The management was given to Joe Birmingham, who took hold of it with enthusiasm but without experience, just as Stovall did the previous year. He infused new life into the team, shook it up a bit, and improved its playing so much that Cleveland passed Detroit before the end of the race, and was threatening to knock Chicago out of fourth place at one time. This would have happened but for the brace of the White Sox. Profiting by previous experience the club owners did not look around for a permanent manager until they saw what Birmingham could do, and in consequence were in position to offer him the leadership of the Naps for the season of 1913. * * * * * What was left to Manager Jennings from the great Detroit team that had won three straight pennants was slowing up, with the exception of Tyrus Cobb, who has yet to reach the meridian of his career, and the Georgian got into trouble fairly early in the season, with the result that he was suspended for a considerable period. That and the strike of the Tigers in Philadelphia threw a monkey-wrench into the machinery, resulting in a tangle which Jennings was unable to straighten out all the season. There was a problem at first base which he had a hard time solving. The break in Del Gainor's wrist the season before had not mended as it should have done, and he was unable to play the position regularly. Moriarty was pressed into service there and did good work in an unfamiliar position; then the infield was shifted several times without marked benefit. Donovan, who had always been of great help on the slab in hot weather, was not equal to the task of another year and was made manager of the Providence team. Jean Dubuc was the only one of the young pitchers who proved a star, but his work kept the Tigers from being a lot more disappointing proposition than they were. * * * * * St. Louis and New York were outclassed from the start. Two weeks after the season opened it was apparent they were doomed to fight it out for the last round on the ladder. That the Browns finally escaped the cellar in the closing days of the race was due largely to the efforts of Stovall, who was made manager to succeed Wallace near the middle of the season. As early as the first of May it was seen the Browns and Yankees were destined to trail. The New York team quickly gravitated to the bottom. It started without the services of Catcher Eddie Sweeney, who held out for a larger salary, and it had a manager at the helm who was inexperienced in major league leadership. Not until April 24 did New York win a game and in that time it had lost seven straight, postponements accounting for the rest of the time.