The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-03
|NAHffkzjS$c
-HE PILGRIMAGE is on. Da

by day the BarOns will be ar-
 irving from now on until the middle of next week. Friday saw it's little contingent of pastimers turn up when three of the baseball breath ren registered at Baronial headquar- ters at the Birmingham Arms.
 Harry (Smutter) Matthews, grand old veteran of many a diamond cam paign for the Barons. was one of the trio of early arrivals, ambling' into headquarters Friday with the terse announcement, Well, am here." and Shutter mopped his brow and sank into chair to have few preseason words with "Quack" Smith. Billy West and Jod Dunn.
 Shutter is back with the Barons as assistant manager and battery coach again this year. Matthews performed yeoman service for Smith and com pany last spring and summer, first as coach and then as temporary pilot after the resignation of Carlton Molesworth. And then, off and on, he did little scouting for the Bar ons.
 Harry Matthews Is a veteran of that famous incident at the old West End diamond. when Shutter, in peg sing to second base, smote Pitcher Rip Began in the back of the head with the pellet. Random knows Matthews. and fandom respects him for his knowledge of the national pastime, and his value as a pilot and coach.
 The other two arrivals Friday
 were Arthur Trcfry. outfielder
 drafted from the Charlotte club
 of the Sally league. and Leo
 FIeischman, Dayton, O., semi.
 pro infielder. The latest arriv-
 als bring the list of Baronial can-
 didates on hand to four, hut that
 number will probably be doubled
 or tripIed by Sunday. and moro
 than that by Monday morning,
 when spring training begins.
 Basketball for 1923 is over in Bir- nringham, so far as actual playing of games Is concerned. but Athletic club devotees haven't yet quit talk ing of that nifty licking tho Blues gave Atlanta Tuesday night. Sew eral of them, acting in the form of a sort of unofficial committee, came to us with the following extracts from the write-up of the game in an Atlanta newspaper. and asked that We take issue with the author:
 Tho roughest game of the season
 was played here Tuesday night.
 and Birmingham Athletic club,
 by virtue of it's r0ugher tactics,
 defeated the Atlanta Athletic
 club, 30 to 23
 s'The visiting (Atlanta) men
 came forward In the second half.
 when Coach Bean substituted
 seyeraI fresh athletes, who were
 able to cope on even terms with
 the tough Birmingham clubbers."
 And those particular fans demand ed: Do you think that's fair7 Coach Ervin's men whipped Atlanta fair and square, and all the roughing came from the other side."
 There really doesn't seem any use starting a controversy over the mat ter. Everyone who saw the game knows that the Blues piled up com manding lead in the first half, when both teams played straight. scien- tific basketball, and that ih the lat ter half, due to the football tactics. of some of Joe Beans substitutes Hungry Floyd, Hub Hahn and Nor man Mandy, were unable to cut aloose with any kind of basketball and the Atlantans scored moro points in the final half than did the Blues.
 It was certainly hard on Joe
 Bean that his "puny" caEesters-
 scrappy Sullivan, Johnny Graves,
 Rufus Bass and company. all big
 feIIows-cOuldn't cope with the
 "henvyweiEht" aggregation of
 Coach Erwin - Laughinhouse,
 Mandy, Hahn and Floyd. who
 really do push the scales to at
 least a 155 pound average-ahd
 that a set of huskier basketeers
 had to be sent in.
 Atlanta has no kick coming. Those Blues were fighting mad. but con fined their efforts to basketball. and the number of fouls committed should count for something in decid- ing who was doing the roughing.
 Captain Afford. 1t may be con- tended, played a rough game. The boilermaker played a hard. driving game of basketball. but Referee Steiner was unable to find single foul committed by the husky Bir- c1nhhar