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Show HOW "PREXY" MADE ONE BAIL PLAYER Manager Isbell of tho Des Moines Boosters might not have entered professional pro-fessional baseball If a puritanic college col-lege president had not had a decided aorslon to Sunday baseball. A discipline dis-cipline board, nagged on by Its "prexy." deliberately and wilfully "canned" one Frank Isbell for taking part in Sunday baseball whilo a student stu-dent at the college near SL Paul. Manager Ned Egan of tho Ottumwa Central association rightfully claims the honor of bringing out Isbell. Egan was manager of a semi-professional team In St, Paul at thetlme Isbell was attending college. "Izzy's" fame as a pitcher had already gone abroad, and, not content with college honors, he picked up a little pin monev by playing play-ing with Egan's semi-profs Sundays. This team defeated everything in sight and journeyed far to the north on a certain occasion. Isbell was the hero of the day, and tho local newspapers news-papers devoted much space to tho youngster's performance. A copy of the paper got Into tho hands of tho college faculty and "our hero" was politely but firmly asked to sever his connection with that institution. insti-tution. He then devoted his entire tlmo to playing semi-pro ball, and was soon brought to tho attention of Charles Comiskey owner of the White Sox, at that time manager of the St. Paul team In tho Western League. "Com-my" "Com-my" looked Isbell over and decided to give him a chance. In the Becond game ho played Isbell defeated Minneapolis Min-neapolis in a sensational manner and was given a great newspaper write-up. write-up. Thus began the career of ono of the few really great players. |
