The Alaska citizen., 1916-04-17
OF A SPORTING NATURE

ped Dunn and Warner Bill Clarke played a few games al first that year Strang and Donlin have both gone from the big league. Stranl is coaching at West Point, and Don lin is in the movies
 Barney Dreyfuss is fond of boast ing that he won a worlds champion ship with only seventeen men in 1909 and that Is true, but McGraw did the same thing in 1905, and Of his seventeen, one-Clarke-played only fifteen games at first. Back in the seventies. they had to get along with ten and eleven men. and scant rosters prevailed on down through the early eighties. The jump that McGraw's roll took be tween 1904 and 1913 from fifteen to 26-shows how times have changed in that respect.
 A baseball organization goes to pieces so suddenly that even the manager himself does not realize that disintegration has set in
 This was the base of the Giants of 1914 It was generally believed that they would give New York four consecutive pennants, equalling the best record of the olden days of baseball, but the organization collapsed between suns.
 In other times McGraw had fore seen the begging down of his out fit, and had been able to strengthen the weak spots by swift purchases or trades before the break came but that year he was caught off guard At first it looked as if the old machine was only temporarily stalled, and that it could be started going again full blast by the fol lowing spring. The following spring merely proved the futility of that hope.
 When baseball machine is gone it is gone, and that's all there is to it The disposal of lot of the old members of the club shows that McGraw realized the weaken ing was permanent. Marquard, Meyers and numerous others have been set away. and the rebuilding is in progress. Some of them may do better with other clubs, but they had theIr days in New York.
 The spring of 1916 is likely to see many more changes. It is certain that McGraw will not do much fur ther experimenting with his old men; that is, perimenting to see if they can carry the pace. A sweeping trace would not be sur prising if Nerkle, Doyle, Lobert and Fletcher fail to show their old infield form, for it is in the in field that much of the strength of a team lies.
 However, it was not McGraw's infield that has been his weak de partment since the downfall of the old machine. His outfield went to pieces first, his pitching staff failed to keep up, and even his hackstop- ping exploded.
 Lobert, at third base, was prob ably McGraw's greatest disappoint ment of the past year, but Murray Snodgrass. Meyers. Burns, Mar quard, Fromme and a few others figured as very notable disappoint- ments, without going back to Arthur Wilson, Grover Hartley and more who have gone from the club. There was some excuse for both Lobert and Burns last season, as they had sustained severe injuries which affected their work.
 McGraw has carried number of young pitchers along for several years who have so far failed to en- tirely justify his efforts in their behalf. Fred Schupp and Rube Schauer are examples, and yet Schupp and Schauer have great ability, if they can only develop it. Any scout looking at these pitchers in a minor league would probably be willing to pay lot of money for either one.
 Merkle, Doyle and Fletcher should have a couple of more years at least of big league baseball before them and with the new strength which he has added to his pitching and catching staffs and to his out field, McGraw may come up from Marlin with another team that will be a worthy successor to the fight ing clans of 1904-05-11-12 and13.