OCR Text |
Show Novel Practice Games in Training Camp of Pale Stockings in 1869 BY A L SPINK. CHICAGO, Dec. 19. In a letter which he wrote the .other day to the secretary of the Old-Timers' Baseball Base-ball association, Jimmy Wood, tho old commander of the Chicago 'Mte Stockings of 1S69, haa much to t;ay ; about, tho old team and its methods of training which may sound utrange to the present-day army who have imagined that baseball in the olden days was earned ear-ned on without order, discipline or anything any-thing of that sorL ' "No team before or since ever devoted more time to practice and getting in condition con-dition than did the Chicago White Stocking when T took hold of them in Uttf." wrlu-a Jimmy. "As boon as Tom Foley and I had assembled as-sembled tho team we took it to New Orleans Or-leans to put it in shape and get it ready for the ta.slt we had laid out for ourselves, our-selves, th.j overthrow of the up-to -that-time invincible Cincinnati Reds. "Chicago in 1S69 had many first-clays amateur teams, notably the Aetna-s, the Oroadnaughts and tho Alutuals, nl! able to give our White Stockings fine practice, prac-tice, but the weather in the early spring was too cold there to get our players in proper condition. Dut it Mas not without with-out some difficulty that T was able to show the prime movers of tho club the necessity of taking our players to New Orleans to got the strenuous work needed to brins about that, which no other one-"p.'ir one-"p.'ir ball club ever accomplished in the heating of ihe greatest baseball organisation organisa-tion of that time. Training Camp Kicks. "Having gone through the teabon of IS? without losing a game and but three sames in- 1ST 0, one with the Atlantics of Brooklyn and the two straight with the Chi cages, the Cineinna ti Keds of that time were inowt certainly a great team, and I Unew what v e had to do to beat them, t'o after our arrival at New Organs Or-gans I gave my players practice every day from 10 a. m. to lunch time and then irotn - to 5 in the afternoon. "'Tha bo3 were not accustomed to this trenuousi work, for before they came to mti t tity Iv.id practiced when it best suited them ; in those days we did not have the stringent rules as now, with organized or-ganized baseball governing, and to accomplish ac-complish anything moral suasion and tact had 10 bo resorted to. So when some of the players rebelled against too much work, n s they termed it, I was at my v Up' end. At that time they were in Aood shaoo, so to humor them I often halted and thought out some new plan by which to give them a few days rest. ""Up to this time we had beatan every team in New Orleans, and they had some very strong ones .iust then. When T re-'pwed re-'pwed the practice T called the boys to tny room and told the in i of a made-up rumor I had thought out ) that the Robert 13. Lee club had said they could beat the ihieagop if they would allow thein the outj in each inning to our three. Six Outs to Three. . "The Robert K. Lees had given us some h'.rd g.imcs. So I asked by teammates what they thought about it, and would it be wise to risk it. I told rny boye I wou'c, providing all agreed to it. "Mart King was the virst to respond, paying: 'Captain Jimmy. T for one will ; do anything that you propose, for we ! know how much depends on you. And r for one ill follow where you may lead-' "Mart war a big, good-natured fellow, easily persuaded. had talked the proposition prop-osition all over wuh him. and to he s:k'ko his piece well. Then I thanked Mart tr his loyalty, nnd extended a hope that al the rest would feel as Mart did, for it was well understood what the Chicago Chi-cago public expected of us after the great expense incurred in ending us to New Orleans tor this early practice, and I did not for a moment think or expect, miy plv? yer would shirk his duty. .' 'Now boys," said 1, 'you have heard what Mart has said. All v. ho will do likewise will please stand up.' All were on thetv feet at once, and then w th a n r : d e v h i c h m u si have . bee n e r y ut-tare'.it ut-tare'.it to aih I s-ooii each one by t'.-e hiinU and thanked them heartily, I tv:en sjcsted 10 tev.i that we give t o Robert" Rob-ert" l',. TjOCs six "uts Instead of five i wiiic; they were supposed to have asked fur) a:;d all rcpiieu: 'Jhrcy, as many r.c '"O'c wish.'-' "f th..""i went to f:c t'e Robert T .es" secrciarj". ai;d tisked him if wo col: id arrarc si: eh a jzii t:io. T e en -tere'i"i:i:o the spirit o:' it at or.eo. owin. o the novelty of it. and at tho same t:me he really bejic.cd they would beat us on those tern.s. Eighteen to Nine. " ' Thai may be true.' I replied, 'ror ; ou l.i.ve a very strong clue, Lut I "R ill :a:e a chance. "A eT. the game took flirce ar.d or.e-l"Ltl-' hours to play, and they gave us . hard f :gh t , but we won out, and de-vlvod de-vlvod the i'ir-r practice ve had had. That ;;c.u I hecged a theater box tor the -oys. o ti. ey ere a happy iot. I resied t'.:e foliowh g day, but benan a shorter no-ning av.d e'-'enir.g praciice daily. Then I t '.'.ought up another new wrmk'e in giving giv-ing one of the other strong clubs (the Southern) e'ghteen players to nine, hich -co w o n al o, and h :i d excellent p r a e -t;cc. It was rethy amusing to se the eighteen players in t'-e field in opposl-t'on opposl-t'on to our mne. There was scarcely av . ai'.dble spot, t.'at as not occupied, and ovr bo s. in viewing them, n anted to no--v where in h ""they could hit awa;. : r t.;at' crowd. 1 told t'e.sm I had w Cit 11 v i t h over t '". ree o u n ccs of p j re e.jber i:: i:. s.r.d to irJt the tall as hard . j the-, ce: d, and errors and getting .,: of liio way 6: those rifle shot;, would o:ti ol i-- o:: the bases. Needless to -a '. v c ? on tl.e cane ea?:!y and ce-t ce-t f-'d m jeh taih ar.a arnusemeui ucfoi-e :.r. l afler. "h. .l;:-ii:'.g ;r.y players ii "as r..o:e i y for th?ir batting ability than a n thing else, knowing full Tveil tha I my only hope to conquer the Reds as to outbat them, as their fielding was as near perfection per-fection as could be, and it was our batting bat-ting on those two occasions that defeated de-feated the irreateat ball team of the early daya and caused their dis'oandment that year. Most of our players went to A. G. Mill's of the Olympics of Washington, Wash-ington, and the rest to tho Boston club. "Our well-seasoned brown boys finally left New Orleans with hearty congratulations congratu-lations and best wishes of. the people, and you can imagine the kind of hitters they were when I tell you that at Memphis Mem-phis they defeated the Red Stocking team or' that city by a score of 167 to 1. j Tom Foley said we should not have al -lowed that single one. J-Iard-hearted, wasn't he 7 "t was sorry, indeed, I could not attend at-tend the Old -Timers' bang uet. A tame r' knee, injured In a folley car accident, j was the only thing that kept me away. ! Aside from my knee, my health is per- j feet. I am a member of the Life HI:; - ! tension institute of New York city, and ! my last report from them indicated a 1 flawless ' co mil Hon, and, being 7tj ears of age December I, I feel very happy ', with such gratifying conditions. It seems! the fifty years that have e!ap.ced since ' our dear Tom Foley and myself started ! that great White Stocking ball rolling is a matter of but a little while. , Jlov time flies.'' |