Evening star., 1936-05-19
New Job Tough on Travis.

of mild disappointment at short
stop lately, although Harris has, by no
means, given up on the youngster.
Cecil stepped into a tough job when
he undertook to try his hand at a
new and difficult position, and it's
barely possible that the duties involved
have left their mark on the drawlln'
Georgian, even to the extent of hurt
ing his batting. Except for the first
week of the season, Travis has not
remotely resembled the hard-hitting
youngster who bade fair to take a
place among base balls great hitters.
His defensive duties thus far have
embraced the handling of 1863 chances,
getting down to cold figures, and of
these he has taken care of only 155.
This leaves a balance of IA errors,
which represents a sizeable portion at
this stage of the season. 1t does, in
fact, reduce his fielding average to
o .911 mark, which is far from high
class shortstopping. The weakest
regular shortstop in the American
League last year, for instance, was
Joe Cronin of the Red Sox, and Joe
3ielded .949.
Cecil in Serious Slump.
"A T BAT Travis currently is fight
ing the worst slump of his me-
teoric career. In the last 10 games,
for example, Travis has batted 70
times and made only IS hits. His aver
age during this stretch thus has been
only .2o5, which represents terrific
blow to the first-division hopes Of the
Griffmen. He has batted In only Is
runs over this stretch as cleanup
batter chiefly. And this makes the
hurt worse.
To dwell on Travis, however, hard
ly is fair to the youngster. Cecil may
yet develop into the shortstop he
promised to be down South last
Spring. Neither is he the only men,
Der of the club whose defensive work
has been disappointing.
Walter Miles, joey Kuhel and Carl
Reynolds, the latter to lesser ex-
tent, failed to cover themselves with
glory yesterday, for instance, as the
Nationals contrived to drop a 7-to-1
decision to the Detroit Tigers. On
the slab for the Griffs at the outset
was old Pete Appleton, who pitched
o game that was far superior to what
the final score indicated.
Pete Deserved Better Fate.
IN THE first inning Catcher Walter
- Miles completely misjudged a
pop fly near the plate by Mickey
Cochrane, finally allowing it to drop
safely for a fluke single and provid-
ing the medium for the scoring of
three unearned runs. This put the
Tigers in front, 80.
BY giving up no hits, Mr.. Apple
ton escaped damage in the next cou-
pie Of innings, but in the fourth
frame not even this kind of pitching
was much help in keeping runners of
the base paths. Gerald Walker drew
O pass and Travis promptly threw
Jack Burns grounder over Kuhel's
head for a two-base error. Appleton
pitched out Of the hole without giving
up run, but that took something out
Of him.
In the next inning, Mickey Coch-
fane doubled for one of the two really
solid hits made off Pete. Gehringer
then shot a grounder that Travis
couldn't reach and 1t went for a
scratch double. Before the inning
was over Detroit had boosted the
score to 6-1, Washington having
scored o run in the fifth inning on a
double, two singles and a base on
balls. Think of it! That was all there
was to the game. Monte Weaver fin
ished for Appleton and was nicked
for the final run when Simmons sin
gled, stole second, moved to third
when Walker beat out a scratch hit
to Travis and scored on Owens in
5ield out.