Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-22
BY DENMAN THOMPSON.

| AUGUSTA, Ga. March 22.-The Ma.
tionals will play their first ball game oil
the season today. when the regulars
will be pitted against a nine composed
of utility players and battery men to
prime them for the contest with the
soldier team from Camp Hancock to-
morrow afternoon. Although the make
| up of the Yannigans is prublematical
the two teams probably will line uE
somewhat after this fashion:
| First team--Shotton, left field; Milan
center field; Judge, first base; Lavan
| shortstop: Foster. third base; Rice
right field; Morgan. second base; Ain
smith, catcher
Second team-Cass. center field: Char
rty, first base; Shanks, third base
Ripley, shortstop; Yingling, right field
Johnson, left field; Mcbride, second
base; Berman, catcher.
What pitchers will work and which
side they will work for could not be
determined beforehand. as Griff him
! self did not know. But it is assured
I that johnson will twirl for an inning
or two to get in shape to bust EN-
through against the soldiers tomorrow
and that fingling, Craft, Ayers. Lynch
Dumont, Waldbauer and Harper also
will see service 70 brief periods. Char
| rity will do some Dackstop duty, in adj
dition to first basing. and Judge may
not be permitted to play throughout
the game unless it lasts only five or six
innings. in which event Nick Altrock
will be seen cutting capers at the mi
tial sack for one or the other of the
two mines. Nick recently has been suf-
fering from touch of lumbago, and
after staging boxing bout and wres-
Ting match with himself this morning
announced that my back is not as bad
as l thought it was: it's worse" The
reason ShawS name is not included
among the twirlers likely to work to-
day is that Jim has caught cold in his
| salary whip and is not attempting any
thing but underhand losses, his regu-
lar wind-up causing him much pain
Jim's trouble really Is not in his arm
at all, but in the muscle under his
shoulder blade. Trainer Martin expects
to have the soreness rubbed out within
a day or two.
The weather yesterday was ideal for
practice and the athletes were put
through stiff sessions both in the morn
! ing and afternoon. The diamond still
was little soggy during the morning
drill but the sun dried it out rapidly
and by afternoon 1t was good and fast
although trif1e clumpy. Old Soils rays
were so hot all the players were in a
dripping perspiration after each work
he wears, Ray Morgan took off three
pounds during the day. The scales this
morning showed he had regained two
OF them. but this left him one pound
nearer the goal he is striving for and
expects to reach within a week Sha ~
still has long way to travel to reach
the IS5-pound mark he has set for him
self and his sore wing has slowed IN
his conditioning process, but he is MAX
ing eight or ten laps of the park a day
r. T,,y ~
tin and Nick Altrock. and by the end
OF another week or ten days the dial OF
the weighing machine is not expected
to revolve so rapidly when Jim steps on
IT. win the exception of Shaw, all the
pitchers, including Johnson, served
them up for batting practice yesterday
afternoon and this morning The two
left-handers, Harper and Yingling
were "a particularly good form as far
as control was concerned, and the latter
bent and twisted the ball over all cor.
ners of the plate.
Harper had most of the athletes
swinging like gates trying to connec1
with his delivery. which caused con
siderable comment on the bench and
led Grif to hisparagingly remark tina
ne could bat him all over the lot. The
manager whacked the first two Harry
put over on line to deep center. where.
upon Grif swelled up like pouter
pigeon and Harper kicked in with the
aiiol that he was laying 'em over for
the old boy"
A feature Of the work yesterday aft
ernoon and this morning was a drilI o1
the regular infield personally SUPERVISED
by Manager Griffith. Judge is getting
around in surprisingly lively style de.
| spite his injured left leg. Foster is
| scooping them up as of yore at third
while Morgan is getting down after tho
| balls IN great shape, considering hi:
| overweight and the fact that he i.
| bundled up in fiannels and the like
| to induce perspiration. The stellar
performer, however. is Johnny Lavan
Try as he could Mcbride, who wa.
| knocking them balls, could not get q
| hit" on grounders in L4avan's territory
| The lieutenant was all over the infieit
| and nearly upended Judge on three OIL
four occasions with bullet-Iike line
| throws across the diamond Griff hac
Lavan and Morgan practicing for double
plays around the keystone sack and this
pair put up snappy workout. Lavar
| Will speed up the entire Griffithian in
| field about 40 per cent this season. He