The Washington times., 1934-03-23
By DAVIS ]. WALSH

By DAVIS ]. WALSH
LAKELAND, Fla, March %
U.NS)-The man eyed me mar
rowly for a moment, then seemed
to make up his mind. He asked,
suddenly:
do you want q good tip?
Well, then, don't 60 overheard
on the Detroit Tigers. They
just haven't got it."
And then there was this bit
Of gratuitous philosophy from an
other gentleman Of the profes'
sion who claims to know the said
Cochrane better than Cochrane
could possibly know himself. Said
he, earnestly:
"DOnt ever kid that guy.
II you ride him, he gets mad
and pops one right off the
property. The idea is to be
nice to him, get him feeling
mellow and q little sorry for
himself"
I've listened to baseball's story
about Cochrane and the Tigers
and am now going to tell mine,
which is to the effect that the
Tigers will finish not better than
second nor worse than fourth.
Plenty Of Pitching
It has plenty Of pitching. It
can put eight men in the regular
positions who will average .297-
Cochrane, 1922; Gehringer, 1875;
Greenberg, .301; Goslin, .297;
Rogell, .295; Gerald Walker, .29O;
Fox, 1888 and Owen, 1862. They
may get another guy to improve
on Owen.
What else does a club need in
q horSe-car circuit like the
American League this year? So
far, it's one-club race and any,
body who can show anything is
bound to make it two.
Cochrane, Gehringer, Green
berg and GoSlin are not only the
top hitterS Of the outfit, but they
hit for distance. Without SEEM
ing to be insiStent about it, I'm
merely attempting to make the
point that the Tigers ought to
have a few runs to work on this
year.
:. !. = Don't Need Many -.
Fortunately, they seem to have
the kind Of pitchers who only
need a few. There's Tom Bridges,
tho one-hit champion, who won
II games last year; Fred Mar
berry. who won 16, and Vic Sor-
rell and Carl Fischer, who won
il each. Not especially impress
s1ve, perhaps, but fifth place
ball clubs have a way Of making
third-rate averages in the box.
The next two in line are Vic
Frasier, once with the White Sox,
and "Schoolboy" Rowe, who won
z games before his arm went
bad. Then there's Eden Auker,
from Kansas State, who has
pitched less than SO professional
games, yet won three for the
Tigers late last year; Luke Ham
lin, who won 81 for Toronto and
his only game for Detroit, and
Steve Larkin, who has come up
from Shreveport behind a record
Of 20 victories.
I think we can take the Tiger
pitching pretty much for granted
Anyhow, I suspect that Cochrane
Is.
Qreenberg has come on so well
aS q first baseman that Harry
Davis probably will depart soon
for freSher and greener fields.
Gehringer Is the best second base
man in baseball. wouldn't want
to say that Rogen is its worst
Shortstop, for obvious reasons. 7
don't know all the bad shortstops
in baseball. Owen doesn't hit a
lot but he's a fair third baseman
and, at that. he may be beaten
out by Herman Clifton, who hit
.3O1 for Beaumont and has been
showing well here.
GoSlir, Walker and Fox will be
the regular outfield, with Goslin
back il left field, where he's sup
posed to be more at home. The
Senators insist that he's through,
50 somebody's wrong. Frank
Doljack, who hit 1886 in a short
trial last year; Ivey Shiver, up
from Montreal, and Joyner White,
3 carry-OVer, are available.