The Washington times., 1929-01-04
BEST RIGHT
HAN[)ER0F
LEAGUE
By Kirk Miller

Inc w aSn1ngJ0n pan eIuuy
like any baseball organization
will do from time to time, has
made its good trades and
has made its poor ones. Too
much is often said Of the swap
ping which fails to materialize
to the benefit Of the Griffmen
and too little in behalf of the
exchanges which work great
good locally.
The walls which went up when
fellows like Tom Zachary and Alvin
Crowder were cut loose from the
club were loud and prolonged.
CSrfff was crazy and Bucky Harris
needed the advice of an alienist-
that is, If you listened attentatively
to the grandstand managers, lunch
room scouts and street corner
Strategists.
To hear the mob rave, one might
gather the impression athletes are
fixed quantities which perform
exactly the same in any given set
ting ana that there is absolutely nc
As
In the barter, sale, trade or ex-
change Of this species Of human
flesh called the professional ball
player.
The tendency of the fans to for
get the good trades and NOPE over
the less fortunate ones is market.
This reporter has heard many
times as much criticism of cases
like Zachary's and Crowder's as he
has heard praise over such dea.s
a. those which brought great per-
formers such as Roger Peckin-
paugh, George Mogridge and Sad
Sam Jones to the ranks of the
Washington Griffmen.
Two Of that trio, for instance,
had been passed up individually
by other clubs as having out
lived their usefulness and the
other, Mogridge, was thrown In
rs good measure BY the assign
ing club, when, as q matter OF
truth It YVES MOgridge that .
the local club wanted DESPITE
the fact 1t made its main bid
Tor q player who nine out Of
ten fans couldn't remember to.
day Il the question were put
RVAuO DAdAh 20 tMS1kts
The players name was Duffy
Lewis and he didn't stap here long
enough to learn his way to the ball
park. Again, when Washington got
Garland Braxton, it was ostensibly
Tor good measure in bringing Nick
Cullop, but Braxton was the gent
most wanted by Washington.
\ - =. -
for Washington is such recent his
tory that it hardly needs repeating
here. What Sad Sam Jones has
done received less ballyf1oo than IT
deserved, owing to the fact that
another Washington pitcher, Gar.
land Braxton, a left.hander, even
Cutdid the feats Of Jones, the
leagues leading right-hander last
season.
Only. John X. Miljus, who was
IN mere IL games, pitcher better
baseball among the right-handers
Of the American League than did
Samuel Pond Jones, who. will be
back in a Washington uniform
again for the 1929 season. Jones
won IL games and lost Z, for a
percentage of .T0S, and an earned.
run average OF 2.s4 per nine.inning
game.
In brief, Jones was the fifth
best pitcher in the league. only
Miljus and the three south
paws, BraxtOa, PeHanocI and
Grove, besting him from an
earned-run standpoint.
Still. ali you ean hear among the
Al. e4 1aa. 1.
. let Buddy Myer 60 only to stand
off and see Bill Carrigan make q
third.baseman of him, and then to
bring him back here at the expense
OF five players. four Of whom have
had thorough trials here and failed
to be consistent players and no one
Of which was a regular during the
six-weeks squirt which the Griffmen
took during the tail end Of last
season.
The conversion of Jones to great
use locally is one of the outstand.
Ing feats OF recent baseball history
and somebody within the councils
Of the washington ball club, prob.
ably the ''Old Fox" Griffith himself
is responsible for grabbing "Sad
Sam Just when the st. Louis
Browns were souring on him be-
cause In 1927 he won but games
the while he was losing H.
Griffith is a great student Of
baseball form and more than once
he has kept faith in players who
have been condemned as slipping
from usefulness by his fellow mag
mates.
Griff Is particularly crafty
about pitching valuations. He
made pitching his life work,
you know, before he turned
in0guI, and the old pitching
instinct has stood him in good
stead III his day as 3 trader.
Unbiased and long experienced
baseball observers will tell you
Continued on Page 22.)
uneaIlsd for and