The Washington times., 1936-04-09
Hope Never
Dims for
GriH
By KIRK MILLER
Times Sports Editor

I always like to 60 out to
1. the baseball acres Just about
this time every year to bask in
the optimism of the master
of the Washington ball team.
Clark Griffith's faith in the
games fates never seems to
diminish with the recurrence
of spring. Through those
shaggy brows twinkle two
steel-gray eyes which mirror
enthusiasm and hope and from
his lips issues always the sage
baseball gospel which tells us
that "you never can tell"
The only difference I can clock
In Clark Griffith's April prognoSti-
cati ms in latter years is that he
has ceased Boosting for the OBJ
vious reason that here Of late
years he has had nothing par
ticularly at this time Of year Of
which to gloat.
Drops Braggard'S Role
Where, at other similar seasons
to this, he has returned from the
South shouting that the team
which won the pennant would
have Washington to beat and that
he wouldn't trade his pitching
staff or outfield. man for man,
with any team in the league; here
of late he has laid aside the brag.
CARDS role and picked up that OF
the gold hunter who spends most
of his life singing q pick into
the side Of a mountain, knowing
full well you never can tell"
And it seems to me that hope
must be the very keystone CT
which the sport Of baSeban is
INDEPENDENTLY it always seems
80 to me at this hour Of the year
during my preseason talks with
the old prospector, Clark Grit.
fifth.
Instead of the semiforlorn out
look that so many Of us have
pictured for the 1896 Griftmen.
you learn, on chatting fifteen
minutes with the shepherd Of the
local baseball flock. that here is
o ball club with amazing posi-
bilities and that any kind OF q
running start early in the spring
might give the team momentum
enough to go places and accom-
pliSh things.
Not q Bad Club ut All
Why. Griff will tell you, it
isn't bad club at all.
The new catcher, Walter Mil
lies, is just the player needed to
round out the team. He actually
'makes" the club. His presence
thereon reprieveS the team from
the second division, to which 1t
has universally been condemned.
and makes it q possibility to ere
ate trouble all up and down the
line.
That is about as strong as the
Brightwood Avenue patriarch
would go, but even so, it is IN
tempo with the beat Of hope that
pounds eternally within the
bosom of every born and bred
baseball man.
It is the stuff which appears
to keep such codgerS as Connie
Mack and Griff going-not that
I would for a moment couple the
Athletics and Griffmen in the
1895 running, you understand,
particularly after yesterdays 10 to
2 defeat by the Brooklyn Dizziness
Boys.
Those New Infielders
The unsettled condition Of the
left side of the Washington in
field is quite a thing of the past.
The experimental stage is over.
Buddy Lewis fits on third base
like a golden dental inlay. Cecil
Travis is a Jackson, Peckin-
paugh and Cronin rolled into
one. He can go to either side
for a hit ball and his throw
Is as accurate as though 1t were
out of the Remington Arms
Works, Inc. He is cratic on
some hit balls, it is true, but he Is
improving hourly. Griff will tell
you all of the above.
Those new fellows in the out
field, Hill and Miles, backed up
by Powell, Stone and Reynolds,
Griff believes, make the Washing
ton club fortified with both speed
and hitting power. the things one
naturally looks for in their range
riders.
And this ball club will be a base
running phantom. It will also
have the best reserves in the
league, Griff opines.
Pitching?
"Well," allows Griff, Eve don't
have a staff of stars, but we've
got six pitchers who can and
will win a lot of ball games.
SIX TOP PITCHERS
81 would rate NewsOm, Linke,
DeShOng, Whitehill, Appleton
and Russell pitchers enough for
any team to start the season
with, and say, this kid BOkina
Is coming around fast, too"
But, not because he is a newly
acquired trinket, and not because
Continued on Page 81, Col. g.
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