The Washington times., 1933-03-30
WALSH PICKS
WASHINGTON
SECOND
BY DAVIS ]. WALSH

Somebody once said that the
only difference between a sport
writer and the rest of the peo-
pie is that he has to do his ex-'
planning in public, but naturally
I resent that bitterly and do not
hesitate to say that it is very
misleading.
AS a matter Of fact, he even
has to do his guessing in public
and we can now proceed from
that point with the statement
that. when say the New York
Yankees are the best club in
baseball, the same is no portion
of a guess. Anyhow, there
didn't seem to be any guess
about it that last day out there
in Chicago six months ago and,
if in the meantime anything
has happened to change this,
it has been pretty furtive and
underhand.
Washington Stronger
In fact, nothing has happened
to change anything in the Ameri-
can League. The Washington
Senators are a little stronger, the
Philadelphia Athletics may be a
little weaker. The rest of the
league, with minor exceptions, re-
mains as it was last October,
with no second division club nav
ing made enough Improvement to
displace a first division finisher
of 1882.
The strength of the league,
therefore, figures to run down the
table in this manner:
/. New York Yankees.
2. Washington Senators.
3. Philadelphia Athletics.
4. Cleveland Indians.
S. st. Louis Browns.
6. Detroit Tigers.
z. Chicago White Sox.
8. Boston Red Sox.
These, by the way, are current
estimates, based on normal ex-
pectations, as of today. It may
be that I'm a little backward in
these things, but I can't tell you
what's going to happen six
months from now.
AS Good AS Last Year
The Yanks are at least as good
as they were last year, and they
won then by upward of a dozen
games. They have enough pitch
ing, a. great deal of hitting and
just one more season of what
might be called championship
impetus. Some of them will be
through then; but they aren't
now. To lose, they'll have to go
back almost as far as either the
Senators or Athletics will have
to come forward. The odds are
slightly greater against the lat
ter. I've got the Athletics in third
place because, no matter how
much logic Mr.. Cornelius Mack
may bring to bear upon the mat
ter, he isn't going to win games
with the runs that Mr.. Aloysius
Simmons is driving in for the
Chicago White Sox.
This, with the fact that off
season trades have been bene-
ficial. ought to give the Senators
just enough to figure in second
money. The Indians are better,
too, but not enough so to climb
out of fourth position.
Any Choice 0. X.
With the exception of the Red
Sox, any second division rating
will do owing to the fact that
all too little choice is possible
between Detroit, St. Louis and
Chicago. The latter ought to
come on, with the addition of
Simmons, Haas and Dykes, but
training camp reports have been
little diSquieting, even dubious,
and the possibility that they'll be
changing m ayers doesn't
greatly help.
In any case, I'll take a steady
club like the Browns in prefer
ence or even a more inspired
though less certain club like the
Tigers. Both figure to be better
this time but only confirmed
and hopeless optimist could see
them as high as the first four.
AS for the Red Sox, it is no
more than simple charity to say
that they'll improve if given a
chance. However, so will