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Show " FABER WON FAME FORCOMISKEY White Sox Manager Purchased Pur-chased Former W estem League Pitcher for $1500. DES MOINES, la., Nov. 1. A $1500 pitcher won the 1917 world's championship cham-pionship and added $115,000 to the coffers of the Chicago White Sox club and mado Charles A. Comiskey owner of a team In line to pick up many! more thousands during the coming! season. Urban Faber, known in polite baseball base-ball circles as Red is the hurler whom Comiskey purchased for a pittance. In 1 1913 Faber was pitching for 'the local team in the Western league and was ' making opposing batsmen look like i revolving storm doors. He hurled won-I won-I derful ball, and when the casualties wore compiled after the season's cam-, ' paign it was found that he had al-1 I lowed only 2.48 ea?nf?d runs a game i and led the league in strikeouts by a J wide margin. . I While the Des Moines hurler, assisted as-sisted by Clint Rogge, was pitching Des Moines into second place Frank Isbell and Tom Fairweather, owners, were trying to peddlo him to divers ivory hunters who frequent these , parts every summer, j The scouts were perfectly willing to follow Des Moines about the circuit I i and gave Faber the up and clown, but 1 when it came to buying him there was nothing doing. Aboslutely nothing Faber had been In the major league once, had been weighed in scales of a spring training trip and found want-, want-, ing. Their employers didn't send them out to look for has beens or men who had failed in former years. Meantimo Frank iBbell raved. He , know Faber was a. major league pitch- er, and, besides, he needed the monoy. A major league pitcher wouldn't do him any good and tho money would Tho time for the draft drew near and it was a certainty some major league club or some class AA club would draft Faber. In those days the draft price was only $1000. The day beforo the draft opened Isbell boarded a train Chicago bound, gained an audience with Comiskey, and presented his case, at the same time giving his candid opinion of all baseball scouts. "Commy" wasn't in a generous mood that afternoon, but ho was charitable. Ho offered to give Isbell ?1500 for Faber. He was certain the sum was a donation, but he didn't care about that, for Izzy had worked long and faithfully faith-fully for him and was worthy. Isbell didn't mind having $1500 thrust upon him. He was only dls- appointed at the amount, and also peeved at Comiskey's attitude in con- Kift, so he made a counter proposition That the White Sox pay $1500 for Fa- ber and If he failed to make good, no j Pay. j This was accepted by Comiskey, j who then took Faber on the trip around the world with the Giants and Whito Sox in tho fall of 1913 to give him a tryouL Faber proved the pitching pitch-ing star of tho trip. John McGraw's efforts to purchase the former Des Moines hurler failed, as it proved to his sorrow, for without Faber or some twirler of equal ability the White Sox could not have beaten mu lor me world's title this fall. Faber proved a winner for Chicago at once, and as a direct result one major league scout lost his Job. There is no need to give his name here, but he was employed by the Washington Americans. Clark Griffith, the Washington Wash-ington manager, fired the scout be- cause he had followed Faber In the Western league for nearly throe weeks and had then labeled him with the n g. sign. oo |