Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-04-03
GIANTS LOOK GOOD
BUT MOUND STAFF :
NEEDS BOLSTER|NC
Seventeen Hur1ers in McGraw
Corral, but Few Tried-an
True; Present Layout Looks
Somewhat Classy on Paper.
By. ROGERT w. MAXWELL.
downright. 1872

Gainesville, Fla, April 3-Every time
you turn around in the training camp
of the Giants here in Gainesville, you
step on a pitcher. John McGraw has
collected great assortment of hurlers
long and short, left handed and right
handed, lean and fat-in fact, every
known variety in an attempt to select
seven or eight who can stand up under
the strain of a tough major league
baseball season.
McGraw is making no bones about
the weakness of his club. The pitching
department needs some bolstering and
he has exactly II twirlers gathered
from all parts of the country to show
him their curves and slants twice a
day on the athletic field of the Uni
versity of Florida. This is an unusu
ally large squad but the boss of the
Giants is taking no chances. He said
he would be glad to look over a dozen
more If there was a chance to dis
cover one good moundsman.
Failure of the pitching staff to
come through when the going was
rough cost the New York club few
remnants and McGraw is taking no
chances this year. His outfield, infield |
and catching corps are well taken care
of, so most of his time is spent with |
his hurlers. Christy Mathewson is on |
the job as an assistant, but Jawn him |
self is doing most of the work George
Gibson also is lending some valuable |
assistance
SPIRIT OF OPTIMISM.
There is Il spirit of optimism down
here, but the men show no traces of
overconfidence They are seasoned
veterans--too old in the game to take
anything for granted at this early
Gate-hl1t rpo1izn fheU hovn fiybtin.r |
chance to win the pennant and horn in
on the annual dizzy which follows the
playing of the world series.
1t is heavy hitting team, the men
are fast on the bases and on the at
tack should be the strongest in the
league. Defensively the Giants also
look good, with the exception of the
pitching. That is the one and only
problem to contend with.
In writing about the New York
club, one cannot grow over enthusiasts
tic about its chances to win the pen
nant However. it must be admitted
that McGraw has an unusually strong
aggregation of ball players and the flu
ture looks exceptionally bright. The
outfield, which consists of George
Burns, Benny Kauff and Ross Young
with Jim Thorpe as utility man, is a
fast fielding, smuggling gang of fence
busters. Hal Chase, Larry Doyle Ar
thur Fletcher and Heinie Zimmerman
comprise a quick thinking, hard hit
ting infield and Lew McCarty and Earl
Smith are high class, brainy catchers.
That's the present layout and it GER
tainly looks good on paper. Arthur
Irwin, who now manages the Rochester
club, was down here a few days and
said it was the best ball team he ever
to- i,ri,t lnI,t
one cannot forget the last three sea-
sons-principally 1916 and 1918 when
the Giants also looked good, but did
everything but win the pennant.
GIANTS ALWAYS ERRATlC.
The New York club has been an I'M
certain proposition. With the best
players money can buy it is likely to
crack at any minute and cause misery
and despair from the battery to the
Bronx. In 1916 the team won II
straight games on the road early in
the season and came back with rs
straight, but finished down in the race.
Last year it looked as if the Giants
were easy winners when they won Is
of the first nineteen games and were
far ahead of the others until the first
week in June, but the well known eX
plosion came and the highly adver
tised ball club hit the sllids.
Two years ago after winning the
pennant they went into the world
series a heavy favorite but lost to the
White Sox for no apparent reason
whatsoever. 1t is virtually the same
team this year with only few ex-
ceptions.
McGraw has six of his old standbys
for pitchers. Ferdie Schupp, Jess
Barnes, RUDE Benton, Bob Steele,
George Smith and Cecil Algeron
Causey are showing lots of stuff and
probably will form the first squad.
The others are Winters, who looks
very promising despite his inexperi-
ence, Brogan who came from Roches-
ter, Neel of Washington, Clarey. a
Cornell man, Rommell. of Newark,
Ryan of Holy Cross College. Lyons Of
Baltimore, Hubbell of Newark, Jones,
who lead the Texas league in 1917,
Ross of Newark and Terhune, a semi
pro of New York.
In addition, we must not forget
Fred Toney, who is guest of the state
of Tennessee and will leave the house
party which he has been attending
about May after a stay of four
months. Fred has been taking good
care of himself-no late hours or any
thing-and should be in good condition.
scHUPP LOOKS GOOD.
Echupp seems to have recovered from
the ailment which put him on the side
lines last year and really looks good.
His arm Is strong and he is pitching
every day under the watchful eye of
lNcGraw. II Eerdie comes back to his
I1917 form he will be q valuable man
for the Giants. Benton also looks
good and is Is pounds lighter than last
year, which shows the army life agreed ]
with him. Jess Barnes should have a