The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-01-31
Formidable Array of Real
Baseball Artists Scattered
to Winds in Brief Period
of Time

New York, January 3o-There is not an
other instance in baseball history of a
team being completely broken to pieces
SO quickly as the Philadelphia Nationals
have been during the short space of one
year. In that stretch of time enough
players have been grabbed by the Feds
or been traded or sold to form a Phillies
alumni nine that compares favorably
with nearly any outfit that will take the
field during the coming season.
Consider this lineup: Catcher, Red
Charley Doom; pitchers, Tom Seaton, Ad
Brennan, Cy Marshall first baseman,
Fred Beck; second baser1an. Otto Knabe;
shortstop, Mike Doolan; third baseman,
Hans Lobert; outfielders, Sherwood Ma
gee, Runt Walsh and Jim Duncan. Con-
siderable team, that. With all these fell
lows going at the normal speed there are
stars of first calibre in Doom. Seaton,
Brennan, Marshall, Knabe, Doolan, Lo-
bert and Magee.
Feds Get Busy
1t is one of the queer kinks of the game
that the bulk of these losses fell upon
the Phillies just before the 1914 season
began. The Reds at that time grabbed
Brennan, Seaton, Knabe, Doolan. Beck,
Walsh and Duncan. The departure of
the first four of these was q deathblow to
the Phillies' chances for the National
league pennant. If that quartette had
been In line there is little doubt that the
QuaSers would have won. even conceding
all due credit to George Stallings and the
miracles he worked with his Boston
Braves. Other first class men in the
Quaker fold were Pitchers Alexander,
Mayer. Kinney, Oeschger and Marshall;
Catchers DOOM killifer and Burns; IN
1elders Luderus, Lobert and Byrne, and
Outdelders Magee, Paskert, Cravath and
Becker. 1t would have been a walkaway
with that gang on the Job. But the Feds
Carted away that great donble-pay team
of Doolan and knabe and also two of
the best pitchers in the league, Seaton
and Brennan. Imagine the Braves losing
Evers and Maranville. Rudolph and
James. That would be the same sort of
q blow, no worse.
But the unkind fates were not salts
fed with what they did TO the Philles
last year. They set upon the club again
this winter and now four more good
players are gone from the team. Charley
Doom, a crack catcher when he is right,
has been deposed from the managership
of the club and sent TO Cincinnati
Three Get Sick
Three other stars got sick or Phlladel-
phia and demanded walking papers,
Hans Lobert, one of the best third base
men in captivity, has been traded to the
New York Giants. Sherwood Magee, one
of the best two or three outfielders in the
league, has been shipped to Boston. Cy
Marshall as promising young pitcher
as there was in the land last year, has
made the leap to the Federals
William +. Baker, president of the
Philadelphia club, branded Charley Doom
as a failure in a managers berth when
he deposed him two months ago and APP
pointed Pat Moran, former catcher and
veteran coach of the club, to take Dooin's
place Did Doom really prove himself a
failure? There are many who don't think
so, and who point to the fact that in spite
of all these strokes of hard luck over
which Doom had no control, the club still
has quite number OF good ballplayers
left, for all of whose development Doom
deserves the credit. Including the men
obtained from the Giants and Cincinnati
by trade, Moran has quite legacy, in
Guiding Pitchers Alexander, Rixey, Mayer,
Demaree and Oeschger; Catchers Killifer,
Burns and Adams; Infielders Luderus,
Byrne, Bancroft, Stock and Niehoff, and
Qutfelders Paskert. Cravath and Becker.