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Show . . . -. ...A.:.L,.....,.i,,....ainattai m m a m a c"c a a a a a e a s ftl9lli96l(tII I TWENTY YEARS AMONG THE BUSH LEAGUES 1 1 ED EGA 1 j ' , iT.eC.Zl. I.HI.I.lltt.miM " .HMMtMtt b-T HAS been my good fortune to han-I han-I die a Int. of inch -grade material in I the billies, akn wit b a lot of JL fripht fMily had sniff tb.it i constantly con-stantly cropping u) so I may safely say t hat I have been a success in the development of star?, and for fear some of my reader.; may overlook t ho fact that the Pusher is usually the fellow who nmdures for the ma it league magnate, I am Koine lo iiK-nimn the names of some of 1 1 if men I have, disposed of. In this list, compiled iust off-hand. I nflv mention Sevoreid. St. Louis catcher: Nnves. AtlileurL1 pitcher: (J rimes ol Pittsburg, George Burns of Detroit. Has-brcuek Has-brcuek or" ths Sox,. Russell Ford, Yanks' pi teller; Lynch. Washington pitcher: .Johnson of Brooklyn. F.lUson of Detroit. KeTit of Host on and Brooklyn, Babe Bor-lon Bor-lon and Daiey of the New York Yankees. There were dozens of them that went up and then drifted away into the higher of the minor leagues. .Some horrible mistakes have been made at times in the handling of men by minor league managers, .some of whom don't show much more sense nt times than the most foolish bush league ball pla yers. In the Central association I may mention the names of such men as "Rube"' Marquard and Bancroft of the Phillies, both of whom were allowed to so as beyond hope by Waterloo; Chapman, Cleveland shortstop, of whom Kewanee didn't think very well, and Georce Burns of Detroit, who was released re-leased by both Q n in fry and Burlington ns an utterly hopeless case. It so happened that I sot hold of Burns two weeks after that and made excellent tirie of him. I don'1 doubt at all that j major league fans who have seen these j men perform in brilliant style will find theg statements hard to believe, but they are easily su.se entlbie proof. Prize Boner by Outfield. So one may see from these things that all the boners are not eottfi ned in the least to the playing end of the game. And speakinc of boners. I want to pull i one on the fan.-- that T think they never heard of before. This one is exception- j ally odd because not only one man but i three t he en t ire out fj Id. in fact par- I ti'-ipa ted hi it. one being as much to bla.me as the other. Fancy this situation Ott um wa was playing -Waterloo and I was handling the former club at the time. We had 4 to 2 in the first half of the eighth inning. There was one out and they had the bases loaded to the guards. One was out., mind you. for that tells the whole story. The next batter nl?pped up a high fly to Norvofd, my right fielder. field-er. He got it easily and then pulled the boner. All minor league fielders like to "show-off" "show-off" and Norvold started to exhibit some. He evidently thought his catch had made the third out. for he turned and gave the center fielder a line throw. The center fielder, seeing the ball coming, com-ing, also thought it wa5 three out and. I W. "J"'"BkllBI 1 9 $&d&;0N fe1 HAVE A CtfTCM- m I WONDER WW THOSE p l&j PL tor? J wn? 1 Or ; after making a fancy catch of the throw, he turned and gave the left fielder an opportunity to show off. All Three Runs Score. Tn the meantime those three Waterloo base runners were legging it for the plate, and before mv outfield came to its senses every one of them had scored and the ball game was , everlastingly gone. They beat us n to 4 and I was the ! maddeM man In ihe state that night. It is not such a far cry back to the days when Charley comiktfy bad two famous old-timers on Ids payroll Frank Isoell and Ry p : tersrni. Almost everybody every-body in Chicago remembers one or the other, and I'll teil you some ancient history his-tory about them that is interesting. Frank Fs bell . as a brewery wagon 1 driver and never had seen a lea sue baseball base-ball game of any kind when he was given his first trial by "Com my" in St. Paul, lie had been dubbing around in a mild war with an amateur team that I played with there, and it was an accident that ho happened to go into the Association park. th-Te one day and watch a game. Frank Gets His Trial. 'Huh. I can do as well as any of those fellows," Frank told me after the game. I believed him, s.nd offered to introduce him to Coniiskoy. This 1 did, and Charley Char-ley agreed to give him a trial. That trial was something awful. St. Paul had a lead of 10 to 0 on their opponents and Commy. thinking it entirely safe, called upon our hero Is bell to finish the game. Frank was about the most awful tiling that day I ever saw, and before the fool game was over St. Paul had quite a time winning, despite the huge lead. But fsbell stuck just the same, and finally became be-came a hig factor in a world's champion-, ship team. Roy Patterson was a big husky when T first saw htm, and was doing about four men's work. He was a good ball player, I knew, and on my recommendation he wfut to Dululh, where he was given $4 a game. This was quite a boost, as he had been getting but $3 where he was. T played around Dulut h, a nd one day, 'happening into St. Paul, I ran into Co-niiskey. Co-niiskey. "Got anybody that's any good up your I way?" he asked me. 1 told him about Patterson, and lie asked me to send him down for a trial, jl wired "Pat" to rome on. and met him j at the depot. H told him it was a great i chance for him and as I happened to be busy 1 put him on a street car for the boll park and told him to see Comis- key and introduce himself. I h e a rd nothing more of it f o r some time, and finally me; Poniiskcy a ga in. He asked me why I neve:- had sent thai kid pit cher to him. a nd I insisted I had done so. "Well, if yoi.i did, lie ne'r showed up." was the reply. So afier a lot of tio.ibie. J oi in touch with Patterson asrain, and asked him to eorne down to St. Paul one more. 1 r"r- y GUtS? I'LL 00 j j. driver and never had seen a league base- I'm) C?i ball game of anv kind when he was given C ' J&irKiJ his first trial by "Commy" in St. Paul. V j&iK lie had been dubbing around in a mild VC' 'JtF way with an amateur team that I played , S4-X--J with there, and it was an accident that fftffii ho happened to go into the Association I T, yyy'3c ' ,')0 park th-Te one day and watch a game. 1 rijj "PHt-?tj n Frank Gets His Trial. " 1 ' TOW ?M He was not willing to do this, but after assuring him he could make good 1 got him to consent. Gets a Chill. "Why didn't you see Comiskey before?" I demanded when he appeared. "Well. I got out there and watched the game from a bleacher seat," he replied, re-plied, "and after looking at those fellows !' I TOO PAST FOP & JJ & 6 LEAGUE- J J play I got scared and v.-ent honje. Gee, I what fine piaycrn tiie;." are." He had simply quit cold, believing lie nrv?r con Id make .cood wit'n that crowd. This tunc I took him in myself to Commy. who gave him a trial next day. and never reerctted it. for 1 'at tei sun turned out to be one .:' the greatest pitchers t hat t he ga me ever knw. Patterson's father was in tho bus business busi-ness in St. CroiN Fid Is. ard Roy always figured that he ought to he at home help-ins help-ins the old man. These incident s will serv to show the fur.ny twists to litis national game i of ours. .lust think of all the money I-ee Ma-Kee Ma-Kee w:i? setting from the Federal lenzue at one time. And 1 had him at Burlms-ton Burlms-ton one oar for $:.mi a. month. I ran pcross some old way checks of Magoe's, and when he was with the Feds I showed them 10 him. "This monpy I'm get tin; now is only bade pay." was all he sairi. That gra nd little fea t of making two I ( I fJlHATTWOHOn I CPAZV to 1 I RUNiHET WHAT ) JPpi;! , home iuns in one game, milled by Benny j Kauff during the world's series, brings to mind some , of the peculiar games 11 have seen decided during my long ca- reer among the minors. Tt also brings i out the fact that "Babe" Rorton. whom Comiskey once had here, did the very same thing and won a most peculiar game. Borton was playing for me at Ottumwa at the time and we were against the Kewanee team. Kewanec got ten hits, four walks and made no errors. Ottumwa made two hits and didn't get a walk, yet we won, 2 to 1, because both of our hits were homers by Borton. Eubanks' Homer Wins. Joe Bills, later with the Philadelphia Athletics, was pitching for me one day against Fort Dodge, which had Eubanks, later on with Detroit, on the hill. We , pot ten goorl so'id Iiis off Eubanl-.s, and they got 1'iit 01. e off IhU.. b-.u lo.-t , bei'MUse that one hit tlvy marir w.is a ; home run drive by Eubanks himi-vU'. The ! score was 1 to 0. Ofie of the most peculiar things 1 ever : saw in a minor l.-irue fiame hamwiid :U , Mason Mty. 1 had the Muscat ire io;mi , at the time. a:in m" pitcher, a p-omis- . ing young f.dlow named I 'inkevtin, had j a most unusual day. He ave t iii rt -t-Ti ! baes on balls, "et we v. 0:1, 4 to 0, be- , cause when 1'inkerton rii 1 gft it ovt,T : the plate they couldn't get it otii of the infield. You won't see a game like- that o;i'T in ten years. Talk iihout stopping the other fellow from hitting the brll I had a younir fel- , low one year up in Winnino'; who hah the greatest system for accomplishing : that trick that 1 ever had h-ard of. His name was Artie t'Oay and he was a i harem-scarem sort of a chap. In that ' league they had a way of traveling back I , to con-.f right back to my town tor a : s er-es. Thai gave O'Pnv bip big idea for breakinir up a team's batting. He would lo, ate the other club's bats, and when nobody was looking he would simply throw them off the train. Our opposition would la nd in town wit bout a bat and would have to hustle and buy some new ones. Naturally their work would suffer. suf-fer. It was a long time before they got net to him. too. Already 1 have told you something about tlic letters bah players write try-111R- to yet jobs. One fellow bad the best nerve I ever heart! of. and I would liked to have met him. 1 was operating operat-ing in I'.-.iriiugtcn at the time, and he sor.t word to me that he was a good catcher and wanted a .1oh. He told me Ins name was .lames Archer. Now. 1 had run into the real .Timnvy Archer in the Northern league and knew him we'll. Ourious, I wrote back to the youne man and asked him to send on his record. To my surprise he sent me what I knew to be the real Archer's rec-ord rec-ord tip to that time. I thought :inyhod that had that nerve was good enough to look over, so T sent word for him to come on for a trial. Perhaps it's .iufl as well he never did. That was the last I ever heard of him. and forth, both teams riding on the same today. 21 to 7. train. For instance, if we played a se- y ,, . :--z rics in your town, your team would have I fti&Y' AINT N0E - Or THEM DU6S G0W 10 CrtT W WITS V ) PH ) |