The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-29

that could win games and it seems that we have obtained enough players tt have a winning team. Nevertheless, al our efforts seem to be in vain.' We ob tained four pitchers direct from tn, major leagues since the season started in our efforts to bolster up the club All of these pitchers were highly recon mended, not only by the clubs WI bought them from but by scouts of other clubs Still none of them have seemed to relieve the trouble and ths team still loses games.
 President Smith seemed as nonpluss ed as anyone as to what the trouble with the team was and when asked just what the cause for the poor showing was, replied that he had just started tC ask the same question.
 The team has never been in such a low state in many years. Since June 1 the Barons have played % games. Out of the 20 the team has lost IS, won g and tied two. The Barons scored 136 runs in these games to their opponents POP.
 Pitching Fails
 Inability of the pitchers to do any effective work seemed to be the out standing trouble during the early part of the slump starting about the middle of May or earlier. The team led the league in batting for a week or two and was up among the leaders for awhile Then the outfit went into a batting slump and matters began to grow worse The team always ranked about sixth or seventh in fielding and batting seem ed to be the only element that kept them in the win column at all. Now the club is down to third in batting and pitching seems to make little difference. Good pitching ordinarily loses as well as bad, although there is little of the former brand served by local twirlers.
 Attendants at the games grew light CT and lighter as the slump continued and discomfort in all quarters grew The management seemed to do all in their power to better conditions but il was useless. In a season when pitch. Barons were caught empty handed and edying matters. Everything went called in to take over the buisness of the club.
 Deals Fail
 Proxy Smith had several deals under way but they all went wrong. One of them was for Turner Barber, Little Rock outfielder, recently trader to Mem phis. The local president sought to trade or buy the Traveller outfielder from Bob Allen, president of the Little Rock club, but Allen would not make any proposition. He wanted to trade Mccall for Bates but the local mag was after Barber. Soon afterwards Allen traded Barber to Memphis for Morrison and cash consideration. This brought much protest from clubs around the circuit and Allen was accused of helping the stronger clubs. It was also hinted. that there was a secret under standing between Tom Watkins, presi- dent of the Memphis club, and Allen that the Memphis magnate would use his influence to secure more Sunday games for Little Rock on next years schedule.
 President Smith was also negotiating for Roy Moore but it was learned that he had a sore arm, so he was passed up for the Barons needed pitchers, not hit ters. Moore started the first game Sat urday for Atlanta against the Barons but was knocked out of the box. He has been used more as utility man than pitcher by the Atlanta club since their acquisition of him.
 No other changes will be made in the club until the new executive takes charge, then many changes are likely to be made.