Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-01-20
BY NORMAN E. BROWN,
Sports Writer for Central Press and
The Brownsville Herald.

by NOhMAN Z. bhOM N
Sports Writer for Central Press and
The Brownsville Herald.
The generalissimo of a .nisle train
in Idaho tipped off the Washington
ball club to the ability sof Walter
Johnson.
Three days after he joined that
team he pitched against the Detroit
Tigers and struck out thirteen bat
tiers. Listed in the lineup Of the
Tigers were Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford,
Jim Delehanty, Claude Rossmand and
a few others Of their ilk with the bat.
Now these facts regarding the
debut of Walter Johnson, the master
Of American league pitchers, may 0
be as vital as the long list OF Stats
tics regarding the number Of shut
outs he has pitched, the total num-
Der Of strikeouts registered, the total
won and lost record, etc, but they
are important in this respect-that
they are in a way typical OF Johnson
and his oareer-a career that millions
Of fans will recall again when he
steps onto the diamond in April for
his debut as a major league manager,
as pilot Of the Washington club.
Johnson comes back TO the majors
after a years absence, a year spent
as manager Of the Newark club Of the
International league.
Those who know Johnson, even
merely in a baseball way, will appre-
eiate that it was fitting that he should
step into the front ranks of baseball
in an unobtrusive fashion. Johnson
never intruded.
Major league club owners today
are paying from $4,000 to $4,000
for pitchers whom they don't expect
to deliver for a year or more after
reporting to the major league camp
the first time. Johnson delivered
three days after he arrived-broke
into ii games after he delivered in
mid-season-and was credited with
winning five and losing nine games
while pitching a total of 112 innings.
The next year he broke into So
games and won II and lost the same
number with a mediocre club. The
following year, in 40 games, he came
out victor but 10 times, as against 25
defeats. But get this. He struck out
l64 men, and allowed an average Of
just 2.20 earned runs per game. And
for 10 years after that was a winning
pitcher every year-regardless Of the
ups end downs of the Washington
club.
And in six Of those years he al
lowed an earned run averag eof less
than two runs a game. In 1918, in a
total Of 325 innings he permitted just
LIS runs q game-but we're getting
into the statistics now.
There was that season Of 1913, too,
when he won SO games and lost z, for
a winning average Of .S37. And that
year he allowed just LOS earned runs
a game-which shoots that remark
about 1918 into the waste basket.
That's the trouble with the statistics
Of King Walt.
Johnson's career is usually hooked
up with the reign of Clark Griffith as
manager and later manager and
president of the Washington club,
but old Pongo Joe Cantillon was
manager of the Senators when John
son reported. II was Cantillon who
took the word of Mike Shea, brother
ball player and at the time chaperon-
ing the mule train, that Johnson va
good.
That was in 1907. AS far as actual
competition in professional ball is
concerned, Johnson can be credited
with stepping into the big leagues in
his first year as q regularly employed
player. He had been pitching semi
pro ball in the west and northwest
and some time in 1906 the Tacoma
club Of the Northwestern league
signed him. Records agree, however,
that he never actually played with
that club, but spent his time between
then and his debut with Washington,
semi-pro ball with the Wei
ser, Idaho, team. ]
And, oh yes. Thirteen years after
he began pitching major league ball
in 1920 that was-he had a tore I'm.
The first Of his career. Four years
later he won % games while losing
2, and helping pitch Washington to
its first pennant.
It's m easy task to figure what
Johnson mean to Washington finan-
For the club was out just his
railroad fare from Idaho and three
days hotel expenses the day he struck
out those Is Detroit batters. That
and Cantillon's time In thanking Nike
for passing along the word.