The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-01-07
N1EAfikAlS$c AScE

las passed, and developments
 in the baseball situation at Birmingham moved swiftly. Billy West, veteran business manager of the Barons. has. let no grass grow under his feet during the past week, and Saturday wound up enough bus mess to give railbirds food for con versation the rest of the week.
 Never before have the Barons taken cn quite as ambitious schedule of exhibition games as have been arranged for 1923. Almost 20 spring games have been closed, and Joe Dunn's men will face first-class opposition in. the spring. When ques- toned as to the reason for all this stepping out" Billy West merely smiled and said:
 Boy, we're going to have team this year. Might as well get 'em ac- customed to playing fast ball, hadn't we?"
 And Billy is about right. If the Barons can show winning form a . ehoe pdHSAl Ol OPPOoltlOA they should wade right through the Southern leaguers.
 The Bnrons will show a ground
 covering tendency in the spring. Dunn will take his pastfmers to
 Montgomery and Troy, and most
 probably Tuscaloosa, for game
 with the University.
 
 Joe Dunn. who makes his first i start as pilot of the Barons, will arrive in Birmingham shortly after the middle of February. stated Billy West Saturday. Joe will come heeled for action, and spring training will start shortly after Joes arrival in Birmingham.
 Dunn, taking over a disorganized ball club last summer, managed to hold his own the remainder of the season, and although he didn't finish with a team of champions, he did have things running smoothly when the curtain was rung down.
 It is Birmingham's year to win a pennant. That is, If the law of TO- tation counts for anything. They are not promising us a pennant. but Billy West and Billy Smith say the im- ~provement over last year will be con siderably more, than noticeable. It is ar never-tO-be-fOrg month at Mobile. It has been customary for yenrs past for the pennant winning town in the Southern league to get the next winters schedule meeting, and Mobile will enjoy its first sched- ulc meeting this month. Billy Vests statement that Tommy Taylor would more than likely be re tained this year will more than likely prove pleasing to railbirds. The turbu- lent Tommy, as he cavorted around the hot corner, with his ringing shout of Hey" has won many friends in Birmingham, and they would like to see him back at third base next spring.
 Ana. aside from the element of ifkcs l and dlslikes. when Tommy Taylor puts his mind on baseball and tries to play baseball, there is not a bet ter third baseman in the Southern league.
 With home ties, and the necessity of making everything count. Tommy should play the best baseball of his career this year, and that's what Baronial moguls will count on in re- i taining him.
 The prodiEnl comes home. Josh Cody, pupil of Dan McGuEin, md 1 one of the greatest linemen ever developed by the COmmod0rex,
 will probably be asxistant coach nt vandy. That much was given out from Nashville yesterday. Vandy gains considerably, but Mercer will prove the loser. Cody has 1 developed formidable football ma chine at Mercer, and the Georgia fn- stitution must look elsewhere for a coach.
 Random finds 1t easy to under stand why Mercer should dislike the idea of-breaking up it's combination of coaches.
 EVELYN NESBlTT THAW REPORTED SERIOUSLY ILL ATLANTIC CITY. Jan. 6.-The con- dition of Evelyn Nesbit, former wife of Harry K. Thaw, was said tonight to be very grave at the private hos l pital to which she was taken Tues