The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-08


 club returned yesterday morning from St. Louis, where he spent few days in a futile attempt to secure some additional strength for the Barons. MT. Smith was not de- pressed, however, over his failure to latch on to a few good twirlers and players in general, or what ever he was in search of, and ap- pears to be willing to sit content in the boat and give the local com plications more time to develop.
 President Smith left Birming- ham the latter part of last week and quietly landed in St. Louis. where he undoubtedly thought that he could secure help from either Fielder Jones or Branch Hickey. He found the condition in the ma jors the same as it is in the South ern and other minor leagues scarciey of good pitchers.
 Says the Baron mogul, You would be surprised to see the dire need of good pitchers in the ma- jors, and especially so in the Amerisan league. Why, St. Louis Americans are in as bad fix for good pitchers as some of the clubs are in the Southern and they can't get any. Good pitchers are fewer this year than ever before. Every club in the major leagues has their scouts on the watchout for young pitchers in the minors, and then they can't get any. l never say the like.
 T was surprised when l arrived in St. Louis to find a representa- tive of large number of Southern league clubs there dickering for pitchers. Bob Allen from Little Rock, Tom Watkins from Memphis, Dr. 1nge from Mobile, Clyde Shrop- shire from Nashville and myself were all appealing to the Browns for aid in the pitching department, but we all got the same answer nothing doing. The same situation is in effect throughout the other owns of the circuit and it's be- ginning to look as though we will have to travel through the sea- son without a new member to the team.'
 The Barons have finally annexed a series. A split in that double bill yesterday with the LQokouts gave the Barons the deciding game and consequently Moley and his clan left Chattanooga last night with the Lookouts' scalp flying from their belt. The even break con cluded the first long road trip of the season, which was not as dis astrous for the Barons as it might have been.
 While on the road the Barons won five and lost eight. Three of these games went to the Memphis Chicks, who were in the heighth of their spurt when the Barons rolled into town. A couple of contests were dropped at Nashville and Little Rock, while a lone game was left at Chattanooga as a rememb rance. The Barons won two games from the Vols, breaking even on the series. They failed to win in Memphis, but copped battle in Little Rock. Two games were won from the Lookouts, which gave the Barons their only series.
 True, the defeats came grouped and the Barons fell in for a large part of roasting It seemed that nothing but pure hard luck cheated the Barons out of the majority of their games and Monday, when the breaks of the game began to float toward the Baron cause, a win was annexed in a land slide Yesterday the Barons played good ball and split a double bill with the Lookouts.
 Incidentally, Dick Robertson shook the jinx that has been on his trail ever since the opening of the season, and defeated his old teammate, Arthur