Evening star., 1940-07-18
Sid Rated Club S Best
Young HurIer Since
Fred Marberry
Much TuIent Lined Up
To Help Washington,
Owner Declares
BY BURTON HAWKINS.

Clark Griffith hoisted his awning
eyebrows. adjusted his elongated
cigar to more jaunty angle and
said. IF Lou Boudreau can be
classified as q rookie, and think
he's generally accepted as such by
the public, then I'd call him the
outstanding youngster Of the year.
"He's carrying that Cleveland club
on his back. He's q swell shortstop,
q really good fielder with fine arm,
and he hits like sin against all kinds
of pitching. Oh his performance
thus far I'd say he's the outstanding
rookie of the season.
Understand, Of course, I'm basing
this just on what these rockies have
accomplished so far. Little Dominic
Di Maggie has been playing great
ball recently, but he really hasn't
played enough to warrant considera-
ton. He hasn't had a chance to
show his stuff until lately, but he
looks like he's gonna be a big help
to Boston.
my No. rookie, though, is our
own Sid Hudson. I rate him over
Marvin Breuer of the Yankees, Herb
Nash of Boston, Harold Newhouser
and Johnny Corsica of Detroit and
Emil Bildilli of st. Louis. Porter
Vaughan of the Athletics might de-
velop into a real pitcher, but we
don't know anything about him yet
because he hasn't pitched but four
or five games.
Named Best Since Marberry.
Hudson is the best rookie pitcher
Washington has had since Fred
Marberry came up in 1923. It's taken
him a little while to learn, but from
now on he's gonna be a consistent
winner.
We've got some pretty good
youngsters in the minor leagues, by
the way. I'm not blind-I know we
need first baseman and q shortstop
badly and I'm doing something
about 1t. We need a second base
, man, too, but not as urgently. Buddy
Myer and Jimmy Bloodworth can
handle second base between them
another year if we don't come up
with somebody.
Il can't bring up Mickey Vernon
to play first base until fall. I
promised Bill Terry that Jersey City
could have Mickey all season and I
amt gonna go back on my word no
matter how much it costs me. He's
hitting 1926 and he's improved lot.
There's some doubt about that
first base job, though, because we
have another fellow, Jack Sanford,
who's gonna give Mickey a scrap
for that position. Sanford's batting
average has dropped 18 points in
the last week, but he's still leading
the Piedmont League with .359.
Nephew Swatting Steadily.
Then there's that nephew of
mine, Sherrad Robertson. He's with
Charlotte, too. and the first month
he was there he didn't hit 100. He
went seven games without hit in
one stretch, but now he's numbering
that ball.
Hes hit 20 home runs, pulled
his average up to .253 and he's
leading the league with more than
60 runs batted in. He's fine
fielder and. nephew or not, he's
gonna be given his chance if he
keeps playing like that.
We're gonna have a better ball
club, but 1t takes time to build a
good team and most people are
too impatient-they want a winner
every year. I said this team would
be worse before it got better. Con-
sarn it, we've gotten worse, but
we're gonna be better, lots better.
Give this city a good ball club
and we won't need night baseball.
The fans will turn out to see a good
team IN the day time, but I'm not
gonna put in lights anyway until
this war situation settles some. You
can't tell what1l happen with things
IN the world the way they are now
and when I invest $10O 900 or so
want the outlook to be a little
brighter"
Next week. when the Mats head
West, Gri6 will head South to exam
Inc several promising performers in
the Piedmont League and the South
ern Association. The success Of his
journey probably will be watched
more keenly than the Mats road
record for, in measure, the Mats
future rides with him.