1903 Spring Training: Cleveland
The American League champions have renamed their team the Cleveland Naps, in honor of their new star Napoleon Lajoie. To shore up their defense of the title, the Naps have invited many pitchers to camp for a shot at the roster, with the hopes of supporting emerging star
Earl Moore.
Frank Bowerman spent all of last year at Columbus, earning top honors for his glove and game-calling as a catcher. He hit .265. He did well teaching the young pitchers and is the reason behind all the spring call-ups. Bowerman eyed two new amateur recruits that he felt were good candidates to learn the wet one this year.
Bowerman is a 100pt bonus while Moore is worth 25 in addition to the Cleveland pitching coach.
Glenn Liebhardt is a young, hard-working pitcher out of Milton, Massachusetts. He lacks control as do all young pitchers but is really struggling with his curveball. Wanting to keep a breaking pitch, he approached Bowerman about his saliva shoot.
The Matrix says it’ll be a couple of years before Liebhardt masters the pitch, and by that time he may see his first year in the majors.
Heinie Berger is a year older than Liebhardt but is from LaSalle, Illinois. He’s got a better fastball than Liebhardt but no breaking pitch. Bowerman saw the potential but his poor work ethic turned him off a bit on this project. Berger is actually the first pitcher where attempting to learn the spitball may hurt his career…he was a bust.