Nine Forming in Hothouse Climate

For a baseball player who is accustomed to preparing for the season in sunny Florida, Briggs Cage must be quite a comedown. But one Stuffy McInnis has been carrying on admirably for three weeks now an his 1949 varsity team is gradually taking shape.

"We'll move outdoors as soon as the temperature hits 45 or 50," McInnis said yesterday. "But you know this New England weather--it may snow tomorrow." Until the mercury does climb, McInnis must conduct his daily two-hour workouts in the hazy confines of the Cage.

The least bit - -of sunlight that filters through the skylight affects the squad's batting. Yesterday brought the first sublight in several days, and hitting showed a marked improvement.

Coach Stressing Fundamentals

McInnis faces the same problem that confronted Art Valpey last spring. He is largely unfamiliar with the personnel and their capabilities, and he must experiment until he finds the right combination. But he is tackling the problem in the same way Valpey did: he is starting with fundamentals Besides the regular batting practice for every man, he is giving individual instruction in bunting and sliding, with particular emphasis on the latter. The pitchers are still in the late stages of limbering up.

Only two men have been lost through graduation--third baseman and Captain John Coppinger and utility outfielder Lennie Lunder--but injuries are already starting to deplate Stuffy's manpower. Myles Huntington, regular second baseman last year, will be out for the season with a broken right collar bone suffered in the last Dartmouth hockey game; and left fielder Jim Kenary, who played against Yale last spring, is still unable to throw overhand because of a shoulder injury sustained last Summer. Add in the fact that Chip Gannon isn't playing this spring and you have two-thirds of the outfield wide open as well as the third base position. Gannon, a center fielder, won the Wingate Memorial Cup last year as the team's most valuable player.

John Caulfield will probably man the right field post he filled last year but definite outfield assignments will have to wait until the squad moves outdoors and McInnis can test his candidates' arms.

At third, McInnis has been using Ernie Mannino, with Mort Dunn at shortstop. Mannino played shortstop under Samborski until he was hurt; Dunn started the 1948 season with the varsity, was demoted to the jayvees, and then moved up to the varsity again at the end of the schedule. He is faster and can cover more ground at shortstop than Mannino, although the latter is the better fielder.

Infield Nebulous

Harry Cavanaugh, freshman second baseman last year, appears to have the inside track on the position left open by Huntington's injury. Captain Walt Coulson is a fixture at first base, the only position which McInnis considers sewed up.

As far as pitching goes, the three mainstays of last year's mound staff--Ira Godin, lefty Barry Turner, and Ralph Hymans--are returning. Stuffy is particularly anxious to line up one or two more southpaws.

Cliff Crosby, Armie Essaryen, and Web Durant--last season's catching corps--are all back this spring.

Right, now, the elaborate nets of the age confine the team's activities as effectively as a fishing not over a school of mackeral. What will happen when the squad breaks out into the great outdoors can only be guessed at.