Evening star., 1949-04-04
Club Young, Peppery
Has Punch, He Says;
.Coan Impresses
By Burton Howkins
S.or StcH ccrresponden,

Simmons. the blunt-s spoken third
base coach Of the Philadelphia
Athletics, was perched on a club
house trunk gurgling a soft drink
in company with Manager Joe
Kuhel Of the Mats. "Ya know.
laughed Al, from what I've been
reading in the New York papers
I expected you to trot nine old
ladies out on the field. Heck
Washington has a club which is
going to have a lot of fun"
The AS had inflicted a 81 de-
feat on the Mats. but in the
course of that triumph Simmons
respect for the Mats mounted
Your club can give any team in
the league trouble" said Al to
Joe. You have a young. peppery
sort of team that can hit. They're
not going to be pushovers.
AL particularly was impressed
by the hitting of Gil Coan, who
fashioned three Of the Mats II
hits. He has everything" en-
Unused Simmons. "Of course, ]
don't know anything about how
he thinks. but he has all the
equipment to be great ball
player. He used to be a soft
touch on a change of pace, but
apparently he's learned to hit it.
All he needs is to think he's a
great hitter and he'll be one"
Declares Gil Confident.
Don't worry about his conf
dence," countered Kuhel. He s
got it. He's feeling now that he's
the roughest, toughest hitter In
the world and it's helping him
Gil says now, let 'em feed me that
soft stuff and I'll bunt 'em crazy
And when they tighten up the
infeld Ill blast 'em by them
you're. right" continued Ku-
hel, when you say we're going to
be tougher than lot Of people
suspect. If we can avoid in
juries we'll give any team battle
We're not going to be kicked
around like we were last year"
The Mats stirred UP their most
powerful attack of the spring
training season yesterday. Coar
and Eddie Robinson delivered
home runs and they, along with
Buddy Lewis and AT Kozar, each
supplied three hits.
Washington's pitching, however
was in sad contrast. Ray Scar
borough, Mickey Haefner anc
Paul Calvert permitted II walks
Five of those passes were con-
verted into runs and three errors
also figured in the AS scoring a:
the Mats pitchers we're hammered
for 13 hits.
Coan greeted Carl Scheib with
a home run in the first inning anc
Robinson smashed another in the
second during a four-run out.
burst, but the AS locked the score
with two runs in the second anc
three in the third as Scarborough
kMsiked, six and allowed seven hit'
Efn Ills four inning effort.
Score Twice on Haefner.
The AS produced two runs of
|Haefner in the sixth. but the Nat.
sliced their deficit to 7-6 in theil
portion Of the inning when A
Evans, Haefner and Coan sin.
gled. Calvert yielded two runs ir
the ninth before the Mats scorec
on a walk to Sam Dente and sin.
giles by Lewis and Robinson.
NAT NOTES.-The Mats recore
against major league foes now il
6-8. Lewis and Eddie Yosl
have identical batting averages
Both have obtained Is hits ir
Al attempts for 1870 averages.
Coan is a 1897 hitter. Those
averages were compiled against
major league pitching. incidental
". :. Robinson, after a slow start
has manufactured six hits in his
last eight tries.
Idle today, the Mats will play
Chattanooga here tomorrow, with
Walter Masterson due to pitch
Sid Hudson will face Kansas
City on Wednesday. The Mats
will leave Orlando Friday after
noon, play two games at Chat
tanooga and one each at Spartan
burg, S. c.: Charlotte, N. c.. and
Danville, Va. before returning tc
Griffith Stadium on April IA for
an exhibition game with Brooklyn