Evening star., 1916-03-16
BY j. ED GRILLO.

/ ing and the players did not venture
away from the fireside.
! Despite the fact that the thermom-
! ctcr is far below the freezing point,
| Manager Griffith notified his players
| there would be two games played this
| afternoon. the first one between the
colts and vets and the second one be-
tween the vets and the Virginia col
Ieee team The session is scheduled to
begin at noon. and the entire afternoon
is to be spent playing ball To make
this possible, however, the temperature
will have to rise considerable for the
playing field was frozen this morning,
there being several inches of frost in
the grounds.
There is one advantage charlottes-
willie has as training camp that partly
offsets the many complaints Which are
registered against its selection as the
preparing place for the Nationals. ana
that is the fact that when 1t rains mere
it does not put a stop to the training.
1t rained most of yesterday, for IN
stance. and yet the players put IN
hard days work. The gymnasium was
the scene of the pitchers warming up
and the other players were worked up
=
hit grounderS to handle. Four {" nNe
players hit grounders to ten or twelve
of the players at time, ana this sort
of work, while strenuous, takes the
place of what would be done IT the
weather permitted the athletes to get
outdoors Other teams usually are
put out of mission entirely by a.
rainstorm; no so the Grlfmen, now
ever. who probably do more work OF
the right kind indoors than any other
cl- bal II
Yesterday. but the pitchers worked out
in the morning and felded hard MT
balls and bunts in the afternoon until
the entire outfit was tired out late In
the afternoon.
Judge and Morgan were compelled TO
do the hardest work. Both are seNerai
pounds overweight, and Manager dfli-
nth wants to get them to where the!
belong. so far as their avoirdupols Is
concerned. 1t is necessary for them TO
do lot of strenuous work on days mat
the team cannot get outdoors. res
terday morning, for instance, GflHth
had them lying on mats IN the gym
and tossing 4 twelVe-pound medicine
ball to each other This brought out
the perspiration freely. and after TINS
work was through both of the heavy.
weights ran around the track for about
twenty minutes. Their faces showed
the strain Of the work when they re-
turned to the clubhouse just before
lunCh time.
Sam Cuttings is not yet under con-
tract to the Washington club. Grlf-
fifth has not talked terms with the
Young right -ha nder a s yet. and he VIII
look at him few times more in real
games before he will make decision
about signing him. Cuttings seems TO
have everything. and in the opinion OF
Nick Altrock, who of course. has seen
more of him than Manager Griffith, he
is sure to become pitcher of merit
Cuttings has shown lot in the several
trials he has had. He seems to be
finished twirler in that he knows what
he is on the slab for. and he does not
lack stuff for the deception of batters.
He has good speed, a knuckle pa II, OF
which he has good control; a spit ba ii
which breaks at his command, and
curve ball second to none Of any on
the team. That is what AitTock says
of him. and there is little doubt that
after Manager Griffith sees him work in
another game or two he will decide to
carry him through the season. Git
tings is one of those pitching pick-ups
who is very apt to make good. He is
free agent also. and it would cost the
club nothing to obtain his services.
Il have not the slightest doubt that
we will have the best pitching staff
this season that we ever have had
since l have been in charge of the
team said Manager Griffith this morn
ing. tie begin with, there are reasons
for believing that Johnson and Gallia
will duplicate their good work of last
year. | look for Harper and Shaw
both to come through. In fact. Harper
pitched great ball last fall and Shaw
non sixteen games the year before, and
his arm appears to be back in its best
form now. Then there are Boehling
and Bentley, both of whom are I'M
proved and Ayers and Dumont, who
are of much value. Humphries. too, is
a clever little pitcher. and there also
is reason for believing that Cuttings
will make good if Nick Altrocks judg
ment is what l believe it to be
II is extremely doubtful If any ball
club which picked up lot of young
Sters during the winter ever corralied
as many good-looking kids as mas
Griffith during the past off season. judg-
ed on the showing these recruits have
made in their work here. Dahlin Is
the only one who does not quite come
up 10 the standard. He probably Will
need lot more experience before ne
viii be eligible to train for major
league berth. but the others have
shown themselves to be most capable
considering the fact that most OF them
never have had real professional ex-
perience.
C;rifith has been fortunate that the
farming out limit has been Increased
to fifteen, for he probably will have
nearly that many players out with
a string attached during the coming
season.
Joe Boehling, who was pounds over
weight last season, now is down TO mis-
real pitching weight. In fact, Boehl-
ing reported in condition and got down
10 his normal weight this winter, dur
ing which he did a lot of hill climb
ing while hunting down near Rich
rnond As n result of his good con-
dition he is expected to pitch in better
form than last season. when he was too
fat to get out of his own way.
II know two young men who Will re-
port in perfect condition next spring,
remarked Ray Morgan, as the sweat
was pouring down his face while strug-
CLING with the medicine bail. with
Judge on the other end.
Judge and I won't have to go
through this sort of thing on our next
trip to the training camp, will we. joe?
The latter agreed. For my part. ! in
tend to spend three weeks at Hot
Springs, Ark. next spring" Morgan
said Those baths and long runs over
the mountains will get me down to
weight. Clyde Milan guarantees il.
It's Hot Springs for me next spring
Il won't go there, but I'll bet that
when I report next spring I will be
ready to play" Judge declared 1T is
not the most pleasant thing I know of
TO come here and work your head off in
order to get into playing condition. ]
have been taught good lesson"
Because Eddie Foster and Clyde Milan
both are at right weight, they were
excused from practicinR in the gym