The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-19
Nationals Pilot Offers Ray
Morgan and Joe Engel for
Brownies Second Stacker.
BIG TRADE IN THE WIND
"Old Fox" to Meet Col. Hedges To.
day and Some Sort Of Agree
ment May Be Reached.
BY WILLIAM PEET.

Bob Hedges we're contemplating pulling
| of a big deal which concerned a Wash
| ington pitcher and infielder for St
Louis second baseman.
Grif does not deny that he offered
RAY Morgan and Joe Engel for Derrill
| Pratt. the Browns second sacker and
demon slusger. which offer was turned
down cold by Col. Hedges.
1t appears that Pratt is the type of
ball player Hickey wants to keep. for
| Derrill is said to be a young man Of
| temperate habits, one who does not
! smoke drink or Chew. For that rea-
son Grif was unable to do business.
Owner Hedges is in a bad way for
pitchers. The loss of Hamilton and
Baumgartner leaves him with only Carl
WeiIman and Loudermilk. who are able
to step into the box and give a good
account of themselves.
Late tonight Hedges paid a second visit
to Manager Griffith and made fiat
proposition to him for Joe Engel, the
Washington boy. who has always twirled
great ball against the Browns.
Il would be willing to sell Engel if
anybody gave me the price or in other
words what 1 consider him WORTH said
the Old Fox. otherwise nothing. I've
had Joe since he was a kid and it will
cost somebody a lot of money to get
him away from me-" according to Griff.
The Old Fox and Owner Hedges are
scheduled to hold another meeting to-
morrow, at which time some sort Of a
trade may be contaminated, according
to the Mound City scribes.
Morgan and Engel for Derrill Pratt
would be good swap. according to the
writer's way of thinking. for Pratt is
a slugger of the cleanup type. and al
most as good a fielder as Morgan. Joe
Engel is also a pitcher of much prom
Use, but with the men now on the pay
roll of the Nationals he could be well
spared. and. in addition, would prob
ably twirl good ball for a club which
could afford to work him regularly.
For the final game of the series here
tomorrow afternoon, providing rain
does not interfere, Grif will pitch
either Gallia or Boehling. while Man
ager Hickey will oppose with James or
Hoch.
Joe Engel, Doc Ayers, Booth Hopper
and Jack Bentley cannot understand why
they are holding down soft spots on the
bench these days instead of being Or
dered to the trenches for sharp-shooter
duty.
The answer is very simple, indeed.
Walter johnson. Joe Boehling. Jim Shaw
and Melville Gallia are all of them pitch
ing air-tight ball. the kind of ball that
wins nine out of ten games. or rather
which would win that number with the
proper kind of hitting to back them
up.
The last four beavers mentioned COM
prise right now the Nationals first
string pitchers. and in order to obtain
the best results. the Old Fox knows
from experience that a pitcher must be
worked regularly.
Just as soon as Johnson. Boehling.
Shaw. or Gallia show signs of wavering
then will bob up a chance for Engel.
Hopper, Ayers, and Bentley-and not hn-
til then.
Later in the season. when double
headers come thick and fast, the en-
tire Washington pitching corps will be
mustered out, every mothers son of 'cm
will be needed. and foxy old Griff is
beautifully fortified in the box this sea-
son. He need not worry about his
pitchers.
Certain members of the Washington
club have put themselves on record as
saying that once Booth Hopper gets a
chance 10 display his wares in a nine
inning game he will behave like a real
pitcher and cause more than a mild SEN
sation.
In batting practice we find Hopper
the hardest man to hit Griff has on
his staff vouchsafed one veteran player
to the writer.
Hopper has everything. Just wait I'M
til Griff starts him-just watt" he added.
One glance at the batting averages
published in last Sundays edition of
The Washington Herald is enough to
show why the Griffmen at this stage
of the race are so low in the percent
age table.
1t is absurd to predict that a team
which. as team. is batting only a lit
tie over 200 will win a pennant in any
league, but those who have followed
the destinies of the Washington club
since Griff has been at the helm know
down in their hearts that Gandil. Milan.
Morgan, Foster, Moeller, and Mcbride |
can, and will, hit from thirty to fifty
points higher Than they are at present. |
When these men do get slamming |
the ball about. and the pitching con-
tinues to be uniformly good. the league
leaders had better lookout for the good |
ship Washington.
ANY left-hand hitter who can drag i
a ball between second and first base |
Is good enough for my club. providing |
he continues to drag EN-"
That's the way Clark Griffith talked |
while en- route for st. Louis Saturday |
night, and the young man to whom |
he was referring was Georgetown |
Connolly, who seems to have |
jumped into the big swim with q nam |
moth splash.
Connolly played in four games |
against the Chicago White Sox. faced |
as many different pitchers. and had no
in getting safe hits of every |
one of them. It's pretty hard to keep |
4 ball player OF Connolly's ability on /
any team.
washington fans are sure to be i'm
pressed with Connolly's work. He Is
the kind Of player who always appeals
to the fan. He IL fast. clean-cut, has |
\ great throwing arm. and handles a
bat as II he knew for what purpose 1t
was intended.
James Aloysius Shaw. the big pitch
er. once got into trouble with Umpire
so now when he passes the
little umpire he always dofs his cap
with the salute. Good afternoon. Mr..
This makes Connolly mad. because
the Jump can't quite figure out whetherI