The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-14
YANK LEADER SAYS
TEAM Is IMPROVING
Miller Higgins Pleased With
Showing Of Men, and Has
High Hopes for 1920.
by FREDERICK C. LIEB.

| ny bh6DE1HtCn - btFfb.
Miller Higgins, mite manager of the
Yankees is pretty well satisfied with
| his showing in New York. The DicSie
Kerr among big league leaders throws
no bouquets at himself. but Just the
same the tiny Cincinnatian is OF the
| opinion that he did ABOUT as much with
the Yanks as any mortal could have
done.
! The writer ran across Higgins dur
| ing the seventh worlds series game In
| Cincinnati. and little Miller unbosomed
| himself on the Yankee situation.
81 realize that 1 have been criticised
at times since ! took hold of the Yam
KEGS. and my judgment has been ques-
! toned quite freely, but / think have
brought some results" said Higgins.
81 think no one will deny that the
club is a considerably improved aggre-
CATION over the one / took over in tho
spring of 1918. The 1917 team finished
sixth In my first year here we ad-
| vanced quite a bit in percentage ana
( finished fourth. Last season we made
/ another nice gain in percentage and mn
| ished third. I don't believe we are
standing still. but are making actual
| progress.
among other things I've been blamed
1
! mention their names, but everybody
knows them. No one appreciates better
! than / do that pennants cannot Do
| won with some of the men we now
| have on the club. They are not cham
pionship players. Then why do l play
them? In the first place, / always en-
I, deavored to put my strongest lineup INTO
the game every day, and some OF the
men / have happened TO be the oese
| that could be obtained.
| "In the second place, we could not
afford to experiment last season. even
| after it became evident that our pen,
nant chances were slim. With third
place yielding our players a nice slice
I of worlds series money we had 10 nght
! right to the last game to clinch TINS
position.
But does the New York baseball pub
| lie appreciate that l am gradually re-
modelling the Yankee team? have Just
five men left OF the regular team OF
1917, Baker, Pipp Peck, Shawkey ana
Mogridge. also have retained few
Of the youngsters who were with the
club In the fall of 1917.
i've been working especially hard 10
build up a new staff of pitchers. some
OF the men / have let go have done Wei
elsewhere, but fact that is generally
overl ooked is that they were OF no use
| to the New York club. Take the case
for the Red Sox when he was sent to
Boston in the NAYS deal But the fact
remains he wasn't delivering in New
| York Russell Is a good pitcher, put ne
couldn't win for me, and when hao
the chance to get Mays and Boston held
out for Russell l had no hesitancy In
letting him go.
II believe next year we will have one
Of the best pitching staffs in baseball
With Mays. Shawkey. Quinn. Shore.
Thormah'en and MCgridGe l think we
will be better fortified in pitching than
any club in the league, Yes, l stilf
place Shore among my top-notehers
There is no denying that Ernie disap-
pointed US this season, and II he had
pitched for the Yankees the way he used
10 pitch for the Red Sox there is no
telling where we would have finished.
IF Shore had lost his stuff. l should
be alarmed, but the funny thing about
his failure last season is that he hao
as much speed and could put as much
on the ball as any time IN his career
But he couldn't control it, as his year l.
the navy kind Of threw him off hi
game. He got off bad in the spring and
he just co j dn'c get started Shores arm
is FAR from gone, but he just had one
Of those off years that come to the best
o. pitchers.
|
the pitching top-liners Of baseball next
year
My club hit hard enough last season
TO win any pennant had their been more
speed on the club. l am amused some
times when fellow blames me for the
Yankees not having more speed on the
bases As | already have explained,
have been playing the best team ! have
been able TO put in the field and am MAX
ing my change when / am convinced
new man will prove Of greater general
value to the club than any player / have
been using.
81 am fortunate In having some fine
youngsters, who promise to develop Into
the stars OF the game. ] could have
made several advantageous deals last
winter had ! been willing to throw in
Fewster. But that was one place where
drew the line. lie was one player ]
wouldn't even consider a trade for. as
early recognized he had the makings OF
a wonderful player.
Il am not so sure about Wick. II
some ways Sammy hasn't come up TO ex-
pectations, and II he could grasp some
things quicker he might develop into
great ball player He can hit: no one
can take that from him He hits a ball
harder than any younSster ! have seen
come up in some time But II IL a gam
bic with Sam. He may come back next
year anu AEAt4lp INV q lAa4 EAAlr VI
perhaps he already has gone as FAR as a
player Of his general temperament can
be advanced.
IN tip you of to another thing last
season that most people didn't seem 10
get Around June and early July. when
We Mete leading the league and apIG-
entity driving everything before US, We
were getting away with IT because We
were picking on the Wash!ngtons, Ath-
let!cs and the Red Sox, which club then
was IN demorslzed condition.
we looked mighty good against
those clubs, and got lot 81 breaks.
Well, then. We ran against the strong
Western combinations, Chicago, Cleve-
land. Detroit and St Louis, for nearly
two solid months Then we didn't look
80 good Actually We did not slump 80
much as appeared o. the surface. What
really happened was while played
daily against these crack Western teams
they were picking on the Athletics, Sena-
tors and Red SOx for this two month
period The result was We couldn't
stand up under this assault, not because
we slumped so much, but becaus, while
we were holding these WesternCrs 70
about a hfty-ffty split, they were fat
tenlng up on the same clubs which had
enabled US to jump o4t In front IN the
early summer"