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Show KELLY SLt PACE FOR BALL PLAYERS OF ALL TIME, SAYS POP ANSON By AL SPINK. CHICAGO, Dec. 1-1 In proof of his nssertion that the professional profession-al players of a couple of decades ago when tins Chicago White Stockings, known as the "heroic lo-uion lo-uion of baseball," were in their prime were just as pood as the players of today, Captain A. C. Anson, their old commander, the other night gave facts and figures. According to Ansnn, there were three men whose individual work on that cam has never been beaten, lie named Billy Sunday as the greatest runner ever seen hi baseball, Ed Williamson as the greatest thrower, and Michael J. Kelly as tlte greatest in all-round play and as a drawing card. It is miuhty interesting to hear Anson An-son talk of the these three great players, play-ers, for no one knew their playing and personal points so well as he. To this day he and Sunday are great friends, and the famous evangelist never conies to Chicago without seeking seek-ing him out. According to close friends of the pair, Sunday gives Anson credit for all his success in baseball as well as in other directions. It was Anson who gave Sunday f.is first iob in baseball. From Kelly to Sunday is a long leap. Sunday was always a "good' actor and tho genial Alike often a bad one. But the two loved each other, and though their lives ran in opposito directions direc-tions they got along finely. Sunday "Discovered." It was at a fireman's tournament held at Ames, Iowa, that Anson, theu in the full flower of his gloTy as manager man-ager of Chicago's pennant-snatching team, happened to bo present as an in vited guest, and he. was so impressed bv the speed shown by Sunday while running with the fire team on that occasion oc-casion that he sent for him and interrogated in-terrogated him as follows: "Haven't I seen you somewhere before be-fore today?" "I used to drive the undertaker's wagon in Marslialltown, " Sunday admitted. ad-mitted. "When you were visiting your father last summer you might have seen me?" "If I did, I didn't see you making any - great speed," the captain remarked re-marked dryly. "Probably not, under the circumstances," circum-stances," Sunday agreed soberly. "How would you lijte to coirw to Chicago and play ball on my team?" Anson asked bluntly. "I wouldn't play ball on Sunday for any man," Sunday declared stoutly. Before they parted, however, it was arranged that Sunday come to Chicago and have a try-out. The first thirteen limes he went to bat after he began plaving with the Chicagoans he was struck out, but Anson w-as confident he would make a star player, and he hung on to him. Afterward Sunday became the fastest man on his feet in the profession. pro-fession. "When Sunday's bona fide call enme he dropped his bat and took his place with all the dignity and ease of a born theologian. Kelly Sure 'Nough Pepperbox. "When it comes to all-round brainy olay, attractiveness, the ability to put life and ginger into the day's play, there has never before nor since leen a plaver to compare with Kelly," said Anson. "Xo man guarding a bag ever had more of Kelly to touch than his feet He never came into a bag twice in the same wnv. He twisted and turned as he made his famous 'Kelly slide,' and seldom was he caught. He was a regular reg-ular boxer with his feet when sliding into bases. "There were lots of crack players like 'Back' Kwing and Bennett and (Janzel, but they all had to bow then-heads then-heads before 'Kel' when it came to brains baseball brains. Kelly was far and away tho brainiest player 1 ever J saw. "They don't play the kind of ball) now that Kelly showed them when at his best. The rules are against much of it. Xot that his playing was dirty. U was nothing like that. He simpiy did many things for the first time, that's all, and rules were hastily mad.' o provide against them in the futuu; "For instance, on all hils, when , Kelly was on first or second, he seldom sel-dom touched third base. It used to make the blcacherites howl in glee when they, saw him cut the base ten and fifteen feet and make home by a fancy slide. "1 remember when Boston got him for $ 0,000 from Chicago. He was a w-onder then, and in the first ten days he made more hits, stole moie bases and scored more runs I han all the rest, of the team. His work was truly phc nonrenal. The old records tell of his great playing better Ihan I can, in lig ures and all such like, but tlao books do not tell how he did it. Great Baseball. , "Kelly wras a great base stealer for several reasons. In the first place, he always took plenty of room, more room than the average man of his time did. This counts a great deal in successful suc-cessful base-stealing. He wasn't particularly par-ticularly fast, not anywhere near as fast as Wagner or Ty Cobb, but ho got there, and that's what counts." Anson remembers another professional profession-al player, who, like Sunday, made good in the evangelistic field. ' That was W. W. Bustard, who, in the 1 late '90s, was one of the pitchers of the Boston National league team. Bustard says he was really called to two professions, but he gives baseball little' credit for his success as an evangelist. evan-gelist. Sunday, however, admits that his experience ex-perience in the professional baseball ranks was a valuable preparation for his work as an evangelist, and gave him an opportunity to acquire firmness1 of character and a deep insight into n:en and their motives. i Bustard, however, gives tho game' little credit for his advancement. Bustard, Bus-tard, a dozen years ago a star pitcher on the Boston National team, is today the pastor of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Bap-tist church, in which John 1). L'ocke- . feller worships when he is at his Cleveland Cleve-land home. "I have been called twice," Dr. Bustard Bus-tard declares, w-ith a humorous twinkle in his keen eyes. "First, I had a dis- taut call to become a ball player a pitcher. It was too insistent to be disregarded, dis-regarded, and I responded to it. I became be-came a pitcher a good one, I think. Any man who can pitch a one-hit game may call himself a good player if he wishes, and that is what I did when with the Bostons. Then the call to ' preach the gospel came, and it was as imperative as the other had been; perhaps per-haps more so. I responded to that. 1 should have been a coward if I hadn 't. "To score yon must be ready to take chances. I have seeu players who could get to first, steal focond and third, and then stick. They seemed wedded to third. They couldn't score without, being be-ing forced in. They weren't ready to grasp the opportunity." That was not the sort of player Dr. Bustard was. Wlen his opportmiitv came he seized it with both hand:), and he scored. , |
