Evening star., 1938-07-28
BY FRANCIS E. STAN,


DETROIT, July 28.-Stanley Ray
mond Harris awoke today to realize
the fates have given him a very TN
usual baseball club to manage in his
fifteenth year as a big league pilot
The Mats of 1888 can win at home
and look good But on the road
One thing must be said for Stanley
Raymond-it doesn't take him long
to catch on. Hardly had his dolorous
firm walked of the field yesterday,
beaten by to 4, than he sat down,
wet the tip Of a stumpy pencil with
his tongue. and wrote new lineup.
1T can't be any worse philosoph-
lied Mr.. Harris, holding his nose.
The new lineup and batting order
is interesting to behold for several
reasons. George Case and Buddy
Lewis cling to their places in the
order, batting lead-off and second,
respectively And Rick Ferrell con-
tinues to hold eighth place. But the
old order changeth thereafter.
Gives Up on Wasdell.
AL Simmons, hero of the Mats last
Western swing, was to be benched
today for Rookie Taft Wright, who
henceforth was named to hit third.
The cleanup hitter was to be none
other than big. amiable, hitless zeke
Bonura. The No. 5 hitter was to
be Cecil Travis, who really can hit,
and the No. man was Sammy West.
denoted from third place. Then was
to come Buddy Myer, who is engaging
in bare-flst battle with Mr.. Joe
Slump.
Naturally there was no guarantee
given as to how long this order will
remain in vogue. On Washington
teams this cannot be. Mr.. Harris has
likened his men to q lot of selling
platers for whom spots must be picked
and Bucky wasn't being unkind. He
merely was being truthful. Wright
has been in and out of the lineup
so often his name ought to be Finne-
gan. And yot know all about Bonura.
The natural question had to do
with Jimmy Wasdell, the kid who ap-
parently had taken Bonura's job away
from him. Up to now Wasdell had
been in the lineup every time a
right-hander faced the Grif1s. This
was designed to give the percentages
chance to favor the Washington
firm. Wasdell, you know, bats left
handed
Harris took a deep breath. Whats
the difference?" He wanted to know.
"Wasdell can't hit and neither can
Bonura. But once upon time Bonura
could hit. So might as well string
along with that big guy and hope
that he'll start hitting again. WISH
it would rain so we wouldn't have 10
play"
The benched Mr.. Simmons, who Is
in very unhappy frame OF mlno'
inasmuch as he likes his base hits, was
trying to recall ball club like the
Washingtons. The effort was IN vain
I'VE lick the Tigers three in a row
in Washington and look like we're
going some place But as soon as we
hit the road we can't lick a Scent
stamp. I never saw the beat OF 1t"
Neither has Mr.. Harris, apparently,
and things are getting so that opti-
mism in the camp Is at premium.
The Mats pitching is pretty awful.
About all you can say for the pitchers
is that there are nine of them. There
isn't a single guy on the staff who
can pitch a good game and then re-
peat with another.
Monte Weaver, who pitched fairly
we'll against the Tigers in washington
recently, tried again yesterday and
lasted one full inning. what with
Hank Greenberg's thirty-second homer,
four other hits and base on balls,
Monte gave up five runs and the ball
game was over before it really had
started.
Before passing onto other sad items,
Weaver seems destined to complete his
big league career without .htns able