Evening star., 1939-02-14
Esta|e||a, Early,
Wasde|| Carry
Club Hopes
Trio to Get Special
Attention; Second
Lot Due Tomorrow
BY FRANCIS E. STAN,
Star Stan Correspondent.


ORLANDO. Fla, Feb. 14.-The
glorifled farm boys who are Presi-
dent Clark Griffith's rookie pitching
candidates prepared to drop into the
background today as a new unit of
the Washington ball club bore down
on the Mats training camp here.
Leading the parade of key figures
into camp today was First Baseman
Jimmy Wasdell, who arrived in Or
lando a day ahead of time to pre-
pare for the job of taking over Zeke
Bonuras infield post. Tomorrow the
ambitious Mr.. Wasdell is due to be
Joined by Outf1elder Bobby Esta-
leila, First Basemen James Vernon
and Bob Pritchard and Pitcher Rene
Monteagudo.
With the arrival of the second of
Grifhth's four groups of ballplayers
the others are due March l and
March 7-training activities are ex-
pected to hit a new high and inter-
esting peak At least half of the
rookie pitching squad is ready to cut
loose with midseason stuff" and
Manager Bucky Harris already is
planning his first formal batting
practice for the end of the week.
News Sources on Hand.
With Catcher Jake Early, Esta-
leila and Wasdell in camp, the Mats
will have their three big question
marks on hand. To hear President
Griffith and his adopted son and
manager of the Charlotte farm"
team tell it, Early will run Rick
Ferrell out of the catching job this
year. According to Griffith, the
stocky little Wasdell, who weighs
191 without being more than S feet
10 inches, will move into the infield
without stumbling bit. And, still
listening to Griffith, little, hard
hitting Estalella will take over the
left-field post that was left vacant
when AL Simmons was sold to the
Boston Bees during the winter. ,
Within the next "a hours the Mats
will present, in other words, their
three prize news figures of the early
season. Wasdell, who never has
been a success even in the minors,
except for one season in the South
ern Association, is being given the
f1rst-base post for only hitting .236
es a utility man with the Mats last
year. If he makes the grade it will
be story-book stuff.
Estalella first came up to the
Griffs in 1885 as a third baseman.
He wasn't much of an infielder, was
sent back to the bushes, and now he
returns as an outfielder who batted
1888 with Charlotte last year to lead
the Piedmont League in hitting for
the second straight year.
Early, of course, has been in camp
since the beginning. There are some
observers of authority who insist
that he can step behind the bat and
catch most of the Mats games. Up
to now Jake has the catching situa-
tion under control, chiefly because
his only rival is the green Alfred
Evans.
Lefties Are No Handicap.
Wasdell, who arrived today, is
quieter athlete than he was in 1887
and 1888. Jimmy doesn't pop of
as he did when he was trying, to
oust Joe Kuhel and Zeke Bonura
out of the f1rst-base job.
Jimmy's only concern today
seemed to be that newspapermen
were taking the Mats left-handed
batting order too seriously. We've
really got all the best of it," said
Jimmy. IF I grab the first base
job we'll have four inf1elders who
bat left-handed. If Early does the
catching that will make five. Then,
in the outfield, We'll probably have
Taft Wright and Sammy West.
That makes seven left-handed hit
ters.
"Everybody's saying we're left
handed top-heavy. I don't see how
they get that way. You can count
the real left-handers of the league
not counting Washington's-on the
fingers Of one hand. There's Lefty
Gomez, Thornton Lee and Fritz
Ostermueller, and the rest, unless
Grove makes a comeback, don't
oo,,o%