The Opelousas courier., 1883-07-28

IUttb DtlI oO DCuui1luliJ III WIN S%"
field? He vas getting ten dollars a
week in q paper mill not long ago.
This season he refused al engagement
of..$2, SEQ and must be getting more.
The contracts with professional
PLAYERS are now so strict that only men
who have pretty good habits can live
up to them. From the opening OF the
season in April, to the close in No
vember a professional must play in
about $50 games. 70 do this he
must be temperate, must take regular
sleep, and must keep in good health.
1t is to suppose that pro-
fessional players are sluggards and
rowdies or drunkards. Such men do
not last long in prominent positions
now. A professional player is liable
to expulsion if he is seen in a pool
room, and gambling is strictly prohlb-
tied.
Formerly the professionals were
noted for spending all the money they
made; now they are noted for pru-
dence. Al Reach of the Philadelphia
ans, is said to be worth $4,000. An
son of the Chicago nine is well off. The
The Wrights ofthe Boston club, belong
to a family of professionals who have
been known in this country thirty
wears as bar and and cricket players.
They are steady men and keep the
largest store in Boston for the sale of
sporting goods. Spaulding, of the
Cincinnati and Chicago clubs, formerly
the pitcher of the Bostons, is now in
business in Chicago, and is said to be
we'll off. The popularity Of base ball
, as an amusement in the colleges, of
course, accounts for the number of col
lege men who have become profession
ais. As a rule, the college mines can
> not compete with the professional
+ mines, Notwithstanding the famous tour
f of the Harvards when they whipped
j almost everything. That was excep-
|, tional. As a rule, when the college
boys get we'll accustomed to playing
together, they are graduated and their
places supplied by new men. But the
a ranks of the professionals are being
: more and more recruited from the
colleges, and it looks as though the
keen competition would put up the
! prices so as to bring in more of them
The surroundings of the game have
been improved much of late years, and
the gradual Encouragement of betting
y has done much to make the amuse,
ment respectable. Having removed
the principal inducement for dishon'
d esty in the game, we find that the pub
1T lie shows u renewed interest in base
Is ball. While I do not say that oul
rs players or our patrons consist of min.
listers and deacons, I do say that the
ID personnel of both players and spectator
ID has recently improved"
Speaking of the recruits to base bal
ranks from the learned professions, {
N veteran base ball player said: "Tht
% amount of brains required in a frs
class game precludes the possibility O.
success for a player like the pugilist
John L. Sullivan. AS a matter of fac
he never amounted to anything as
ball player, and if those who played
with him recently had chosen, the,
d could have made him appear the mos
. ridiculous person that eve stood on
ball field with a bat in his hand. It i.
IN an open secret that he could not hit
a, ball at all unless it was thrown to hin
" as one would toss IN easy one to O lit
=. tie boy. / was sorry to see him on TIN
- ball field, because | thought the goot
old responsibility of the game was re
y turning. I well remember the Knick
erbocker club, when DR.. d. d. Adams
ID an old Yale man, and son of the author
of Adams arithmetic, was among thu
70 regular players; when DR.. William B
Eager of the medical staff of BeIlevu,
g hospital was u player, and many othe1
men of learned professions were no
? ashamed to go over to Hoboken of al
afternoon and don their club suits TO.
u a game under the stately old trees O
= the Elysian fields. At that time Brain
ard, a scion of one of the Oldest fami
IL lies in Albany, was the pitcher for th,
! Excelsiors. Then came a long season
of betting games, which got to be 81
8 Transparency fraudulent that the pub
lie would not pay to see them, and til,
managers were forced to stop the bet
ct ting and make the games apparentl,
fair. I consider the appearance o
Sullivan as a ball-player at this tim,
exceptional. His ball playing is no
worth a cent to see, and the only reas
on that he got $1,665.95 for two hours
J was work, On account of his reputation
d as pugilist. There IS hardly q boy wht
ID hangs around the outside to get q FIRE,
admission by picking up q ball that il
IN knocked over the fence, who can no
play better than Sullivan. You viii
not see any professional player of to-
day sending out for two glasses 0
lg brandy in the course of q gam.
% as Sullivan did. A very good illustra
ton of the failure of the purely muscu
&c lar and smuggling base ball players j:
ID seen in the Allegheny club of Pitts
q bnrgh, They are big, strong, Drawn.
q men individually, and would be strong
y as an association, but they will not liv'
up to the temperate requirements o
the modern art of base ball playing
Players must have q full knowledge o
many rules. They must be men 0
/ GOODNESS, quick Judgment and decision
An error that causes q delay of hal
q minute yes, of fifteen seconds-ma,
v lose a game, so that men with run
clogged brains, or with soggy intel1ect
do not now shine as base ball players
"There is no doubt that men WHIT
get $1,000 a season are gentleman,
men. The president Of the league i
"a A. @. Mills, the manager of the Oti'
Elevator company, and the president
of the American Association is Mr.
k Mcknight, the Pittsburgh iron man
There are5plenty of well known play.
q ers who have succeeded in other bust