Evening star., 1935-12-22
in Polishing Rockies.

Aid in Polishing Rockies.
THE schedule. far more preten-
tious than any listed during the
six years Washington trained at
Biloxi, Miss, dov4tails, Of course, with
the necessity Of rebuilding at least
half Of the present pitching staff and
possibly half Of the infeld.
The job that Harris will undertake
this Spring is Herculean one, what
with a flock Of potential diamonds
in-the-rough due to be under his wing.
And the rockies. upon whom Bucky
may find himself banking, will need
every minute of preseason polishing
before final judgment can be passed.
Opening their training schedule
March IA against the Red Sox, the
days during the next month. They
will play right up to the opening day
Of the American League campaign,
which will open, for Washington, on
April l3, or a day ahead Of the rest
of the major league cities.
Seven major league teams-four Of
them National League entries-are in
cluded on the list Of opponents. In
addition to the Red Sox, the Tigers,
Reds, Cardinals, Browns, Dodgers and
Phillies will be played. Cincinnati
will, be met five times and the PhillieS
thrice. Two games each are sched-
uled with the Tigers, Browns, Dodgers
and Red Sox, while a single engage.
ment is listed with the Cards.
Visit Nine Florida Cities.
IF YOU'RE up on your geography,
some idea Of how much preseason
travelling the Griffs will undergo is
obtained when it is considered that
Is Of the games will be played in nine
different Florida cities, three more in
as many Georgia way stations, anoth-
er trio in Tennessee. one in Baltimore
and four in the Capital.
Tinker Field, the training park Of
the Nationals in Orlando, will be the
scene of seven of the early conflicts.
On April the team will break camp
and head North in easy stages, ac-
companied at the outset by the Reds,
who will be played in a four-game
series until Rome, Ca, is reached.
From there the Nationals will in
wade Tennessee for games with Chat
tanooga and Knoxville before heading
directly homeward for four exhibition
games in Grifith Stadium and an
other in Baltimore.
They will be on local display first
on April and 9, when Brooklyn is
entertained. The Phillies will follow
on April 10 and Albany on the fol-
lowing day. A game with the Orioles
on April IL will conclude the pre-
season campaigning.
"Must Develop HurlerS"-Griff.
THE training slate, to which one
more minor league game may be
added, seems to take on added impor-
tance as doubt begins to settle in the
Washington front office" as to chances
of acquiring experienced slab aid by
trade or purchase.
Griff will turn over to Harris
promising but raw band Of kid fingers,
including Joe Bokina of Albany, Ken
dali Chase of Panama City, Dick Lana
han and Henry Coppola. With six
other outfielders on the squad, Dee
Miles must polish up to stick and
Catcher Sam Holbrook could stand
good deal Of extra experience behind
the bat.
1t is pitching, however, that causes
gravest concern. Criticized recently
by his alleged reluctance to bring out
his check book and buy hurler. Grif-
fifth yesterday hurled a challenge to his
critics on that score.
Show me-" he fatty dared, "any
club except Boston that has gone out
and bought itself winning pitcher in
the last couple Of years. Any club ex-
cept my own, mean.
Tom Yawkey, Of course, bought
Grove and Ferren but remember that
he got both of them while they were
on the blink. Why, / spent more
money last year than any club owner
in the country in buying pitchers.
We purchased Newsom and Hadley,
didn't we?
There is only one course to take
now, and that is to develop pitchers.
Look at the Yankee staff. They didn't
buy Gomez, Broaca and Murphy while
they were stars. Broaca and Murphy
came from college. The Tigers de-
veloped their staff Of Rowe, Bridges
and Auker. Cleveland did the same
thing.
We've got the material. think, to
build winning pitchers, but it is q
question of time. That's the big rea-
son for the big exhibition game sched-
ule. 1t should do much toward polish
ing our youngsters