Evening star., 1950-04-18
II Of Their First Il
Are Scheduled for
Griffith Stadium
By Burton Howkins

The tip-of on the Mats won't be
long coming. Their early cam
paigning chiefly will be confined
to Griffith Stadium. what with
II of their first % games sched-
uled there. but the caliber of foe:
moving into the Washington park
will supply an early appraisal OF
the Mats hopes.
Six times in their first IL games
for instance, the Mats will be tan
Cling with the champion New
York Yankees, with three games
on tap at Yankee Stadium start
ing Friday.
The Mats more immediate prob
lem is Philadelphia of course
After today's opener comes a night
game tomorrow. The Mats are
catching the Athletics at an op-
perfume time. Two of the AS top
fight pitchers-Joe Coleman and
Dick Fowler-are nursing sore
arms and Second Baseman Pete
Suder has an ailing leg.
8 of IL With Top Pair.
Functioning in Washington's
favor is the fact that the Red
Sox will invade only twice until
late May. The Mats won't move
into Boston's Fenway Park until
mid-May. which is agreeable to
the Mats. In the last three years
Washington has won only of 80
games at Boston.
Eight of the Mats first IL games,
though, will be with New York
and Boston, the leagues most
highly regarded teams. They'll be
confronting the Mats with such
feared right-handed hitters as
Vern Stephens, Bobby Doerr and
Joe Di Maggio-fellows who are
calculated to test the wisdom of
reducing the distance to the left
and center-f1eld bleachers.
Philadelphia's Sam Chapman
and Eddie Joost also figure to
draw a bead on Griffith Stadium's S
tubular steel stands, which have
clipped 10 feet off the distance
to the fence.
BY the same token, Manager
Bucky Harris is hoping some of
his right-handed hitters-Sam
Mele, Clyde Vollmer, Eddie Yost,
AL Evans and AL Kozar-will find
the range on those six rows of
box seats in front of the regular
bleachers.
Harris isn't inclined to fret
much about his teams hitting. His
chief concern is pitching, but he
got a lift over the week end when
his hurlers checked the Pirates
with four runs over a span of 81
innings.
Bucky is leaning toward Sid
Hudson as his starter against the
AS tomorrow night. The Mats
will have Thursday off and against
the Yankees Harris may send Joe
Haynes Friday, Steve Macy Satur-
day, and Scarborough Sunday.
Thursdays open date is due to
recent protest by the Athletics,
who originally were scheduled for
a night game here then. The
AS complained because they open
the season in Philadelphia the
next afternoon with the Red Sox.
So the game was re-scheduled as
part OF a double-header July 2.
Harris i'm Bullpen.
Bucky's pitching pattern would
leave Mickey Harris in the bullpen
at least temporarily and provide
an experienced hand for relief
roles. The Mats boss also is count
ing on Dick Weik, Lloyd Hittle
and Jim Pearce for bullperl duty,
but he'd prefer to have Mickey as
his principal stopper.
Starting today the Mats were
likely to lose their first crack at
the waivers list. AS result of fin
ishing eighth last season they got
first claim on waived players, but
now it goes on a day-to-day basis,
with the cellar club getting first
choice.
I'VE need pitching help" ad-
mits Harris. "but in the meantime
we have to try to win. It might
hurt us, eventually, to get off well
because we might not be able to
land additional pitching strength.
However, I'll take my chances on
that"