New Britain herald., 1923-03-24
HOPES HE'LL DO BETTER
 THAN LAND IN SEVENTH
InfieId Will Be Greatly Improved and Catching Top Notch-Arc Better
 All Around.
BY BILLY EVANS.

LecS>>srg, Fla, March 24.-Art Fletcher, new manager of the Phillies. is an optimist,
 Fletcher reached the ranks of star dom as shortstop for the New York Giants.
 Trained in the school of John Me- Graw, Fletcher thinks victory all the time. Defeat has no place in his vo- cabulary.
 Placed in charge of team that many criticic are lnkind enough to consign to last place, Fletcher is in no way discouraged He plans to make a better showing than the Phil lies did last year. He feels that he will be able to carry out his plans.
 Regardless of whe.e they finish the Phillies of 1928 will play with much better spirit than did the team of last year. Flctcher's aggregation will bat tie all the way.
 When defeated they will go down fighting rather than meekly accept ing the reverse, with the thought that the playing of the game merely brought the season that much nearer to the close.
 Theories of Fletcher.
 Fletcher never fails to impress up- on his players that they did not finish last in 1922. The Phillies have held down the tail-end position for so many years that Fletcher wants his players to keep in mind the fact they did not finish there last year.
 The other point that he keeps driv- ing home is that by finishing sixth the club will show a substantial im- to show where the team is stronger than last year and should make bet ter showing.
 Sixth place is the spot Fletcher is shooting at. There are some who will insist that he he might as well shoot at the moon, but the Phillies manag- CT refuses to see it i.l that light
 Keep out of last place. Fletcher keeps preaching that theory to his athletes. He doesn't want his team to hit the cellar a. single time during the season. He seeks to stay out of last place because ol the psychologi- cal effect he is certain it will have.
 Pitching that is certain to be bet ter. An infeld that will be 25 per cent better. Catching that will be worthy of pennant winner. An outfeld that will show much im- proved player in Curtis Walker, pick ed up by Fletcher to soon develop into real star. There you have the reasons for Fletcher's optimism.
 Fletcher feels that Boston is better than an eighth place team. However, since the Phillies beat out Boston last year, Fletcher sees no reason why they cannot repeaG Incidentally Brooklyn is the other club that he feels he has more than an even chance to nose out.
 The Probable Lineup.
 unquestionably the Phillies of this year will be considerable improve ment over last year. The club will present practically the same lineup of last year, with the exception of Sands at short and Holke at first. Sands looks good.
 In all probability Williams, Wal ker and Lee will start in the outfield. The ability of Williams is well known. Lee has promise. while Curtis Walker looks like a sure enough star. Walk CT is the youngster secured from Me- Graw in one of the several deals made by Philly with New York.
 Fletcher's ball club doesn't look so much on paper, but it is displaying a spirit in training that will be some- thing entirely new to the Philly fans Even that should help.