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Show Saints' Chances in Peril .n n n n n Earl Sheely Is Summoned EAEL SHEELY. 1 . ) ', .-'4 t - 1 I I Ji UST as the Salt Lake club is entering enter-ing upon an era of success, with the 1917 Coast league pennb-nt in sight, comes a blow that may frustrate all ; . their hopes. Yesterday Earl Sheely, by long" odds the best first baseman of the league, received word from Spokane, his home town, to the effect that he would "probably be called for service on September Septem-ber 17." Inasmuch as Sheely wants to spend a little time with his relatives before be-fore entering the military, he decided to leave for Spokane tomorrow night- An effort is being made to induce Sheely to remain with the club during the series with Portland, when his hitting will be sorely needed, and his fielding, too, for that matter. No one will blame Earl for wishing to , visit with his people before joining the ; army. At the same time, the club management man-agement feels that the sudden loss of Sheely at this time may mean the biast-i biast-i ing of our pennant hopes, and this feel-, feel-, ing will be shared by 10,000 loyal fans in Salt Lake, who have come to regard 1 Sheely as one of the very sturdiest props I under the club. Persons who profess to ' be familiar with the working of the draft i law, do not hesitate to say that even j though Sheely were called for final ex-I ex-I amlnation on September 17, it would be j at least October 5, the date tentatively ! fixed for that purpose, before the first I drafted men of no military experience I will be actually called for service, j Naturally, Sheely has no means of knowing when he will be called other than the information contained in the telegram he received yesterday. It seems safe to predict, however, that he would still have ample time for foregathering with his folks if he worked out the forthcoming forth-coming series and left for Spokane next Sunday night. If Sheely leaves the club tomorrow. It will leave the -Saints with barely enough men to make a nine, Crandall will have to be placed at first and Gielason at second. sec-ond. In case of accident, an outfielder would have to be called into the infield and a pitcher used in the outfield. The club carries only one utility man, and a mishap in any department would certainly certain-ly kill off the Saints' flag chances. Yesterday Yes-terday the club wired Cliff McCarl, former for-mer manager and first baseman of the Butte club of the Northwestern league, who is now in California, asking him to join the Saints. Another telegram was sent to the New York Americans, asking Donovan if he, can "advance" a first baseman base-man on account of the Hannah deal. Until one or the other of these telegrams brings results, however if they bring results re-sults at all the club would be skating on very thin ice. In view of the fact that the series with Portland Is regarded regard-ed as the crux of the pennant situation so far as the Saints are concerned, every chance is a peril. The baseball fans of Salt Lake every last one of them earnestly hope that Sheely can see his way to remaining with the club this week. They never hoped for anything harder in 'their lives. |