding are among the
ether veterans who are slated fer re-
moyal.
Somers must be admired for his
nerve In deciding to keep Birming-
ham In spite of the fact that half of
against him. He and Birmingham
Will have hard fight on their hands
to put the Maps into shape to win
some ball games again. OF course.
when they do that, they will have
won their battle. No matter how un-
popular manager may be when he
Is losing, as Birmingham has been,
he Is sure TO be popular when he Is
winning. Somers and Birmy don't
need to worry about building up their
by winning games.
The. Maps have been In position
that Is disgrace to the national
game. They have been I'm open revolt
against their manager. They have
lost game after game which they
might have won, their fans believe, IL
hey had tried honestly. Washing
.on. a club that they all hate. has lost
N. A. ..I.. III
llarity that Cleveland Is said to have
the Indian sign on the Mats. Rather
Cleveland can beat the Nationals a
regular number Of times in series
because they play ball against them.
Napoleon Lajoie Is accused Of spoil
ing the termination OF his big league
career by refusing to give his best
Ter the club, When the big French.
man goes to bat at Cleveland he Is
greeted with Kisses and cheers. There
are those who dislike him because
they think him disloyal to Cleveland
and there are those who still remain
faithful TO him and refuse TO believe
that he Is soldering.
Johnston is another man who is
charged with faltering purposely.
They say that Johnston has plenty
OF ability II he would only be willing
to show II, but that he is playing the
worst kind of. baseball he knows any
thing about that will permit him to
remain on the club.
Cleveland fans and newspapers are
up In arms over the state of things,
and they are demanding a complete
shake-up. There isn't enough senti-
ment left In the affair so that any
body cares much how rehabilitation
Of the club is brought about. but they
do want some new life on the team.
They have been so insistent in their
call for betterment OF things the
past few weeks that Somers has been
forced to heed. much as he might
have liked to have put of any whole
sale changes.
The general reputation OF the vet
Grams that are being most promi-
nently mentioned for the block is
such that much consideration must
be given Birmingham, whether he is
really good manager or not.
Birmingham was winning with his
club for while last year. They say
that the players were willing to stand
by him. and, as they say, stand for
him while they had chance at the
pennant, but without that chance they
won't play their best baseball