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Show ' ' NCWS AND BA5EBALbrAN5 I 77R?rafC5 on I j NAJJQYAL GANG. V J. Why not? The 12-club league which, afforded excuse for the title is non est., and the American league's existence destroys all chance ,of any future major ma-jor league use of the "American association" asso-ciation" part of the title. Cut it out,. Mr. Pulliam, and let President Hickey have sole possession of a title no longer long-er attractive or useful for major-league major-league purposes. Pitcher Well Thought Of. Frank M. Owen, one of the latest additions ad-ditions to Comiskey's pitching staff, is a Ypsilanti boy and has been in professional pro-fessional baseball only about three years. While a student at the Michigan Michi-gan Agricultural college he attracted -attention by his success against other-college other-college teams in that state. At the outbreak of the Spanish war he wer Marvelous Progress. An idea of the amazing vigor and steady growth of professional base-. base-. ball may be conveyed by the bald statement that this season there will be in the field the National league and American league sixteen minor leagues banded together in the National Na-tional association, and an outlaw league out on the Pacific coast with more minor leagues now organizing. The nineteen leagues already in the field will employ nearly 2,000 players at remunerative salaries. In addition to these many hundreds of semi-professional players all over the country glean a living from a game whose wonderful won-derful productiveness has no equal in the entire range of sport, excepting, perhaps, horse racing. " Star Minor League Pdayer. Kennedy is 23 years old and weighs j 1G0 pounds when in condition. He began be-gan his career in professional baseball as a member of the Manchester team, New England league, in 1899. In the early part of 1900 he signed with the Scranton team of the Atlanta league, finishing the season with the Albany club of the New York State league, when the former league went out of existence. Since that time until signed by the Indianapolis club, Kennedy Ken-nedy has been in the New York State league, having played with the Troy team in 1901, and with liion in 1902. His home is in Baltimore. Indianapolis Indianap-olis News. New York Team Is Strong. The New York team is one of the best in the American league. At its Jfr ' ' shrewdest managers and also one of the finest pitchers in the country. Griffith has been with the Chicago American league team for a few seasons sea-sons past as manager and made out of them one of the fastest baseball aggregations ag-gregations in the country. He is one of the best judges of a ball player's abilities to be found, besides being himself a. brainy player. Th8t he stand high in the American league race is the belief of ail good judges of the game. James Hackett. A graduate from the Terre Haute club, of the I.-I.-I. league, and a member mem-ber of the Cardinals' pitching corps, James Hackett, stands six feet, three inches. He won .675 of the 32 games he pitched for Terre Haute last season and made a creditable record as a first baseman and outfielder, Not an error was charged to him in the fourteen games he played at first and his percentage per-centage of accepted chances in nineteen nine-teen games in the outfield was .941. He batted .267.- He was on the firing line three times for the Cardinals toward the close of the 1902 race. All to Cuba with his father, Dr. F. R Owen, surgeon of the Thirty-first regiment, regi-ment, M. N. G. After his return Owen 1 was signed by the Detroit American league team and for a part of the season sea-son of 1900 was farmed to the Wilkes-bae-ifiam of the Atlantic leaenm T.ast v a - Piujitr -ftvar 'Vtea&ia in the Western league, where he attracted the attention of Manager Griffith, who claims he signed Owen- for the New York club, but Comiskey says not. Owen is an even six-footer, weighs 180 pounds and is 23 years old. Teams in Good Condition. , Reports from the training camps indicate in-dicate that the. major league teams will be in better shape at the start of the season than in former years. The players sensibly began to condition themselves for the training after the holidays, and were well advanced in preparation when they reported. Rainy weather has interfered to some extent with their work in the South, but there have been enough good days to enable them to make -satisfactory progress. All will have the advantage of playing against minor league teams and are rapidly rounding to form. Prospects for the Season. Talking of the prospects for the National Na-tional league clubs this coming season, sea-son, President Hart said: "I don't say that Pittsburg cannot win the pennant again. Such a thing is entirely possible, but I believe that that team will have a much harder time to do so this yar than 'ast. In fact, I look for a close race this summer sum-mer among a number of'clubs. Pittsburg Pitts-burg is certainly no stronger than last year, and with the possible exception of Brooklyn I believe all of the other clubs in the league have been improved." im-proved." Waddell in a New Role. "Rube" Waddell appeared in a new role before leaving Pensacola. There was a street parade, and the roof garden gar-den band, which led the procession, was without a drum major. Rising to the occasion, the irrepressible "Rube" came forward and offered his services to the leader of the band. The offer was accepted at once, and "Rube," arrayed ar-rayed in a gorgeous military uniform, sallied forth in the lead, waving his baton like a veteran. His appearance made a great hit with the crowds. The Wisconsin League. The Wisconsin league is composed of six teams, with managers as follows: fol-lows: Fond du Lac, Matt Franey, manager; Oshkosh, L. M. McKone; Appleton, Henry Gass; Kaukauna, John Coppes; Green Bay, G. Schwartz; Marinette-Menominee, F. A. Bruce. A schedule committee consisting con-sisting of Coppes, Bruce and Gass was appointed. The season will open May 16 and close Sept 14.. The salary limit was placed at $900..' were defeats, but the Pirates were obliged to play ten innings before they won from him by a score of 7 to 6. Title Too Cumbersome. The title "National League and American Association of Professional Baseball Clubs" strikes President Pulliam Pul-liam as being too cumbersome, and if he has bis way the "and American Association" As-sociation" part of it will be cut out |
