Evening star., 1947-05-21
Team 5 Hurting Goe,
Sour With Defense;
Travis May Quit
By Burton Hawkins

Washington's most disappointed
baseball fan Is Clark Griffith, who
directs the destiny Of the Mats. His
clubs spirit has sagged and Griffith
has suffered the excruciating expert
ence of seeing what he believed to
be a fair sort of team collapse in
the first five weeks of the season.
Now he isn't certain it'll snap out
of it.
There isn't anything to be done, |"
Griffith says. There isn't any ball
player I could get who would pull
this team together and, besides,
there aren't any to be had. The
boys are down mentally and I don't
know if they'll bounce back.
"I guess Cecil Travis is through.
The poor fellow can't do anything
right. Young Eddie Yost is giving
us good defensive game at third
base, but I don't know II he'll hit
good pitching.
Fail to Get Breaks.
We've lost some tough games,
but until last night we were playing
pretty good defensively and getting
good pitching even while losing. We
weren't being murdered in those
games, but last night we finally got
some hitting and our pitching and
defense went sour.
1--WE haven't gotten many breaks.
either. Several balls our fellows
have hit in vital spots have been
foul by inches. It seems everything
has gone against us. We have some
good players on our club, but for
some reason almost everybody has
gone sour at the same time"
Any day now Travis may pack up
and head home. The quiet third
baseman said late last season, when
the going was tough and his legs
were bothering him, that he'd retire
to his farm outside Atlanta when he
felt he no longer could help the
Mats. He was persuaded to return
this season and it appeared in spring
training that he would stage a
comeback.
The circulation in his legs, dam
aged by pair of frozen toes received
in European campaigning, appar-
emily had been restored, but Travis
has displayed little of his former
batting finesSe and his fielding has
been erratic. He is hitting .198.
One of the higher salaried Mats,
Travis last year offered to take a
pay cut, eonfessing to Griffith that
he wasn't worth the money Wash
ington's boss was paying him. 1t
was a fine gesture and 1t reflected
Travis honesty. Hitless in his last
II times at bat, Cecil may be pre-
pared to close the book on his play
ing days.
Travis has company In being of
the beam. For the first time in IL
games last night the Mats mustered
more than two runs. They presented
Walter Masterson with a 40 lead
in the first inning, pounding Edgar
Smith off the mound, but Chicago
roared back to slam Masterson, Ray
Scarborough and Milo Candini for
Is hits and a IA victory before
1868 customers.
|, sThe White Sox thus. swept. the
four-game series and dealt Washing
ton its eighth defeat in 10 games
as The Mats compiled five errors.
40 Advantage Evaporates.
Washington clipped Smith for
four of its nine hits in the first
inning as George Case, Mickey Ver-
non and Mark Christman singled
Tom Mcbride walked and Frank
Mancuso doubled, but the Mats 40
advantage soon evaporated.
Chicago battered Masterson for 2
runs in the second and 3 more in
the third as Mancuso and Master
son inserted costly errors. The White
Sox nicked Scarborough for run
in the fifth and tapered off with
another in the ninth off Candini
as Travis committed two errors.
Meanwhile, Thornton Lee, Earl
Harrist and Frank Papish succeeded
in scattering five hits for the final
eight innings. The Mats stirred
up a mild threat with two out in
the ninth when Joe Grace walked
and George Case doubled for his
third hit, but Buddy Lewis grounded
out. ..
Bobo Newsom, who has yielded
two runs in his last two starts, will
attempt to break the Mats 4-game
losing streak tonight when the st
Louis Browns invade. Newsom has
pitched 272s innings this season and
the Mats haven't scored run fol
him.