Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25
CAPITALS WORST TEAM
RECALLED BY OLD SCRIBE
McAIeer's Nationals of 1911, When Wooden Stands
Burned and Johnson Was Hold-Out Had
Recruits That Only Kid Elberfeld Praised.

had come to Washington, fresh from
the Boston Traveller, and Louis was
pretty fresh in those days, also q
mighty good base ball writer. He never
overlooked bet. The late j. Ed Gr1llo
was on deck, as was Joe jackson, who
now works in Sacramento.
The rockies with the squad were per-
haps the most interesting.
The best looking recruit was big
chap from the Pacific Coast named
Charley Swain. He could hit and he
could field, but he had a bum arm and
weighed more than 200 pounds. Two
weeks in Atlanta and Swain was on his
way to the Coast. He wouldn't do.
Then there was Rubber Shirt" Bill
Cunningham who had joined the Ma
tionals late in the season of 1910, but
who had taken on something like 40
pounds during the Winter lay-off.
You won't draw any salary from the
Washington Club until you get yourself
into the proper physical condition to
play" snapped McAleer as he reached
for his room phone and ordered two
rubber shirts from q sporting goods
store.
BOOtIegger Among Recruits.
Among the recruits was Fred Corbin,
who had been caught in a moonshine
raid and was sentenced to serve a Jail
term by some judge in West Virginia.
When Corbin told the judge that he
had been ordered to go South with the
Washington ball club, the judge re-
Tented and gave him suspended sem
tence.
Corbin was card. McAleer left him
behind, and turned him over to the At
lanta club as part payment for ground
rent. But the Crackers later released
rfT1hoRnY10ir4ep
player.
It appears that he almost wrecked
the Aragon Hotel one night.
Then there was another big fellow
from youngstown, who had muscles like
Sandow, and knew how to box. We got
him to pose for a picture one day, and
Tom Akers of the Atlanta Journal syn
dicated a story about this bear cat"
of ball player. He was muScle-bound
was particularly friendly with Kid
Elberfeld in Atlanta, and frequently
went to him for advice about the re-
cruits.
Elberfeld praised them all, said they
were great prospects and that some day
they would be real big leaguers. He
never knocked ball player in his life,
and should have had more sense than
to have tried to get any dope from him.
L
Little Rock, Ark, and chided him about
the bum advice he had given me, but he
only smiled, as he replied: IT never
Spring trained with such bunch of
no-good recruits in my life, but I
wanted you to give the boys a break. I
knew that none of them would make
good"
That's about all for the Spring train
ing period.
Fans Planned the Team.
washington fans, men like Harry
Rapley, Jim O'Shea and others, well
remember what happened to the Ma
tionals that year.
They were terrible. So bad, in fact,
that the fans started writing letters to
the newspapers, and the only newspaper
that printed these letters was the one
on which worked.
McAleer was wild, and he told his
players that II he caught any one Of
them talking to me, the player would
draw a $50 fine.
Late In the Summer Of 1911 Ed Grille
broke an exclusive story in The WASH
ington Star that McAleer and Bob Nc
Roy had bought the controlling interest
in the Boston Red SoX, and that the
Nationals would have a new manager
In 1912.
1--WE didn't get along very well this
year, did we, Bill" McAleer chirped
one afternoon when met him in Harry
Rapley's ONCE.
admitted as much, but offered no
excuses or explanations.
'Well. we are still friends, Ell wot?"
"Sure," said I.
And we shook hands.
The coming of Clark Grifith to
Washington in the Winter Of 1911 and
his regime, which started with Spring
training in Charlottesville during March
of 1912, marked the dawn of a new
era in base ball for the Washington
club.
consider Clark Griffith one of the
smartest base ball men the game has
ever produced. He always treated me
fairly and squarely, dealt his CARDS from
the top of the deck, and hope that in
q few years he can retire, having made
his fir-gf million