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Show Former Sun-Dodger Is 1 Now A Regular Dodger J Bernie Neis, of Twilight League, Wins Right Field Berth with Brooklyn Club; Recruit Is Fast, and Can Hit with Bat and with Fists. NEW YORK. May 15. Tho first robin of spring Is no harbinger of Joy to the baseball manager. Like an alarm clock it reminds him that It Is time to go back to work. But the first youthful "phenom" he sees cvortlng across the sand below tho Mason-Dixon Lino? Ah, he is something else a?aln. In the mad scramble of major league lea-gue managers to uncover valuable hits of "Ivory" to refurnish nltchcs In the lineups by retiring or receding stars several youngsters of unusual worth have been brought to light this spring Such a player is Bernard Edmund Neis, the "Saskatoon Slasher," who has come out of the west to gladden the heart of Uncle Wilbert Robinson, and who Is now a full-fledgc'd member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Neis has hung up a sign In right field which reads: ' "Lay Off: Private Stamping Ground of Bernie Nefs!" Tn short, the lad from Saskatoon has made good, and all In one long jump. The old saying: "Once a sun dod-gci dod-gci always a sun dodger," does not apply in the carc-of Bernie Neis. At Saskatoon Bernio played in the cool evening. For, be it known Saskatoon Is In what Is known as the "Twilight League." So Bernio was a sun dodger before he became a Brooklyn Dodsror. J But he has decided to stock with i Brooklyn and he is welcome. j Few players who came up to the big show are more- interesting than ; Nei3. He is one of the smallest out-j fields who have made good with aj major league club since Josh Devoro hrokcln. He stands 5 feet C Inches tall. But Bernio is no blushing violet. The scales show that ho weighs around 160 pounds, and records of tho Illinois Athletic club tell us that ho once ran the 50-yard dash In 5 2-5 j seconds when Coach Cayou was egging egg-ing him on to tear up the track. Bernie can hit. too. He has won tho name of "Saskaton Slasher" among the Dodgers because of the way he bite3 into the offerings of the pitch-e-s, and-L'ncle Robby Is teaching him to swing from both sides of the plate. But though Neis slams the horschide, he also possesses a slam in both fist?. I ! s i- ' : I for he was once a welterweight pugi- f list of no little ability and the only I reason ho did not follow the fistic j game was because baseball appealed to him moro. Bernie was ushered 'in,to being at l fcj Bloomlngton, 111.. September 26, 1896, to I which makes him twenty-four sum- , 'if 9 mers old. He bats and throws right- H handed. His first engagement was v - E with Peoria in 1917, bue ho came 'to . the Dodgers from Saskatoon, in tho "B western Canada league. 41 Bernio is. perhaps, the best looking M young player discovered this spring g( I At any rate, you can't win an argu- I ment to the contrary with Uncle Wil- , I bert Robinson. |