Evening star., 1932-10-05
AYERS SUCCESSOR.
NOT GIVEN THOUGHT.
Managerial Change Described
as Part of General House.
cleaning.
CONTINUED From First Page.)

Continued From F1rSt Pageo
keen base ball student and perhaps
the most able strategist Of the present
heads of big league base ball clubs,
Griffith pursued a "hands-off" policy
with respect to the guidance of the
Nationals on the field That was left
entirely to his manager. The club
pays the manager to handle affairs"
Griffith always contended during the
johnson regime, land the responsible
ity rests solely in him.
It has been no secret for some time
that Griffith was particularly irked by
the failure of his club to break through
to a pennant back in 1880 when it fin
ished second to the Athletics. That
year the Nationals were hitting well;
they had good pitching, and their per-
formance generally was of high order.
yet followers of the club here felt
through the campaign that it was not
playing up to possibilities largely
through managerial mistakes. At the
time it was rumored that President
Griffith. too, felt results should have
been better and this probably was the
beginning of the rift between the own
er and manager.
Short Contract Irked.
However. Griffith bad given johnson
a three-year contract before the out
set of the 1929 season and let the vet
eran carry on. The Second-place finish
of the Nationals in 1880 followed a
fifth-place finish in 1929 and last year
the Washington club after holding
second place for months broke in the
last four days of the season to finish
third behind the Athletics and Yankees.
Last Fall when the question of new
contract for Johnson came up Presi-
dent Griffith offered the manager one
for a year only. Although no direct
statements came from Griffith or John
son at the time, close friends Of the
Washington field leader declared John
son not only was sorely disappointed at
the brevity OF the contract, but also
considered the short-term agreement in
the nature of rebuke for his failure
to guide the Nationals to greater sue
cess
Among base ball men generally, it
was understood that this one-year con-
tract under which johnson worked the
last season indicated President Griffith
was giving his manager the final chance
to prove his fitness as field general.
johnson had to get out of his club all
the base ball possible or feel the ak
on his neck at the finish was the view
of those closely connected with the
national pastime.
Removal Was Foretold.
When the Washington club after
fair start in the recent pennant race
faltered badly and dropped so far back
in the standings as to tumble into the
second division there was much talk
around the American League that
johnson woul5 not be at the Washing
And the
Nationals sensational late-season squirt
in which 80 OF the last 43 games were
won to get third-place finish only
game back of the runner-up AS failed
to dispel the rumors of Johnson'S i'm
pending removal.
Johnson assumed the field leadership
of the Nationals with little managerial
experience. For only one year had he
directed a club and then it was Newark
of the International League that was
his charge. He enjoyed little success
with this minor-league outfit In the
1929 campaign. Then Johnson was
ranks.
Fans and base ball folk alike were
skeptical when Griffith in the Fall of
1920 announced he had chosen johnson
as the successor to Stanley Harris, the
impetuouS youngster who in five seasons
had led the Nationals to two American
League pennants, world championship
and never had them out OF the first
division.
Thought Too Easy Going.
johnson, always a beloved character
in the game since he first broke into
big league base ball in 1907, when
youth of 10, was too amiable, too easy
going to handle temperamental major
ieaguers. 1t was feared he would enjoy
no greater success in the majors than
he had as minor league manager.
Nevertheless, the appointment was
generally popular. The choice OF john
son by Griffith was hailed throughout
the country as worthy tribute to a
man who had given so much OF his
life to the national pastime, whose
feats as a pitcher had been so brilliant
as to gain him recognition as one OF
If not the greatest of moundsmen and
whose reputation as sportsman and
gentleman was of the highest. AS
Babe Ruth. the mighty Yankee Slugger
of TODAY. is an idol of the Nations
youth, so was johnson in the heyday
of his pitching career.
Jchnson's removal as manager OF the
Washington club ends. temporarily al
least. a base ball career of national re-
nown extending over 26 years. 1t was
late in July. 1907, that Walter, tan
pangling youth. was brought on from
Weiser, Idaho, to become a member OF
the Washington club, then managed oy