Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-08-30

Magic Number
For Senator'S: Is
BY MORRIS sIEGEL


THE SENATORS HAVE unique excuse for their
S4th and S5h losses which achieved easily and fault
.lessly yesterday. It's all the fault Of the COPS az
Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Murray didn't go
quite far enough when he asked Washington and Mime
sofa merely postpone their scheduled Tuesday and
Wednesday games which he thought might interfere with
the civil rights march.
: He should have demanded they be Cancelled alto
geher AS result Of the two muggngs the Twins staged
in broad daylight in Murrays 5h Precinct the Senators
took giant step toward goal they have been trying to
avoid.
The magic number for them has been reduced to Is
ANY combination Of losses, whether one at time or in
large economy packages such yesterday which totals Is
will automatically place Washington in the record books
Z They will share with the long gone Philadelphia
Athletics the black mark for most years losing 100
games consecutivey The AS did 1t three straight times
from 1921. The Senators presently constituted
are just now qualifying to tie for the title They are
rounding out their third year.
! THE AIL-TnAE LOSING champs the Phillies of
1898 The dropped 100 for five straight years
goal notlat all beyond the reach of Washington.
If the Senators do and hogtie the miSdeeds OF
the old Athletics it will be necessary for Commissioner
Ford Prick to dig into his astek supply again to
note the accomplishment re .
The glory must be shared by three Mickey
Vernon started the drive but when management decided
Vernon wasn't losing em fast enough they brought in Gil
Hodges Between those two Eddie Yost can't be over
looked
Yost quickly disqualifyng himself for manager Of
the year. has skppered the Senator'S to three losses
That's not bad for part-time manager who only gets
chance when there frngs illness as was the case
with Hodges yesterday
Yost undoubtedly is in the longest slump any man
ager has endured He wness in three tries dating back
to May when he took for an evening during the
vernon-Hodges change of command
FOR GENERAL MANAGER GEORGE Selkirk the twin
wallopings particularly horrifying Mrs. Hodges
when she phoned from Brooklyn that her
couldn't make It, also asked Selkrk to call her with the
results Of each game.
sekirk delayed the call following the 1872 opener and
kissed off the idea completely when the 101 horror story
of the second completed He feared the news
would Hodges to have relapse 1t could have been
too much for the redoubtabe Dr. schweitzer
The home run bombardment engineered by the Twins
kept Burt Hawkins the Senator's manually controlled
IBM machine buried in record books Each out-of-the
park sock either tied smashed vague long ball mark
Of some kind
When the cannonading was finally over Hawkins
painfully but dutifuy informed the press box Minnesota
had hit lss home runs. that's their seasons total not
Just today's," he quickly explained.
HAWKINS KEEPS AN up-to-the pitch reckoning on
each Senator's performance but when Jim Duckworth
had received his crockng in the game The Hawk
trying TO figure out Duckworths earned average,
finally admitted failure ..- ..... ,.-t.
Hes off the boards he sighed, closing his actuarial
book But The Hawk, who came by his statistical ken
approxmatng expense accounts The Stars baseball
writer for years. offered guesswork figure Somewhere
about 223 for this game alone" he reckoned Nobody,
not even Duckworth, challenged the estimate.
Just as the second game about to start there
a press box report Of clubhouse fight in the Twins
dressing ROOM 1t true. Several Minnesota pitchers
fought for permission to challenge the Senators Dwight
sieber $4,000 recruit from the Phies and proved
his right to the honor with three-hitter.
The Twins regardless Of their frepower, don't usually
hit II home runs in afternoon but there valid
explanation for their orgy against the Senators. They
had been headuuartered in Baltimore for q week and
simply were celebrating their emancipation.
On those grounds, they are forgiven