Evening star., 1926-03-28

more grooming before he may be r
the progress he has made in the past
the bell rings on April IS.
But with the other departments
OF the tentatively regular outtield,
Sam Rice. destined to take care CT
the center position, is the only mem
ber ar top notch form, but Sam is
one of those fortunate athletes who
always seem to be at the peak of
form. He never has trouble with
legs or arm, and his batting eye
usually is brightly polished. Natural
ly, he is ready to step into the pen
nant fight right now.
Goose Goslin, who will hold down
the left field job. has been none too
steady afield 50 far in the exhibition
series and his batting has been afro.
cious While the Goose always has
been slow starter with the fail, his
clubbing this year has been much
worse than in any other training sea
son with the Nationals. Goslin de-
Clares he does not know why he
should bat so poorly. He has cor
rected his stance at the plate several
times and has tried to vary the tim
ing Of his swings, but without sue
cess He knows that he is swinging
too soon at all styles of pitching, but
so far has not been able to correct
this fault. The Goose insists, how
ever, that he Will rid himself of this
evil on the northWard trip OF the
team. He must, or the Champs will
enter the title campaign minus con-
siderable punch.
Moon Is Mainstay at Bat.
Joe Harris, right handler. who has
supplanted the SouthpaW Johnny
Tobin in right field. is the batting
mainstay of the club at present. In
fact, he and Rice are the only mem
bers of the regular crew VINO nave
been doing any sWatting worth men,
tioning. But Joe has had little prac-
tice in the field and in his few games
to date has not covered any great
amount Of territory. Manager Bucky
Harris feels, however, that in Joe's
case offensive strength will more than
offset any defensive weakness.
Benny Tate, for two years bullpen
catcher with the Harrismen, is the
best of the three receivers now with
the club. He is in better form than at,
any time since he has been a member
of the club and his work behind the
bat is much improved. But he shows
often that he needs much more eX-
perience before he may be rated as
high-class major Lacquer.
Muddy Ruel, ace of the receiving
staff for three seasons, is not the Ruel
he used to be, by a long shot. At least,
he is not now and it does not seem
likely he win be within three weeks
from now. He still is a great re-
ceiver. Very few pitches ever get
by Muddy. But he has slowed con-
siderably and, worst of all, his throw
ing has been feeble. Both Manager
Harris and Ruel insist the fiinging
wing will be o. K. before the pen
nant scramble begins but if it is to
be SO, then a wonderful change in the
arm will have to take place within a
short time.
While Hank SEVERED is a steady
performer, he lacks the aggressive
ness of either Tate or Ruel behind the
bat, and probably is slated to do little
more than warm up prospective pitch
ers and step to the plate in pinChes
occasionally. SEVERED still is a strong
and reliable mechanical catcher, but
the Nationals need plenty of pepper
as well as mechanical ability back of
the plate. Any club does.
Pitchers Are Backward.
In it's entirety, the pitching staff is
far from being at the point of devel-
opment generally expected of a big
league pitching staff a little more than
two weeks before the campaign starts.
Most OF its members are in fine trim
physically, but their salary wings are
below par. Walter Johnson, Stan
Coveleskie and Curly Ogden of the
veterans and Harry Kelley and
Clarence Thomas of the recruits seem
to have made most progress in the
training here. The others are coming
along, but slowly, and they will have
to be rushed during the transforming
tour if the Nationals are to show
lot of fairly Sc easoned hurlers to their
rivals in the early part of the cham
pionship race.
At this time last season the Ma
tionalS were far more advanced In
preparations for the playing season.
True they lost a number of games in
the early part of the Spring series
with the Giants, but they We're play
ing smarter base ball and performing
more briSkly than at present. Then
it was a case of the Giants being just
bid ahead Of them in fitness and the
American leaguers We're able to make
the fight interesting, even while los
ing. They may prove troublesome to
the Giants next week but to do so
they will have to undergo. a rapid
form reversal or the opposition will
have to falter fearfully.
Only two of the five games next
These viii be staged here on Monday
and Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon,
Jack Dunn's Orioles of Baltimore, who
have been training a. Punta Gorda,
south of here, will provide the opposi-
ton. In this game Walter Johnson
will do his last pitching before en-
training for Washington, where he
Will quietly continue his training
while the club is on tour.
Quit Tampa Next Thursday.
The Tampa camp will be evacuated
at noon Thursday. The next day
Columbus will be encountered at Quit
man, Ga, and next Saturday Roch-
ester will be engaged at WaycroSs,
Ga. Manager Harris expects to use
all of his recruit hurlers in the con-
tests with the minor leaguers.
Only 26 players will make the barn
storming trip, as Hank SEVERED and
Joe McNiff will accompany Johnson
to Washington. SEVERED is to assist
the pitcher in preparatory work at
Clark Griffith Stadium while McNiff,
infield recruit from Wilmington, who
has been suffering with a sore throw
ing arm since the day after he re-
ported here, will endeavor to get his
wing into shape. His condition now
is such that he would be of little
use to the club during the trip.
TEX" Jeanes, outf1elder, will not be
of much service to the Nationals next
week. He is nursing a leg tendon
strained during a drill this week and
will not be in uniform for several
days.
The Giants evidently are taking this
Spring exhibition series with the