Evening star., 1936-05-04
Defensive Play Is Surprise.

THE fair-haired boy of the war
correspondents in the Nationals
training camp. Buddy was thrust
upon Washington diamond fans with
only one qualification. He'll throw
many a ball into the right-fleld pa
Vilion, it was warned, but when he
takes his raps at the tee Buddyll
make up for it, Well, as the man
with the fat seegar and the old brown
derby would say it, let's look at the
record.
Hitting, which is supposed to be
Buddys forte, has not been lacking.
Counting his production of one of the
three hits made off George Blaeholder
of the Indians yesterday in a game
rained out after five innings, Lewis
can show a 1888 mark for IA games.
This. in itself, is enough to mark the
kid for distinction. If, at 10, he can
swat IS singles, doubles and triples
in IS times at bat, what will he do
when he's had couple years of big
league base ball under his belt?
But what has been most surprising
to date has been the kids play in the
field. where he is supposed to be a
question mark at least until he has
knocked around bit in fast company.
No one, not even Manager Bucky Har-
ris, has failed to lift an eyebrow over
Lewis defensive work.
He's made errors-two to be spe-
cific. But they've been a drop in the
bucket, comparatively, for Buddy
Lewis so far has given definite promise
of winding up the season as good a
defensive cog as any man in the
infield, including the redoubtable
Buddy Myer and the brilliant Joe
Kuhel
Still looking at the record, Buddy,
counting a nifty play on Roy Hughes
in yesterdays short and sad exhibition
has handled 80 assists and IL putouts
in faultless fashion to drown out a
pair of misplays well spread out. He
isn't, it appears, all he was cracked up
to be by the writing boys in Spring
training camp. He's only better.
Double Plays Hurt GriffS.
TURNING attention back to the
Washington club as a whole, the
outlook is none the less bright despite
the Indians 3-to-O victory in the rain
curtailed fiasco which sent nearly
$4,000 fans home with well-soaked
Spring outfits. 1t brought the Ma
tionals' four-game winning streak to
an end, but it was not an authentic
fins to a streak that had carried
the club into the first division.
Buck Newsom, who was charged
with his second loss of the campaign,
wasn't himself in the five innings
played before yesterdays cloudburst
descended, but still there was no rea-
son to view the setback with alarm.
There was every indication, despite
the three-hit performance by the
ancient George Blaeholder, that the
Nationals would have been very much
in the running with any kind of bat
ting luck and without the rain clouds
that helped to break up last-inning
rally.
Four times in the five innings the
Nationals started rallies that prom
ised to put them bacA into the game.
The first three uprisings were quelled
by double plays turned in by snappy
Cleveland defense and the last ended
in semi-darkness, when Pinch Hitter
Bobby Estalella, batting for Newsom,
whacked a high fly to center field,
where the veteran Earl Averill some
how managed to spot the hoist and
pull it down.
The Tribe carved out its lead in the
third and fifth frames. A walk to
Bill Knickerbocker, double by Jimmy
Gleeson, a sacrifice by Sammy Hale
and Averill's single made it to
in the third round. while Knicker-
bocker's single and Averill's double
(See BASE BALL, Page abb