Evening star., 1939-03-09
Mats Southpaw
|Hitters Save
Foes Jobs
Clubs Keeping Some
SIobbers Just for
Use Against En-
BY stan Correspondent o! The Star.


ORLANDO, Fla, March 9.-Unless
the Mats board of strategy finally
decides to make that long-awaited
deal with the Detroit Tigers Cor is it
the st. Louis BrownsD, Washing
tons 1889 ball club will enter the
American League as the most left
handed heavy of them all
The Mats entire infield is left
handed. On good day southpaw
pitcher figures to have the percent
age on First Baseman Jimmy Was
dell, Second Baseman Buddy Myer,
Shortstop Cecil Travis and Third
Baseman Buddy Lewis. At least one
outfielder-and probably two-will
bat left-handed. Taft Wright, the
right fielder, is the certainty. And
it may develop that Sammy West,
instead of Bobby Estalella, will team
with Wright and George Case in the
| outfield.
But before citizens OF the Capital
scream and fly to their cyclonescel.
lars whenever the enemy announces
that Lefty Gomez. Bob Grove, How
ard Mills or Thonton Lee is going to
pitch, listen moment to President
Clark Griffith.
No Top Teams Without EN-.
There's never been a god ball
club yet" said Griff today, that
didn't have plenty of left-handed
hitters. Look at the Yankees. frin-
stance. Rolfe, Gehrig, Selkirk and
Dickey bat left-handed, don't they?
And so does this kid Charlie Keller.
Lets get closer to home" he con.
tinued. Washington won the PEN
nant in 1924 and 1925. And where
was our power? We had Rice, Cos
lin and Judge batting left-handed.
They were great hiters, particularly
Goslin and Rice.
Lets look back to 1888, when we
won another pennant," suggested
the old gent. "We had Manush and
Goslin, in the outfield, batting left
handed. In the infield we had
Buddy Myer and Joe Kuhel. Our
best pinch-hitter was Cliff Bolton,
who also batted left-handed. What's
all the fuss about?"
The fuss, Mr.. Griffith, still is about
the left-handed hitters in the prob
able 1899 Washington lineup. There
are five definitely scheduled to start.
II Rookie Jake Early, whom Grif
and Manager Bucky Harris seem to
like so much, makes the grade, there
will be six. And if Estalella can't
make the grade and West plays in
the outf1eld there will be seven. In
other words, only Case, who leads
of. will be a regular right
sWinger.
Lefties Aren't So Plentiful.
Griffith insists that he isn't wor-
ried, but there is a deep-rooted sus-
picion that the Old Fox is whistling
in the dark. 1t is a cinch that the
jobs of several American League
southpaws are being made more Sc
cure by the general knowledge that
Washington will have so many
southpaw hitters.
For time the only team in the
league that Thornton Lee was able
to beat was Washington. Archie
McKain Of Detroit is another SOUTH
paw who may be retained almost ex-
cluslvely for use against the Mats.
The same goes for his teammate,
Harry Eisenstat. No Washington
New York series passes without
Gomez seeing action on the mound
and the same goes for the Red Sox-
Mats sets, when Grove and Oster-
mueller are regular starters. The
Browns make it point to pitch
Mills against Washington and the
White Sox rarely miss with Lee.
1t may be that Rookie Wasdell,
exactly one-third the age Of Grif-
fifth, has the best philosophy on the
subject. "All can say commented
Wasdel the other day, "is that we
haven't many left-handers in the
league to face and darned few Of
those amount to anything. Gomez
will give us trouble and, If Grove
RECEIVERS from his sore arm. he'll be
tough. too. But the rest aren't good
enough to worry about. If we can't
beat fellows like Milnar, Mills, Lee
and McKain we don't belong in the
big leagues"
Bluege Would Try Radio Job.
Notes to you -.
Rene Monteagudo. the half pint
southpaw pitcher who looks the part
Of barber, is the only popular
Cuban in training camp, as far as
the rest Of the Mats are concerned.
Few of the Griffmen like Bobby
Estalella The hitters insist that
American League pitchers will stop
him The pitchers are making it
tough for Roberto Ortiz, who can
throw harder than any of them. re-
(See MATS, Page CD