New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-14

Cne OCner engagement on the EaSte
on the adulterated Philadelphia DUAL
Cubs play the promising Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds are at grips in the
Two new managers make their bow
to National League patrons this season.
They are Jack Hendricks, an unusually
successful minor league manager, who
was picked this winter to manage the
St. Louis Cardinals, and Hugo Bezdek,
erstwhile Chicago University football
star, to whom Barney Dreyfuss turned
over the rcins of the Pittsburgh
Pirates.
Players Fighting Huns
No few players are fighting the COM
mon battle of civilization against the
Hun. and the various shifts and expert
ments to be tried by each of the clubs
should make the 1918 season one of the
most interesting in the long history
Of this organization, as we'll as one
OF the most uncertain.
Manhattan is concerned chiefly with
the prospects of our institutional
Giants. Manager McGraw, who has
just turned his forty-fifth year, has
been both spectacular and successful
in his sixteen years of major league
membership; SO much SO that his team
is perhaps the most widely known in
the United States.
McGraw has won a half dozen pen
nants since 1902, has invested every
team he ever managed with picturesque
personality and has proved to baseball
students that his success lies as much
IN his acute judgment of baseball flesh
as his aggressive field dictatorship.
The 1918 Giants, as We previously
have pointed out. is one of the great
est offensive machines in the history
OF the National League. In sheer bat
ting and running power it probably
surpasses any team McGraw ever has
managed. There is not weak link
from top to bottom in the offensive
chain.
Very fortuitously the withdrawal Of
daredevil Dave" Robertson has I'M
earthed young player who promises
to be one of the greatest outfelders
ever developed in the National League
he is Ross Young, whom McGraw pur-
mature IN minor league circles.
Pitchers Must Improve
1t is defensively the Giants will lose
the pennant if they do lose AS this is
written Manager McGraw is genuinely
Perturoed over the backwardness Of
MS pitchers. 1t may be that warm
weather will iron out the difficulties.
or possibly it may be the symptom of
the inevitable slowing up that all
veteran pitching stats experience.
II such is the case it presages end
less difficulties for the Giant manager
this summer. 1t presages long games.
with nigh scores, for it is certain that.
no matter what the Giant pitchers do
or do not do the other eight men on
tne clup nave the native ability to
transmute into many runs.
Burns, Kauff and Young constitute
what is by all means the best hitting
and running outtield in the National
League, with Burns at least a paragon
among fielding gardeners. The infield
with Holke, Doyle, Fletcher and lin,
norman, is spotty, as we have also
previously remarked. but it possesses
a great amount of offensive power as
zimmerman. Doyle, Holke and Fletcher.
flight of hitters.
".
are reliable in every department of the
game. and are good enough to give
New York an edge over most teams in
tnls particular department. It looks
now as though McCarty will do most
OF the receiving. He is hitting thc
pail hard, and his shoulder is conva-
,,esclng so nicely that he now gets the
pall away from him in fair style,
a.. me team viii carry eight pitchers,
ana tney probably will be Sallee, Ben
Ton, Schupp, Tesreau, Anderson Per
ritt: Barnes and Demarec. There il
q chance that George Smith or Cecil
tausey, both youngsters, will supplant
one II not two veterans. At Ioast
they will be carried with the club until
the National League rules demand that
scognizance be taken of the PLAYER
limit. p'"Se
Demaree Pitches Well
The position which the Giants will
occupy next October depends most i'm
portantly upon the work of this octet.
and it is a rather depressing fact TO
find that only three pitchers among
the eight have thus far turned in
impressive performances Demarec
against the Waco Texas League team
showed surprising amount Of stuff.
but fell off later, while, as this is writ
ten. only two other pitchers have tossed
even average ball. They are Jess
Barnes and JEFF Tesreau, who man
aged to held the Cleveland club to one
hit in an engagement at Houston.
Battery Coach Gibson. as we'll az the
Giant manager, believes period Of
warm weather will completely obIt-
crate the present pitching problem, and
Gibson is shrewd judge of major
league finging. Perhaps it will, and
II 30. it is almost certain that with
Barnes. who already looks like win
ner, and the three southpaws, Benton,
Sallee and Schupp, in order McGraw
will get pitching effective as that Of
1917, which won pennant. II will
take time TO demonstrate the point.
For the past several years the East,
through the power of the "Big Three"
Boston, Philadelphia and New York
has been much in the eye Of National
League fans Th. season there is a
lively prospect that the old order will
change and that the East, barring the
Giants, will have TO make way for the
West.
Chicago's illustrious Cubs. with a
large bankroll. have strengthened their
team by purchase until Manager Fred
Mitchell mas club for which some Of