Evening star., 1927-04-27
A.,SARE SURE TO IMPROVE
WITH BETTER TEAM PLAY
Lieb Still Unable to See Griffmen as a Championship
Contender-Phillies Proving a Surprise.
Cleveland Lacks Something.

| the outfield Wilson. Webb and Heath.
cote, all were hitting under 200. VIII
/ son and Webb hit q few valuable home
runs in the early games-but there
their clubbing stopped. The expert
ment Of using Riggs Stephenson on
third was bound to fail. However,
there is a lot of good young pitchiT &
on the Chicago team and 1t IS bound
to make its presence felt.
The Braves and Phillies. seventh
and eighth place clubs of last season,
are showing up surprisingly Well OF
curse. the Braves have fattened mp
lrgely on the Brooklyns, though they
ct 'ebrated Patriots day by handing
the Giants a double trimming. The
Bra res batting order doesn't look like
mucl on paper. but it is winning
gal 1es in back of good pitching by Ed
wares, Smith, Benton and Robertson.
Nobody knows as yet what makes
the Phillies go, but they are rolling
along. Getting pretty good pitching,
too. from old Jack Scott. Carlson, Fer
guSon and Pruett. "Stuffy" McIunis
says he has no sucker club, and III
take his word for it.
Cards Are Picking Up.
The Cardinals are picking up and
going pretty Well They may be the
club which viii run second to the
Pirates. Frisch is hitting hard and
timely and doing everything that
Hornsby did Haines. Sherdel and
"Aleck" are all pitching fine BAH.
The Reds are trying hard TO set
out of their slump. but l am afraid
it win be a tough season for Hen
driokS. Brooklyn shows little inn
proyement and is making a strong
early-season bid for the cellar
Detroit is launching its expected
strong offensive in the American
League Harry Heilman is bounding
off to a. great batting start. and the
entire Tiger team is hitting Rain
has kept the Tigers idle q good rart
Of the time, but when they have gone
into action Pitchers WhitehiE and
Gibson have given especially good ac
counts of themselves. / still regard
the Tigers as the American Leagues
dark horse. If either the Yanks on
AS stumble the Tigers will tear right
past them.
! cannot see any other club with
real serious pennant chance in the
American League flag race. Wash
ington has piled up a lot Of early vic-
tories at the expense of the lowly
Boston club, but things will stiffen
for the Washington pitchers when
they get sturdier opposition. The
Senators are not hitting as well
either. Goslin Judge and Speaker are
hacking away at the ball, but Rice is
getting off slowly. while Myer and
Bluege have Jared badly at bat
Bluege had to 20 to his seventh game
before he got his first hit.
Cleveland Lacks Something.
Cleveland lacks something with
Speaker out. IT may be that Mccall
lister later can rally this team as did
Spoke, but right now it does not
appear TO be a contender. Schultz,
the young outfield star of the Browns.
is doing nobly. and Sisler shows that
he has not lost the knack of lining
them safe Otherwise the Brownies
are not smacking the ball with much
gusro though | believe the brand of
pitching in the Western wing of the
American League has been much bet
ter than in the East.
] think Ray Schalk has done pretty
well with his White Sox material So
far Roger Peckinpaugh and Aaron
Ward, the former Yankee pair, have
been no great shucks around second.
Aaron is hitting around 100. AS for
the poor Red Sox, well, the less said
the better
Copyright. 1927,