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Show I - - w k I . a 1 V' w ' U v ' '" r. e N . R3. KuST "PLM EEL" " . . i 'Keeler backed off the boards and are sure to make a hit all around the circuit cir-cuit when the season opens.' "But don't go spending any big league money on this tip. You may need it to pay your board bill back in the old town before , the middle of April. Of course you may live down a reputation like this, but it's hard. "There have been only a few youngsters young-sters who didn't look like another La-ioie. La-ioie. Bill Lang or King- Kelly in March, and these few were generally the ones that made good later on. They all look good at this Mm of the year, but -remember the juiciest pe-tarine pe-tarine of March is liable to make the largest lemon of April. Great "Practice" Players "I've seen some ball players who looked to have a few gleams on a chandelier when it came to shining in spring practice. But when the real stuff came off after the season opened they couldn't catch the smallpox or hit a wide ball with an oar. ',4It isn't going to get you anything now to 'look like Keeler,' or to 'resemble 're-semble Lajoie in action.' It isn't going go-ing to pay your board after you blow up and hike back to the bushes. "If you feel your bun swelling on account of such statements put on the screws quick. Sooner or later you might wake .up and wish yon were back home when some guy in the bleachers advises your manager to 'hitch a can to that thick-headed mut, what goes after a bunt like a fat poodle chasing a meat wagon.' "Yes, hell be referring to you when he springs this to the man who a month back had Billy Bradley skinned on coming in on the 'slow ones.' Yon may believe what they are writing about you now, but later you'll know that your old man is pretty wise. Affectionately Affec-tionately YOUR OLD MAN." With the opening day only three days off,-the club owners, managers and fans worry more about possible weather conditions than anything else. Every report from the. South brings glad tidings tid-ings of the fine condition of the teams. With unfeigned joy the genuine baseball base-ball enthusiast now glues his eyes on next Thursday, when he looka at the calendar. This la the date set by President Pres-ident Harry Pulllam of the National leajne, and President Baa Johnson of the American, for the umpire's cry of Tlay ball" to be heard on the clr-. clr-. cults. . . . That is the day when all sorts and conditions of fans, old and young, rich and poor, the banker and the boy who trim his boss he has to- "go to me aunt's funeral," the actor who spins to the park in his. auto and the bookkeeper book-keeper who has a severe headache, the . Judgre, the lawyer, the doctor and the youth who pleads "Me mudder fell downstairs" crowd the grand stand and the bleachers to root for the home team, to jolly the visitors and to roast the umpire. . , J or six months the fan has lived more or less patieDtly without hearing the crack of the bat, the slide of the base runner or the swish of the daisy cutter, the sounds so dear to him. To the full-fledged fan the music of the ball that meets the bat is sweeter than strains of grand opera music, and the cry "Play ball I" appeals more forcibly for-cibly to him than the cry to meals. He has read of the doings of the teams in the South how the old favorites favor-ites are better than ever and how the voungsters "have Keeler 's actions," "resemble Lajoie at the bat," "eat up the grounders like Collins," "line them out like Donlin" and "have the curves of Kube Waddell." But all that does not satisfy Mr. Fan. He wants to 'see the boya in action and judge for himself whether the recruits will help the team to land the pennant pen-nant or whether they ought to be presented pre-sented with tin cans. On the subject of Southern trips a veteran manager says: "In the old f days baseball players had no spring junkets wasted upon them. They were supposed to keep themselves in condi-v-ion in the machine shops and at other -ades, and they fell ont of their over- i Is into a baseball nniform prepared catch hot liners without the aid of 'fV a net." Old Veteran's Advice. George Washington Bradley was once a famous baseball playex. He helped the Philadelphia Athletics win the championship in 1882, by his great pitching, third base playing and batting. bat-ting. For years Bradley was a real baseball star. He has a son now working work-ing out with one of the teams in the South. The veteran is strongly suspected suspect-ed of being the writer of the following letter to his son bearing on the subject sub-ject of spring training: Dear Kid Well, I see you have ar- TLrived safely down in ths peach belt nd are ready for work. Now, at the tart I want you to soak up a little yidvice from one who was hitting .300 ,in fast company -when you were yelling , that much in the nursery league. "I know you will figure that times have changed and that the old man must have cobwebs in nis top piece to try and dish ont any information to the champion batsman of the Graas-Cutters' Graas-Cutters' league. If you feel that way about it, you're hopeless at the start, but 111 take a chance that you still z have a bit of "gray matter wiggling tinder your scalp and break sonic news gently .to you that - otherwise might hit you with a thud and crumple yon into a shapeless mass. "I can guess how you feel about it now. After a winter's rest, with a 77 sun beating down on your neck, you'd like to grab that ball and chuck it ; through a six -inch plank. You have a .gool arm now, and you won't be happy . i until tho manager and the rest of the team, are wise to the fact. You would like to stand out in deep left and kill a few sparrows in the grand stand ' eaves. "But take this from me, some day ' you'll need that soup bone, and then you 11 wish he had kicked them back in-T in-T to the diamond in place of cracking an elbow to get them there on a line. Jf you open, up with any of those World 's fair throws at the start in 1 about a week you won 't have strength enough in your whip to handle a knife and fork. "Ia the next day r two you 11 be reading in the papers how yon have |