Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-02
RATED WITH MACKS
AS YANKEE MENACE:
Johnson Is Credited With
Having One of Snappiest
Clubs in Training.
BY JOHN B FOSTER.

@\AMPA, Fla, April 2.-WaShlng-
ton has one of the widest awake,
snappiest and best handled
i teams training in Florida. other
teams had better be warned not
| to give this nine the least opportunity
| in this years championship race in the
American League, because Washington
It does not wait for the right moment
| to begin. In fact the team has no
| favorite moments. It takes the chances
as they come and howls for more.
| There is no murderers' row to distract
| fielders and pitchers, but there Is a
constant tattoo like box barrage. Such
hitting will garner In the next inning
what it fails to get in this.
The team much resembles that with
which Washington won its first PEN
nant. In those days the team had
Walter johnson to pitch. He is with
Washington now, not as one of the
greatest pitchers of base ball, but as a
manager who found out lot in his
one season with Newark and Is handling
the Senators with sagacity and good
Judgment. He has the confidence of
every player.
In the outfeld are Sammy West
Goose Goslin and Emil Barnes. The
latter was with Washington in 1928,
but was not firmly fixed there. One
day he was good and the next all to
the bad. But this season it has been
discovered that he can play and that
his position is pretty well assured. West
is better outfielder than he was in
1928.
Rice Available, Too.
So the outfieId is settled and, In case
of necessity, Sam Rice, the veteran, can
handle one of three lots in fine style.
No need to say anything of Goslin,
except that he still bats to the corner
and keeps opposing outfielders sitting
on the fences.
The infield has resolved itself into:
Buddy Myer at third, Ossie Bluege at
shortstop; Minter Hayes at second, and
Joe Judge at first. That is high class
Washington. Bluege is as good at
double plays as was Roger Peckinpaugh.
Hayes carries his responsibilities ably.
Stewart can fill in at second and Joe
Cronin at shortstop. Cronin, Incl
dentally, is on his way to become one of
the best infielders in the American
League. Washington's gain is Pitts
burgh's loss in this instance.
Muddy Ruel and Bennett Tate are
the catchers. And they seem to be of
the necessary caliber. So one of the
owners was not so far off when he said
that all Washington needs this year is
good work from its pitchers in order to
win a pennant.
There is great deal of discussion in
the Senator camp about Ad Liska. a
pitcher who came from Minneapolis.
There Is reason for 1t, too. Liska is an
underhand pitcher. They are a novelty.
But unlike most novelties, underhand
pitchers have great value, when they
are good, and Liska is good.
He is strictly underhand in his de-
| livery. He can sail the ball and he can
throw sinker. 1t is all new to him.
His surroundings are strange, his team
mates strangers, and sometimes he has
| not been too sure of the location of the
plate. He has only short time to get
acquainted with the batting characters
of the batters in the American League.
Yet he is to be one of the regulars for
Washington and that is sufficient.
1t shows he has passed the first test.
| The next is to prove just how great he