Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-05
CAYLOR'S BASEBALL TALK.
He Speaks of the Uncertainties of the
Teams and Has a Few Words to Say
About Exhibition Games and Mike
Kelly.


Teams and Has a Few Words to Say
About Exhibition Games and Mike
Kelly.
CORRESPONDENTS OF THE pIsPATcHI
NEW YORK, April 4.-There is going to be a
strong element of uncertainty in the various
baseball leagues and associations this year, SO
| for as if concerns the probable showing the
different teams will make in the seasons
/ struggle.
| In former years. last year executed. we have
| had some of the clubs enter the season with
substantially the same teams they had on the
| field the year before, so that, with such clubs
| at least. some estimate could be formed in ad-
| vance of the work which they would be able to
perform.
1t is different this year.
Every town East of the Mississippi river will
be new in its makeup. The Cincinnati and
| Chicago League teams will come the nearest of
all perhaps in comparison to their last years
form. One new Outhelder. a new Shortstop
and probably new third baseman Will consti-
tute the Cincinnati teams new material.
Chicago will have last years team strength
ened by Fred Pfeffer Ad Gumbert and two
young minor league stars Elsewhere there is
not League or Association club which will
not present from three 10 six men to mix in
with the strongest material from its last
seasons team.
This mixture of the new and old material will
make the teams strength altogether prob
lematical for time because it is well estab-
lished fact that a nine must be capable of
doing good team work else the individual
strength of its players will go for nought.
But no one who studies these things can deny
that in nearly every instance the apparent
strength of the League and Association teams
for 1891 is vastly stronger than it was in 1859.
The possible exceptions are to be found In ST
Louis, philadelphia and Baltimore.
The surplus of players has also made the
Western League and International League
teams much stronger than ever before-view-
ing them collectively.
When players like Charlie Smith, Charlie
Bassett, Joe knight. Bob Gilks, go without en-
gagements on first-cIass teams, one Can under
stand that there is no shortage in the market.
The newspapers have pretty thoroughly
frightened the public about the dangers of
catching cold in this grip period But IN spite
of the fact that nine out of every ten persons
are carefully avoiding any exposure that might
bring on a cold, we hear reports from all base
ball centers of hundreds of spectators sitting
or standing in the bleak, raw winds of these
early April days watching bundled up ball
players 60 through the farce of an exhibition
game" Yes. and they pay price in current
coin for this chance to WOO the ravager of
health.
All of which goes to show that so soon as the
warm days come and the real championship
games begin. neither grip. cholera. smallpox or
hydrophobia will keep the multituQes away
from the ball grounds.
These early spring exhibition games are a
monstrous mistake, speaking collectively of
them.
There are a number of reasons for such a
declaration. First. the public, or that part oft
which takes an interest in these games. is bun
koed; secondly, the players frequently get in
jured or become Ill from exposure to the in
clement elements; and, thirdly the excuse for
games take the edge off the opening of the real
championship season.
If you pay good money to go out and see how
your favorite team is going to show up when
the season opens. you will be thoroughly fooled.
1t is not the team which you see, but a patched
up nine. Not one out of 20 times does the reg
ular team which afterward goes into champion
ship games appear on the diamond in these eX-
hibition or practIce games. Pitchers play in
the field, and catchers on the bases. Sometim IS
an ambitious outsider is rung in on base, be-
hind the bat or in the field.
Those who are in the game do not play pay
ing kind of game lhey do not intend to spraio
a leg, rupture a nerve or burst a fue In these
jay contests.
And we cannot blame them.
Then, too, the old players who indulge in
these early games are not in condition TO do
good work. 1t is 4 notorious fact that the
longer man plays ball, the rustier he turns up
in the spring, and the longer it takes him to
get the hair out of his eyes and the starch out
of his muscles
Why do not theaters open their doors to pa v
ing patrons at their dress rehearsals? Why
does not Barnum charge admission and make
few dollars while he rehearses his show at
Madison Square Garden?
Why are not race courses inclined to earn a
few dollars while the horses getting their
preliminary spins around the track;
Do hoco hofa
opens in a city, but that is free and before the
whole world 1t might be wise. therefore, 10
tramp the baseball players through the town
over a certain route every spring after their re-
port la Barnums elephant. But 10 require
them to play ball or to pretend to play in the
grip weather of March and early April, is but
few degrees short of murder to the players and
persecution to the crazy spectators.
49,
II is matter of wonder. as well as of general
congratulation. that the bitter partisan feeling
which existed about year ago and continued
all of last summer has died away-disappeared
as the morning fog vanishes before tue rising
sun. There may be a fool crank here and
there who occasionally fans the expiring Goals
of his "war' passion with the bellows of weak
mind. But even he is not In his baseball heart
sincere.
We are all going to be a united army of base.
ball cranks again this year, and will discuss
scores after game and forget about the rela-
that they were all immense.
In all this universal prevalence of la grippe,
have heard of but two ball players who suffered
from it's attack-Kelly and Stricken In their
cases the chances are the complaint was merely
a cold.
The two cases, however. are interesting in
the way of getting at the characteristics of the
disease. 1t proves that la grippe is no re-
specter of persons; it attacks the great and the
small; the kingly and lowly; the handsome man
and the man of comely looks. 1t can't be
frightened off by halo of glory OF a mask.
Since the grip seized Kelly, none of us are
safe.
But what started out to say was that the
ball players peculiar mode of living must go
far toward exempting him from colds and
diseases of the respiratory organs.
How many professional players have you
ever heard of who died from exposure, accident
on the field or in railroad accidents? Seems to
me they make good life insurance risks.
o. P. CAYLoR.
KRAMER'S BULLETIN.