Evening star., 1916-01-06
PLAYER At SECOND
TEAMS ONLY NEED
Manager Griffith Thinks He
Will Have a Winner if Joe
Gedeon Makes Good.
ARTHUR IRWIN LATEST
TO PRAISE JOE JUDGE
Players Who Held Out Last Fall Are
Due to Suffer Salary
Reductions.
BY ]. ED GRILLo.

"If I had assurance of a competent
second base man for the Nationals l
would be willing to stand pat on my
present combination and feel certain
that we would be in the 1916 race,
Manager Griffith said this morning,
when asked if he had any deals in
view before the season opened.
Griffith hopes to have Joe Gedeon
make good here. 1t will be but ques-
tion of days when he will know wheth-
er Gedeon will be released from the
contract he has signed with the Fed
eral League. He believes Gedeon has
improved in his hitting, and if he has
he will make an ideal man for second
base. Griffith thinks.
He has no intention of playing Nor
gan there, and he may be forced to re-
sort to last years arrangement of
Shanks on third and Foster at second.
though the latter is perhaps the best
third baseman in the league.
Griffith is hopeful of making a trade
at the spring meeting of the two
leagues in February. but he is not par
ticular if he should fail in this if Ged-
con is as good as Griffith hopes he
will be.
Arthur Irwin. veteran manager and
scout, was in the city yesterday, pass
ing through on a trip south. where he
has some business. Irwin saw much
of Judge and Jamison last year, and
he is loud in his praise of Judge
Judge" he said. lis going to- make
one of the greatest players the game
has ever produced. He will be as great
q fielder as Hal Chase was. in due time.
and / look for him to prove himself
the best hitter on the Washington team
next season. AS for Jamison. I know
- III -af.. GNx.rf 1, "
A lot of wise ball players who figured
that the war would go on forever and
that they would be financially benefited
thereby are seeing the error of their
way. Iris Speaker probably could
have signed at the same figure for an
other year had he shown Willingness
to do So But he preferred to wait
proposition. so he could hold up the
Boston club for a higher salary than
he was getting. Frank Baker made a
similar mistake, and stayed out of the
one of the Feds who pulled the trick.
and last. but not least. Reb Russell of
the White Sox spurned contract
handed him at the end of last season.
Then came peace, and the beans were
spilled for these financiers, who are
going TO be taught a lesson by their
employers and be forced to accept a
substantial cut in pay.
Jimmy Callahan is right on the job.
He is evidently determined to keep in
close touch with his players and has
been writing them letters ever since
the day he obtained his appointment to
manage the Pirates. He is getting ac-
Quainted with his players by the mail
route and it is making a big hit with
the athletes as well as President -Drey-
fuss, who is convinced that he will
have a live man on the job the coming
season.
. Locsl.capital is not to buy the Cleve-
land club. and there is a strong tip out
that it will be Stahl and McRoy who
property. The scheme to raise money
enough money to buy the Indians among
the members of the Cleveland Athletic
Club has proved failure, the amount
being much more than the club could
raise.
The best proposition has been made
to Stahl and Mercy. who would have
to pay but $350,00 in cash and 100000
in notes.
Jim Mcclure, who for thirty-two sea-
sons has been active in base ball, has
quit the game. His release by the De-
troit club to make room for Billy Sui
1fvan has determined Mcclure to get
out of the game for all time.
According to Henry Edwards of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, bottle of
wine caused the war with the Federal
League Here is the way Edwards
figures il:
THE costliest bottles of champa gne
ever drunk are said to have been those
consumed by Garry Hermann and Char
ley Ebbets at the winter meeting of the
National League at the Waldorf AS
toria Hotel in December, 1913. AS the
result of the effects of these bottles,
1t is said EbDets bought Joe Tinker
from Hermann and thus made the
Federal League possible and causing a
war that cost several millions of
dollars"