The Alaska daily empire., 1923-02-27

the approach of spring and another diamond campaign, advance caravans of nearly all of the 16 major league baseball clubs now are on their way south for the annual conditioning process. Training camps, scattered in lands of the palmetto and castus from Florida to Catalina Island, Cal, will be in full swing for all of the clubs by the second week of March.
 For the veterans, the next six weeks or so of conditioning and ex- hib.tion pastiming will mean shed ding excess poundage acquired dur ing the winter iay-off and limberins up for competition with eager and ambitious recruits, hundreds of whom will strive for big league positions for the first time in their careers.
 This rivalry for regular berths promises to be especially keen among several clubs going through a marked process of reorganization, including the Cleveland and Boston Americans, and the Brooklyn. Chicago and St. Louis Nationals.
 Interest among fans is centered largely in the prospects of the New York Giants and Yankees repeating their triumphs Of the past two sea sons in the face of increasing strength among several of their more dangerous rivals.
 leaguers Confident
 While they are not discounting the opposition they will encounter this year, Managers McGraw, of the Giants, and Huggins, of the Yankees. are confident their teams will keep the National and American League pennants in the same city for the third straight year.
 Both pilots declare their teams will be decidedly stronger, although they plan relatively little rebuilding. The Pittsburgh Pirates, in McGraw's opin- ion, loom as the club the Giants must eliminate to stay at the top of the heap while the Yankee leader ex poets his strongest battle from Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers. Cincinnati, in the National, and St. Louis, in the American, are picked as the next strongest contenders by the metro politan club managers.
 McGraw has announced that he will stand pat on his 1922 championship lineup. with the possible exception of centcrfield, devotlng most of his attention to bolstering weaknesses in the pitching staff winch nearly cost the club the pennant last season. Jimmy O'Connell, $75,000 "phenom" from San Francisco, is expected to fill the berth in m;dfield, but McGraw will give the veteran Casey Stengel, whose comeback was a sensation last year. and Bill Cunningham an oppor tunity to contest for tho job with the coast youngster.
 Figure on Bentley
 Jack Bentley, another expensive acquisition, is expected to add con siderable strength to the pitching corps. Bentley starred both as a Iortside f.nger and sluggcr with the Baltimore Orioles for several years, but his work with the champions will be confined to tho mound. according to McGraw. The Giant leader has dozen or more recruits from whom he hopes to weed out another twirl- ing star. He also looks for decided Improvement from his veterans Hugh McQuillan. Jack Scott, Arr Nchf and Jess Barncs-besides great CT effectiveness from younger Ihoundsmen Ike B.ll Ryan, Claude Jonnard and Virgil Barnes
 Pittsburgh's veteran and hard-hit- ting aggregation, in McGraw's belief, will prove formidable obstacle, un- der the leadership of Bill McKechnie. who took the Pirate helm around mid-season last year and developed the club into a dangerous contender in. the closing month of the cam paign.
 cincinnati's Infield
 rl Cincinnati reorganized with bril- liant young infield and good pitching. also figures strongly in McGraw's solicitations, while the Chicago Cubs. with pitching staff above the or tiinaky, promise to bear watching.
 Hu1gins@ bases much of his confi-