The Washington times., 1936-03-03
GriH, Buck
FarFr0m
ShOwmen
Bv KIRK MILLER
Times Sports Editor

frankly, m q LSIle uAS"P-
pointed.
I'm disappointed in both
Clark Griffith and Bashful
Buck Newsom.
Why, Buck was a pushover
for Griff!
And Griff overlooked a
swell opportunity for a week
or ten days of hand to hand
grenading with Newsom over
salary, which might have
aroused some interest in q ball
club that at best Is going to be
an experiment.
Now. instead Of mutiny in Or
lsndo, everything is quiet along
the Potomac, and there Is really
nothing much left to anticipate In
the news flashes from Florida in
so far as the Washington ball club
is concerned.
Walked Into Capture
OF course Bashful Buck might
have known when he bent the
knee by even getting within the
town limits of Orlando, where
Griff had been fortified over q
month, that he had rung up MS
first loss Of the season. He SUD
mitted to capture.
No hapless ball player ever
walked into Griff's personaole
presence and came out anything
except q beaten man.
But irregardless Of tn q t, as
Nick Altrock would say, any sem
hlance Of showmanShip was lost
in the Supine manner in which
Griff and Newsom came to terms.
WHY, my imaginative friends,
what an opportunity there was to
stage q real, old-fashioned, knock
down and drag-out fight, if only
for the purpose Of getting some
body to lift an eyebrow OF inter-
est in q season which holds little
promise locally,
Scene Too Placid
The placid Griff-Newsom sign
ing scene sort Of puts the Amer1-
can League to shame.
Why, out in the Natl ona ]
League sector Of st. Louis you
can't pick up a newspaper or
tune in on a radio but what you
hear some nifty explacitiveS ex-
changed between Dizzy Dean and
Owner Sam Breadon, as well as
Vice President Branch Hickey
who was once a Sunday school
teacher and never learned to cuSs
until Dizzy Dean Joined the
Cards.
But here in Washington, six
weeks before the season starts,
there is nothing to worry about.
You don't have to worry whether
Washington is going to win the
pennant. Detroit, New York, Cleve-
land and Boston are still in the
league, you see.
However, the public likes o
y fight and would have lent an ear
for quite a while yet had Buck
Newsom and Griffith shook their
fists in each others faces for a
spell; even if only for the benefit
of the moving pictures.
3 Chance For Gag
There would have been nothing
to lose and much to gain If the
boys had postponed their armis-
tice, pronounced some explosive
epithets and refused to even eat
y in the same dining room, say
nothing of live under the same
roof.
There could have been weeks
Of wrangling. Newsom could have
moved out of the Angebilt Hotel
across the street to the San Juan
a where the poolroom is larger and
boasts 18 tables-au in the base
ment.
He could have refused to an
swer the telephone. He could
have planned to play golf at the
s. same club as Griff, and pur-
posely snubbed the old fellow in
the locker room. That is, New
som could have done all Of these
things if his grand entrance into
Orlando had been properly engi-
neered and belligerently staged.
- And if Griff were in his right
senses he would have called New
som into a room, arrived at the
"amicable terms" that they did,
and then told the big Carolina
partridge assassin:
"Now lissen, IrkSOme, this
: sham is too good to drop. Let's
/. keep it up q while. Let's give
: those writin' boys something to
I unIimber their typewriters on.
s- JUST BE YOURSELF
!, "Get to bIazes OutOf this hotel,
! bag and baggage. Go any
where; but not without damning
me loud and long. Go over to
! the other hotel cross the street
I and take the best suite in the
Joint. Then hang your head out
{ Of the window and start bleat-
I ing about how many games you
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