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Show Major Clubs May Be Cut n n n n n n Mack Talks of Comebacks NEW YORK, Sept. 1. THAT each big league club probably will be held to fifteen, sixteen or seventeen seven-teen players is believed by many who are looking toward the future. War did not hit the major leaguers very hard this season, the attendance being nearly what it was a year ago, except in Washington, where the conditions con-ditions are peculiar. But next year it will be different, as it is a certainty that practically every big league plaver who is single or does not have children dependent upon him will be called to the colors. Already nearly 30 per cent of the big league players have been called for examination and it is not likely that any will be exempted except possibly some married men who have families dependent noon them. As a result the ranks of the majors will be shattered. The Cleveland club already has seen six men drawn and it would be no surprise if the second iiall caught six or seven others, and it might como about that Jim Dunn would only have the older married men of his team left next spring. This would include Catcher O 'Neill, Pitchers Bagby, Coveleskie", Coumbo and Wood, Infieldcrs Turner and Howard and Outfielder Graney. With others of the sixteen big league clubs suffering, some just- as materially, mate-rially, others possibly not quite so much, it is believed a limit of sixteen or seventeen will be imposed, as there will not be enough to go around if each club tries to carry twenty-five men as at present. But the outlook is such that it is believed a number of the single men who have not yet been called will volunteer as soon as the season is over, so as to be able to pick thoir branch of the service, and in that way avoid conscription. con-scription. ' Connie on Pitchers. DO they come back? Connie ilack says pitchers do, but that catchers, iufielders and outfielders, outfield-ers, once they slip into tho minors, have slight chance of returning to tho big show and making good. Mack makes an exception of the youngsters who get big league trials before they are ripe and later on come up to stay. "Very few players I have tried out thoroughly and sent to the minors have come back, ' said Mack a few -nights ago. "The ones who have come back have been pitchers, and there always is a chance of their making good in the big show after one or more managers have declared them through. 1-1 You see, a pitcher has a chance to change his style. Say I have let a pitcher go because I have despaired of his ever getting control. Ho goes to the minors, works twice a week, gets control and then is ready to stick in the majors. Perhaps I have let another go because it seemed he never would learn to field his position or keep the base runuers from acquiring big leads. He goes to the minors, corrects his faults and comes back to stay. "1 let Dave Danforth go because he did not have a curve ball. He has not one vet, but down in the minors he made good by usinj? the emery ball. When thev" stopped him from using that, he invented the snine ball and has made good with the White Sox. i have known of .others who adopted the spitball as a means of stepping back into the majors. Freak Ball Comebacks. i a XY time I hear of a pitcher coming back after being discarded, I ask: x '"What is he putting on the ball?' And I ask that now in regard to Chief Bender, who pitched three shutouts in a row. I don't know for sure, but I'll wager he is using the shine ball. Chief is a pretty smart pitcher and he would pick up such a ball mighty quick. "Fred Falkenburg eamo back twice, didn't he? The emery, ball brought him once, and the licorice, or shine, ball the other time. You can almost gamble on it that when an old-timer comes back he has something like that u"p his sleeve and is not depending upon the old legitimate stuff. "But give me the dav again when the pitchers will stick to the legitimate methods, as they did in tlie davs of Addie Joss, Plank, Bender, "Waddell, Mat-thewson, Mat-thewson, Powell", Donohue and Bcrnhard. Of course, there are- a, lot of pitchers now who use straight stuff like Baby, Ruth, Leonard, Bush. Davenport, Caldwell and Fisher, but there are' too many using the spitter and the various styles of shine balls.'' ' |