Evening star., 1914-04-21
GR|FF|TH'S TEAM
BEST ATTRACTION
Nationals OutdreW Other Clubs
in 1913, and Have Broken
Records This Spring.
ATHLETICS AND GIANTS
NOT FAVORED TO WIN
Mack Is Worrying About Pitching
Staff, While Mathewson Seems
to Be Slipping.
PY J. ED GRILLO.

BY J. ED GRILLo.
NEW YORK. April .1.-rhat the Ma
/ tionalS the best attraction i'll the
/ American League is again being demon
! strated this season Last year the books
| of the Ban Johnson circuit showed that
the Washington aggregation had drawn
| Just $4,000 more on the road than any
| of its rivals. and though the present sea
son is but one week old. tie team has
already broken two attendance records.
| The crowd which witnessed the opening
| game in Boston week ago was by far
4 the largest that ever attended an open
/ ing in that city. 1t is admitted that this
! was largely due to the fact that the Ma
I tionals We're the attraction and that Wal
| ter Johnson was slated to pitch An
| other record was made Saturday when
| the Yankees drew more than 10000 to the
| Polo Grounds. which was the greatest
| crowd the American League team has
| ever drawn III this city since its invasion
! here twelve years ago.
Unless the unexpected should happen
and the Nationals fail to hold promi-
| nent position in the race. they are sure to
break all attendance records on foreign
grounds this season. Not only does the
team as whole attract. but it has indi
vidual drawing cards. Walter Johnson
for instance. increases the attendance 30
per cent in nearly every city of the cir
cult any time he is announced to pitch.
and Altrock and Schaefer also have abil-
ity in this direction
Joe Boehling will face the Yanks in the
second game of the series today. Grif-
fifth intended to pitch Doc Ayers yes
yNh hat no ln6
off he decided to use Boehling, who has
had three days rest.
Several interviews purporting to come
from Griffith printed in the New York
papers make it appear that the Ma
tionals' leader is absolutely confident of
winning the pennant this year. But the
fact of the matter is that Griffith has
never made such claims. He has told all
his interviewers that he considered his
team stronger than it was last year and
that he expects to be a prominent factor
in the race, with a chance to win the
flag. But he has made 10 stronger
claims than that. Strangely enough,
majority of the critics here are picking
the Nationals to win. and, Furthermore.
they predict that the worlds champion
ship also will go to them, for they figure
that Walter johnson do it alone.
Griffith, however. is not responsible for
these stories, and while he is hopeful. he
prefers to let the teams showing speak
for itself
According to stories which are going
the rounds here Connie Mack is very
much worried about his pitching staff 1t
is said here that Connie admitted while
here with his team that he was very
doubtful about landing the pennant again
because his pitchers are not showing the
improvement that he had hoped for. 1t
also is the impression that Bender and
Plank will not be able to do the amount
of work they did last season, and to add
to the champions troubles 1T is said that
Amos Strunk is suffering from very
lame arm. In addition Rube Oldring is
out of the game. probably for weeks,
cold having settled in his intestnes
In this connection there also is the pre-
diction that McGraw won't win the pen
nant this year. and it is hinted that even
Brooklyn will beat out the Giants. The
great MathewSon is said to be slipping
| and but little good work will be had from
him this season. The Giants as a whole
are not believed to be nearly as strong
as they We're formerly. and Pittsburgh is
picked as the team which stands the best
chance to come home in front 1t is, of
course, much too early to get a correct
line on any of the teams. and it is haz-
ardous to make any predictions as to the
winners.
The veteran. Tom DAILY. who was signed
last winter to act as coach for the Yam
KEGS, has been released. Chance handed
him his walking papers yesterday. and
thereby hangs tale. 1t Is said that
notice came to Chance that DAILY took
occasion to express very favorable i'm
preston of the Federal League. He Is
said to have told some Of the players on
| the team that if the Federal League went
through the coming season 1T would bet
1 tor
other WAYS showed that he WAS Fed
| eral League sympathizer. His release
was the result.
| Wally Smith does not like the idea OF
! having to spend most of his time the
bench. for the reason that he IS inclined
| to take on weight rapidly. and he fears
that he will get himself out of condition
| before he gets chance to break into the
i lineup Smith had experience while
| utility man for the St Louis Cardinals
| couple of years ago which absolutely put
| him out of the big league. He proposes
therefore. to do a lot of work IN practlce
| every day when the team gets home in
| the hope that he will be able to keep him.
self on edge to play if he should be
| called upon.
| The postponement of yesterdays game
| was deplorable, according to Manager
| Griffith, who holds that II this season Of
the year it is harmful to a team to have
a couple of idle days III SuCceSSlOil, par
| tic,1larly when they come on the road,
where the team does not get chance to
ttake any sort of workout. 1t is fig
ured that the players have now reached
that stage where they must have con-
stfnt work in order to show the desired
Improvement, and that these prolonged
Ilay-offs give them a setback. In order
i to make up for the time which has been
lost. the players will go to the ball park
| early today and those who are not ac-
| tualIy engaged in the game will be given
! p long. hard line of work. while the en-
tire squad will be given lot of batting
! practice.
Jerry Akers, who was on the Nation
| ais pitching staff two years ago, PAID
his former teammates a visit at the An
/ sonia Hotel this morning. Akers. who
refused to report to the Rochester club
/ last season and spent the entire summer
at civil engineering. was 1nduced 10 re-
turn to that team this spring. He looks
| to be in exceptionally fine shape
1 Frank Chance made the announcement
/ TODAY that he has taken part in his last
ball game. Williams, the teams regular
first baseman. is incapacitated. and Cald-
well played the bag in the Saturday
game. This caused inquiries to be made
as to why Chance did not go to his old
i, position while Williams was idle. and
|Chance's answer was that he was through
with the playing end of the game FOR ali