- Huggins Facing a Hard Job
- Bill Doak Sure to Remain
September 17, 1913 Age 22
St. Louis. With the 1913 Cardinals absolutely last, a sad disappointment this year and playing joke baseball down the stretch. Manager Huggins must prove himself a shrewd general as well as developer of raw material to be a 1914 success.
For Huggins to make good next season he has to start right at the very bottom and rebuild. And he intends to do this, beginning with the pitching staff and then looking after the other departments of the game.
“Give me a good pitching staff at any time of the season, and I’ll make good with almost any team,” is a Huggins statement. And it will be Huggins’ chief task in developing a pitching staff for 1914 to prevent the Cardinals from running last again.
Anyone who has followed the Cardinals closely since April 12 will agree that the pitchers more than anything else are responsible for the club being eighth today. Every curver, barring Harry Sallee, has cracked completely, Southpaw Sal alone keeping up his end.
Bob Harmon ought to be a great twirler and he probably will be the day he leaves St. Louis. The giant right-hander was the 1911 mainstay when he experienced a wonderful year, but this season Bob hasn’t been right.
Then Dan Griner and “Polly” Perritt did not improve with the experience, as expected. Griner gave great promise in April and so did Polly. They didn’t last, though. Bill Steele was a victim of rheumatism and his fall down was another sad blow to the Cardinals.
At present Huggins has 13 hurlers on his list. They are: Saliee, Harmon. Geyer, Griner, Perritt, Doak, Neihaus, Burk, Willis, Williams, Trekell, Hopper and Steele.
From this number Huggins will have to develop a real pitching staff to bring the Cardinals back in the running. Trades are going to come this winter. That’s a certainty. Who will go is not known definitely, but a pitcher or two and somebody else will be used for the material wanted.
Pitchers have won for the Giants and Athletics. Johnny Evers admits that his pitching staff has kept the Cubs in the first division, so Huggins will have to develop his twirlers to be a 1914 success.