Evening star., 1938-09-06
hfield's Collapse Increases
Worries of Criffs, Defeated
In D0uble-Header BY Red Sox

shortstopping from Cecil Travis. They
at first base but he had led the league
in fielding in 1896. when he belonged
to the White Sox, and so the only real
spring training camp question mark
was Buddy Myer, who had been aillng
for two years
Today the Strong Man of the Nat
infleld is Myer. When Buddy doesn't
play at second base Ossie Bluege does
And Oss is Strong Man No. 2.
Lewis seems to have blown up de-
fensively. Quoting Grandpappy Grif-
fifth: In the last six weeks he's been
the worst big league ball player I've
ever looked at" Travis came across
with two wild throws yesterday. as
the Grffs dropped double header to
| the Red Sox. and Cecil has failed to
impress as fielding gem over a SIM
, liar, If not longer, stretch.
Griff likes Bonura as a team player
and as a hitter. But as a fielder the
! old gent shakes a dolorous head and
whispers, Terrible. Absolutely ter
rible."
| Second BaSemen Are Best.
The second basemen. Myer and
Bluege, have been standouts Both
were, and still are, pretty good bal
players. But their outstanding supe.
riority in the Washington infield ha.
been a tip-off. Bluege is moving
close to the 40-year-old mark Myel
ranks second in seniority to Ossie
approaching his mid 30s. Yet the,
cover more ground and are NOR.
reliable than Lewis. who is %: Travis
who is Is. and Bonura, who still i
below 80.
AS an offensive group the Nat in
field isn't bad. But, at the sam,
time, 1t isn't the best. Lewis is get
ting a lot of hits and scoring 10
OF runs. Travis still is a hot con
tender for the batting championshi,
but he isn't batting many runs across
Bonura will fail for the first tim,
in five years to reach the 800 class
Myer not only is the top defensive
lnflelder but also the best all-arount
hitter, although he plays only whel
right -handers are pitching.
Pitching, OF course, probably remain
the Mats greatest weakness. But
as one of the veteran throwers put il
Bad pitching is only part Of the stor,
and here is the rest
Red Sox Win Two.
We've had the worst Unfolding To-
about two months now," he went on
There is no telling how many game
have been thrown away on accoun
Of this, The pitching isn't what you''
call high-elass caliber, but neither ha
there been true test Of our staff.
Look at it this way, for example
We've been put in lot of holes be
causeof errors. A good pitching stat
might be able to get out of these holes
But, as 1 said before. We haven't go
good staff We simply haven't beel
able to pitch our way out of the hole
caused by infield errors. That's tn
story. although if you interviewed tn
-the-street he'd probably sa
the Washington pitching is lousy an,
let it 90 at that
The combination Of poor pitching
and bad Unfolding cost the Mats
couple of games yesterday. The So
pounded Pete Appleton, Monte Weaver
Jimmy De Shong and Harry Kelly TO
19 hits in the first game and Won,
to 4. They scored in every inning ex
cept the first and broke a seven-gam
losing streak in Griffith Stadium.
In the second game Dutch Leonar
might have lasted and even won tn
game. But in the sixth inning tn
Nat infield blew up and Boston score,
four unearned runs and one legitimat
one. That cost the game, to 6.
There isn't much sense in goin
into the details. The only thing tn
Mats won was a heel-and-toe rela
race between games and that didn
| count in the box score. Five player
from each club participated 1t wa
sort of ridiculous but it fitted in wit
the program.