The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-19
Entire Team Practically Ad- mitted Except Pitchers.
 Jennings Silent
IF STAFF DEVELOPS
 TEAM WILL BE GOOD
Jennings Insists That Pitcher Must Do Something Other Than Pitch. Training Games Are Popu-
 lar in Texas

Detroit Mich, March 1S.-(Speclal.) j. Since the Detroit lineup, not including l the pitchers, will be just about what i was in 1915, and. since, If there is tt
 Ee any change such an event cannot b.
 foretoId at this early stage of the train ] ing season, nearly all of the attention i f still sticking to the hurling corps. Int
 twirler is the thing talked about in De troit. Confine your discussion to tn, 1 twirler and you arrive a. few conclusions l It is also too early for that. Detroit ] has a squad of big men, likely looking 1 giants, some with a lot of raw materia
 about them and much developing ahead; scme who look good, some who appear doubtful just like all twirling corps look l at this time of the year.
 | It Is the easiest thing in the world to l make guess regarding a pitcher Tell 1 the public that he will be a second Mat l hewson or Johnson, that he is sure to make the grade, and you cannot lose, for 1 the simple reason that you need not let 1 yourself lose. If he makes good, reprint 1 all you said about him, and if he fails | forget the glowing prophecy you hung out in the young mans favor. Keep l quiet. Thereby you will be able to pose before the general public as a great and wise judge. Every experienced newspa- Fer writer is well aware of the fact that three days after an article is printed not 999 out of 1000 persons can tell where they read It. A man will say, Now, l read somewhere, I think it was inlet me see" And after pause, Anyway, 1 read somewhere, that" You have done
 the same thing yourself.
 So after letting you in on the secret we
 will not pose as a prophet. We have worked the old gag until we are tired of doing it. But it has always worked for us as well as for hundreds or others. To be frank with you, what we relate regarding the Detroit squad is not first
 hand information. While the various correspondents are down in Waxahachie, gathering in the news, we sit up here in Detroit and read it. What We here dish up to you is written before a warm grate fire, while a sharp March wind is dashing sleet against the window panes outside. We offer you in brief the chief points of the various correspond ents' latest messages, plus the official in- formation that Frank J. Navin receives from his heavily salaried employees who are in charge of the general subjects of these weekly letters.
 PITCHERS MUST HIT
 Every spring Hughie decides that pitch CTS should do more than pitch; they should be able to bat run bases and slide, particularly slide. The groundkeep- CT built a nice new sliding pit at the Tigers training grounds and somebody had to do something for the sliding pit, so Hughie decided for the tenth time that his pitchers must learn how to slide. After those wortties tired out their wings Eurling to the catchers, and were ready for the showers, MT. Jennings sent them around the bases several times, showing them the intricacies of the hook slide, the fall away and several other stunts that make base running profitable After they got tired doing that Hughie lugged them to the brand new sliding Tit, where the earth is soft, and had them finish up there. He is driving those poor fellows to desperation trying to get his hobby back into form. It gives the boys something to write about and the pitchers a chance to hit Hughie for 5o cents for bottle of liniment-and by the time the season opens you could not get one of them to hit the dirt with how itzer
 Among the early gossip sent up from Texas are a few items of real interest, te the baseball public in general One of these regards the exhibition games 50 be played by Giants and Tigers on March 25 and 26 Saturday and Sunday. week ago team of Giant rockies, only two Ol NICIll llIu cNcA WOIll Sd AidJOA lCb5 uC uniform (and these only between break fast and supper) played a Texas League team in Dallas and drew crowd of 5000.
 When the Tigers and Giants stage their exhibition games Jennings and McGraw- will use the regular lineups, with the eX- ception of pitchers. Mathewson will not hurl a full game and may not be usec at all. Jennings is likely to use some of his regulars, but only for a few innings. Kauf and Cobb may not appear at all. These facts have been announced to the Texas fans, but in spite of the public statements the owner of the Dallas ball park, where the games will be played, sold eight box seats to parties in Cllil- dress. which is nearer to Denver than to Dallas, and 400 seats to fans in Pecos. which is 400 miles away no the road to Fl Paso This was before the first of March, Since then he has sold few thousand to the baseball enthusiasts at points 200 and more miles away from Dal- las. It is freely predicted that the two tt ans will play to more than 2O.0C0 people on the two days.
 MAY TAKE BIG JUMP
 Not alone that but nearly every town in Texas is begging Jennings and Mo Graw to bring their clubs. It would be possible for the managers to book right through Texas up till April 12, playing every QHy ICF HthNy SutTdnIecSs 1tNuS has gone baseball mad. Maybe only Texas has returned to an acute stage oi baseball. craze. but if the people of the Lone Star state are to be taken as ar avera ge, baseball is in for it's very big gest season.
 Some weeks ago it was predicted that the Tigers training schedule would not remain what it was when the team start ed down there. We were right. Any time the team starts south under Hughie this prediction can be made and it vii come sure as a shot every time This was no exception. Hughie has pursued his usual habit of booking a few towns the names of which we forget because we can neither pronounce nor spell them There is no use hunting up a map, be cause maps do not carry the names oi the towns IIughie picks on. He did de viate from his usual course though by booking two games with San Antonio or March 20. Fort Worth, March P; ant Waco. March 24.
 Detroit and the St. Louis Cardinals W ere expected to hook up in San Antonio on March 9. but sInce that time MT. Jen
 nings has discovered that the Cards vii f.F r. Ass ft,fr.ri af 'sast 1sv. before that Knowing what delightful city San Antonio Is MT Jennings did no allow the absence of the Cardinals to in terfere with his proposed trip, and h will play the San Antonio team on bOtl