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Show l Iir--1FPLJ 'Tough Luck" Has lite,,, UHllNU Wll IT dually Been a Most jjl I iHL illlXU Tfillt Potent Factor In mSBB I . uUILkUWIN His Leadershbtd fWBmk I Phaddphia n! L. 1898 147 610 113 200 33 '.328 I HV V- ' Philadelphia N. L. 1900 102 451 95 156 25 .346 I M ) Ijj y' L Cleveland A.' L.'. . .' 1903 126 488 90 173 22 .355 BHHiV 4' tly A V PI event of the national pastime Bvit In his twentieth year when he has lost his youth and pep. but still has full possession over that wonderful dub be has the chance, for Larry has passed from the annals of Cloyc- land sport and will henceforth wear C the colors of Connie Mack, and If ' K this astute leader of men can manage man-age to grab another American League flag, a not unlikely possibility, possibil-ity, the giant Frenchman will have hLs greatest desire and ambition When Larrv stepped to the plate on Sunday. September 27 of last year he made the 3,000th hit of Ms baseball base-ball career and ended his service with the then Naps. For thirteen years he had been the big Star of Charlie Somer's crew. There had been others-Addle Joss lank Cy SSkenberg, Elmer Flick. Harry Bay and manv more but they ha e all disappeared from the big spotlight. Jo&3 the Might, was taken by the Grim Reaper, Bay and Mick succumbed suc-cumbed Sthe ia; it is reckoned in banebgl-nd Napoleon Na-poleon the King, remains alone in hWutue town of cket Mass Napoleon Lajole, in I89t. iSm! in the nre department at . monthly honoiarlum of IM. " . Bprlng of that year saw hie grMua tion into the then youthful but healthy national nonsense. We found Larry the other day on his farm, nestling just outside o Cleveland where he has made his home ever since he has been con-, con-, nected with ihe Cleveland team. He waoustintbe act of adnun the daily meal to his many clCeM who were gathered around Um.1 JU-Ing JU-Ing the air with Iheir varied vocal efforts. When asked to jketcb Ms career in baseball, the gnat nei. -man laughed and bench, and throwing out the remainder remain-der ol the corn to the thickens, be-gan be-gan . . ,;. "The first great crisis , in wMJg tame in the spring of 18. Cnan y Maraton, manager of the Fyor dub of the New England club thrust a contract into my hands calling for 100 a month and asked mc to sign UL That century looked like B stun-nlug stun-nlug wad of coin. I thought of the difference between that sum and tue (54 i was drawing rrom the Woon-lOCket Woon-lOCket fire-fighting department and I figured that $54 equalled MW year, while that 5ioo only came to 1600, count iug six month.-, in tno Playing season. , Bur despite the difference in money, mon-ey, i wanted to play baseball and Chief Nell of the Are department had convinced me thn n great future existed ex-isted in this line for me. it ins truth must be told, it wasn't a very hard job to convince me of thai raci . i and anybodv w,bo said i w?ouldnt ne f a Bucccsa waa flirting with s ngnt But mv family stood In the way ana advanced raony igumcata the un- deCed-iUs ... ' - tj"'.. 'k;' began my basebnll ljfp "Like every kid, I was proud of nay speed and curves and 1 had also hern i auiier on Ihe village team when the regular occupant of that position waa Incapacitated. After reporting to Maraton at Full River, the first shock came when he refused re-fused to think of me as a pitcher. Instead, I was used behind the bat, played jevery position in the infield aDd outfield and finnllv wound up with a batting average of 421. Ono week at Fall River, with a respectable respecta-ble number of hits coming ray way and the fans generous in iheir appreciation ap-preciation turned my ambitions into another channel I started to work for major-league recognition. I was twenty years old then, full of hopo and with my ambition running wild When Charley Maraton informed me early in August ihat 1 had been sold to the Philadelphia club for Immediate Imme-diate delivery'. I WRs living in the seventh heaven of bliss and with my head in the skies. "One nmbllion realized, with considerable con-siderable pride in my ability to crack out my modicum of safeties every day, a profound admiration of the great hitters of the time, and a determined ambition to gaiu additional addi-tional admiration In HuU t moved south and joined the Phillies at Atlantic City where 1 played my first major league game on August 11, 18!o, IJilly Nusli was managing the Phillies then and Ed. Delehauty was a member of the club. I admired ad-mired both ii nd obtained close views of Jesse Uurkett. Willie Keeler, Fred Clarke .--nd Hughle Jennings and the othi i ha rd bitters of the game. "I well remember, after getting a few hits shortly after I had Joined the Phillies how I wrote to a chum in Woonsocket that, 'some day you will bee Jajolo's name at the top of the batting list. In the fall of 1S96 I played first base and occupied the aame position In 1897. when George Stalliugs waa manager, but I wanted to play second base. The next year 1 was satisfied when I was assigned to the place vacated by Billy Hall-man Hall-man and then another ambition i rapped OUt Biddy McPhee, tho old Cincinnati aeond sacker waa tho atar then and I made up my mind to equal Biddy and surpass him if possible. pos-sible. 1 didn't havo the satisfaction of leading the league In batting nor did I surpass the other second baae-men baae-men In fielding, but it tickled my vanity when, with the expuuslon of the American League, I was one of hti olavars soucht. "I Jumped In 1900. Prior to this act I was drawing $2,400 per annum an-num iu the National League. After hurdling I recthed I wire at; much. You rau eaaily see why I have a soft place In my heart for Ban John-Bon'S John-Bon'S Circuit There is quite a dif-I'.-rence between the salary I receiV-- receiV-- d al i he age ot -ii and ih -alary I ihought princely when a fire-fighter back in Wooneockei "Ono of the greatest ambitions ot my early years in baseball was real-Ized real-Ized When with Connie Mack's Athletics. Ath-letics. I hd the league with .421 the highest average 1 ever acquired in the majors- and also was at the lop of the list of second basemen In fielding I believe I drew us much satisfaction from those facts as I ever did from a $1,000 Increaso in salary "I became an undesirable party in the state of Pennsylvania because of injunction proceedings brought by the Philadelphia Nationals. Counlo Mack sent me, accompanied by Bill Bernhard and Elmer Flick, a murderous mur-derous hitter, to Cleveland. Rip, , by years of experience the hopo or some day acting in the capacity of manager grew upon me. ,:I believe I brn under a luckr star- -at least it wasn't long before I had nn opportunity to .est my managerial ability. Iu 1 0 I succeeded Bill Armour as leader of the Cleveland club and I was f.oon convinced that managing a baseba1-elub baseba1-elub is no sinecure In fact ihe manager of a grand opera troupe filled with temperamental songsters has a rose-colored cinch in comparf-300 comparf-300 with the pilot of a major-league outfit Be ihat us it may, I did my bsl to bring a pennant to Cleveland. We finished fifth in 1905, third In 1906, fourth in 19U7 and one-half a game behind Detroit In that memorable, memor-able, nerve-racking, heart-breaking campaign of 1908, Believe me, I would have given half a dozen of the eurs of ray life to win the Hag the' year. Failure to cop was oue of V A most serious, if not the most serious, seri-ous, disappointments I have ever experienced. ex-perienced. "The following season was one of disasters our team went to pieces misfortunes and the waning of former stars wrecked the club. Criticism, Crit-icism, many ot them unjust, and the feeling that the public demanded a Den manager caused me to reach the decision early in the fall of that season to resign the Job. I did. And thereafter began to enjoy life onco more. "As you may have noticed, I obtained ob-tained moat of the things that I de-eired de-eired during the course of my baseball base-ball career I have had and have enjoyed artistic and financial success suc-cess As a boy the "back-to-the-farin" movement made a hit with me. "But there is one deep-seated ambition am-bition which never has been realized and I think my sale to Connie Maek brings the fulfillment of that dosiro nearer to me thau it has ever been since tho year of 1908 for a dozen years I have craved to play on a pen-nant-winner. Failures have at times made me bitter and pessimistic, but I have always come back each year, leellng that possibly at last the time has arrived and that la tho way I feel for the coming season, for Connie Con-nie is the ideal manager and if hard work can bring that flag to Philadelphia Philadel-phia rt the same time fulfilling my final and greatest ambition I can assure you that I will work as hard as any mortal man." Cleveland fans say, "Larry is through." but his new manager. Connie Mack is prone to disagiue with them, for after he had purchased pur-chased the giant Frenchman from Charlie Somcrs, Connie said: ' Larry Lar-ry is nut through, far from it. I think that a change of scenery will redound greatly to his credit and I j1 confidently expect him to be one of the stars of the American league next year and I think he will have one of the greatest years in his career. ca-reer. He is popular in Philadelphia j and will fill the position vacated by Collins better than any other man I know of whom I could get my hands on. It looked to me last year thai JH while Larrv was a little nlowor (?St- j ting down to first, he was fielding just as fast as ever and that old war club of his can still connect with th i ball. 1 know he is going to make a j good man for me." And Connie, ministerial appearing 1 MoOlllleudy, knows a ball player L when he sees him. t In nineteen years of service in the 1 major leagueB, the great Frenchman H has batted for a composite average : of 3,833 games and has been at bat H. 8,673 times and has scored 1,430 runs. He has led tho American jt. League in batting three times in R 19il with 421. 19o4 with .391, and in L the following year with .329. IT His going forced the Cleveland H team to change its name from Naps, fe' which was taken after Larry's first Ejv name. Napoleon, to Indians, which is K' considered neutral. Ef |