Evening star., 1939-09-08
Brewers Battle
In Feature Of
Inaugural
Detroit Entry, Meet
Choice, Also Plays
In DoubIe-Heuder
By BURTON HAWKINS.

BY BURTON HAWKINS.
Amateur baseball's world series,
an elimination affair which serves
as a test tube for the professional
branch of the industry, will be
launched on six fronts here tomor-
row as "a teams culled from IL States
and the District inaugurate jealous
quest for the National Amateur
Baseball Federation tourney cham
pionship.
This pinnacle of the sandlots, for
Is years the goal of crack unlimited
clubs sprinkled throughout the Ma
ton, has lured to Washington some
400 youngsters with high hopes of
following in the spike marks of such
highly publicized graduates as Cleve-
lands Bob Feller or Detroit's Barney
McCosky.
A source of supply for major
league clubs whose scouts find it |
physically impossible to examine all
the promising diamond specimens
scattered over the United States, the
tourney has served as a stepping
stone into professional baseball for
scores of other less noted players
currently connected with minor
league outfits.
Griffith to Inspect Talent.
President Clark Griffith of the
Mats. for instance, will look over
likely timber with a microscopic eye
in the hope of locating lads he may
index for future reference. 1t is
possible he will stock Washington
farms with several hopefuls if the
tourney produces its usual quota of
embryonic stars.
Ohio, upon whose territory is
played probably the smoothest brand
of sandlot baseball in the Nation, |
is shipping five teams to the tourney
which it has dominated. Ohio clubs
have captured the coveted crown II
times in the past IS years.
Detroit, though. is sending the
defending champion in the Altes
Lager Club to compete with a trio
of other Michigan outfits. Penn
sylvania also will be represented by
four teams, while Connecticut will
have aggregations from Waterbury
and Torrington seeking the crown.
Washington will stake its title
hopes in the Heurich Brewers, cham
pions of the local Industrial League
and winner of the subsequent play
off among various league titleholders
here. The Brewers will see action in
the second game of a doubleheader
tomorrow at Griffith Stadium at
o'clock, with Altes Lager competing
in the first game at 1890 o'clock.
First round opponents for all teams
were to be drawn today.
Big Saturday Program.
While the tourney officially will be
started at Griffith Stadium, 10 games
will have been played by the time
that twin bill gets under way. -Four
games are slated on the Ellipse. two
on the Monument Grounds and one
each at Naval Air Station, Fort
Myer, St. Elizabeth's Hospital and
Walter Reed Hospital. All those
games will start at $50 o'clock
Two losses will eliminate a team.
The IL winners of the first days
play will be drawn against each
other for Sundays games, with the
losers facing in wholesale battling
which will eliminate six teams. Play
will continue throughout next week,
with the champion to be determined
in the first game of a doubleheader
at Griffith Stadium on Johnny Stone
Day, September II. The Mats and
Tigers will square off in the night
cap.
Attorney General Frank Murphy
will toss out the first ball tomorrow,
while extra -curricula activities at
Sundays doubleheader at Griffith
Stadium will include the singing of
maryland, My Maryland" by Libby
Holman, famed torch singer. Mary
lands champion, the Careney Coun-
try Club of Baltimore, will play in
one of the games.
Detroit Team Favorite.
Altes Lager tossers have been in
stalled as favorites to repeat their
title conquest, with the Cleveland
Rosenblums, Kayser Hosiery of New
York, Weirton Steel of Weirton, w.
Va, and New Haven Railroad of
Springfield, Mass, rated their stiffest
contenders. Altes has lost only four
games this year.
Rated as the dark horse is the
Ecks outfit of Chicago. Unsponsored,
these lads from the Southwest side
of Chicago have supported them
selves by assessing each player rs to
so cents a week Ranging in age
from 10 to %, the Ecks registered
upset after upset to win the Illinois
title and have lost only four games
in 38 tiffs this season. Only two
players in their lineup are hitting
less than 400
So certain were Chicago officials
that the Great Lakes Naval Train
ing Station would win their tourney
that they wired tourney officials the
Gobs' entry. The Ecks, however,
altered that situation.
Ecks Nine Is Dark Horse.
The Ecks won five of six games in
three days in that tourney, pausing
only IS minutes between double
headers. They actually are the stars
of several teams. their manager
having nl,,cked them from clubs