, 1892-02-28
TRAINNGFOR THEFIGHT
Baseball Warriors Buckling OH
Their Armor of Muscle.
PROGRAMMES ALREADY FIXEI.

Several Clubs Have Formulated Their
PIans-A Funny Fight over s1aa.
Courts as Preparatory Schools
for Baseball Players.
Whether the ground hog did or did not
see his shadow has nothing to do with this
case. The thoughts of the ball player are
turning to gentle spring, and the coolest
sort of weather would not now serve to
chill the enthusiasm that is reviving as the
weeks that elapse before reporting day"
are quickly passing away. The managers
and captains are dreaming Of the period
that must be spent in training. Several
of the clubs of the great League are booked
to invade the sunny southland, but tho
plans of the majority have been but crude
ly outlined. The C~hicagoans have already
received their marching orders, and on the
18th day of March they are expected to
salute Captain Arson at Hot Springs
when the annual boiling out jubilee will
begin. That Arkansaw retreat is in favor
with ''the old man." and has been Chi
cago's abiding place in the days prefacing
many an inaugural championship battle.
Last season Uncle Arson departed from
his usual custom and sought a new haunt
out in Colorado. He struck the coolest
spring in the history of the Rocky noun
tains and played SNOWFALL for a change.
Captain Tebeau also claims to have Sc
cured a lease on grounds at Hot Springs
and Cleveland, and Chicago will have a
joint opportunity of examining the knots
in the arms of each others phenoms. Cap
tain job Montgomery Ward is, in favor
of taking his Jamaica bay pets down to
Ocala, in the land of oranges. Gainesville,
also in Florida, wishes to welcome the
Philadelphias, and New York has closed q
contract with the lessees of the park at
Richmond for a ten days s%ojourn of the
Giants in the Old Dominion. Boston
usually begins down on the south Atlantic
coast and works upward, and there is
little reason to expect a change in the
time honored programme
The two clubs that adorned the tail end
of the League all last season were num-
bered among those that enjoyed spring
co%nstitutionals in the south. The Pitts
burgs, who won the BOBBY prize by hairs
breadth, were in Florida, and the Cincin-
natis went to Hot Springs. Acting upon
their own responsibility, several players
in each of these clubs may make excur
sions to "the steamie cline" this spring,
but the teams are likely to shape up" at
home. Several of the C~incinnatis of a year
ago, who were taken to the Springs, did
not last through the season. The Reds in
reality were a team of makeshifts. One
man tossed into the collection was Fred
Roat. He was donated by Pittsburg, and
his release entailed the payment OF S125,
which had been advanced him by the
Pennsylvanians. A contribution of fifty
dollars from Cincinnati enabled him to
reach the Springs. He arrived a wreck,
and with the cheerful look of an advance
agent of the cholera Sir Tom LOTUS was
Mortified, and he queried:
did you bring your coffin with your"
TIL strange question brought out an in
| dignant mo" but Roat was bundled off
home without trial.
Pittsburg, however, laid claim to that
'125." Cincinnati denied its justice, and
every time that Cincinnati played in Pitts
burg the amount would be retained.
When Pittsburg played Cincinnati the
same legerdemain was practiced, but as
the Reds closed the series at Pittsburg
that club took the final trick and the
money. Cincinnati has a claim before the
League directors today for the recovery of
the amount.
Captain Comisky, of the Cincinnatis, ia
a firm believer in the benefits of handball,
and a new court is among the possible ad-
ditions to the buildings on the ground at
Porkopolis. If this idea is adopted hand
ball will take the place of gymnasium
practice there. Many ball players scout
| the idea that training with dumbbells and
| other paraphernalia of indoor schools of
exercise is beneficial to them. The claim
is made that the muscles thus broughtinto
play and hardened are not thos most
| active in the game of baseball. 1t is a
fact that no matter how well seasoned by
gymnasium work a player is the very first
| game in which he INDUCES leaves him sore
and stiff.
'sThere is not a muscle hat a ball player
uses" declared Manager Frank @. Ban
croft, the veteran, to me, that is not
brought into requisition in a gameo of hand
ball"
Captain Tebeau, who is a en-
thusiast, asserts that some of his sensa-
tional stops at third base are made because
he can get into positions that no one savea
handball expert could quickly assume.
Cleveland's fighting captain is following a
new wrinkle in training this winter and is
now a skipping rope artist. Captain An
son dds handban to his great list of &c.
complishments. Chicago, Brooklyn and
st. Louis are perhaps the handban centers
of this country. Dick Buckley, now on st.
| Louis roll, is one of the cleverest expo
nents of the game among the ball players.
For years handball has ranked as one of
adiuncts of training followed almost re-
| l~igiously by the st. Louis Browns. For
four seasons they were at the top, and in
/ three other campaigns they were SO dan
~gerously near there that the Athletics,
| Brooklyns and Bostons all suffered spells
when they found breathing difficult. Gin
c%innati, at any rate, cannot do much worse
following Captain Comiskey's old method
han they have in the past. They ave
always possessed the faculty of running
ahead like scared deers before the Fourth
of July. After that they made no more
noise in the baseball world than an ex-
ploded cracker.
Louisville, st. Louis and possibly Balti-
more will join the company of stay at
homes" Washington is talking of a trip.
The Louisville gentlemen have come to a
conclusion that seems foolish. Fred Pfeffer
is, as he stands, of little value to Chicago.
It would not be possible for him to put his
heart in his work were he compelled to re-
turn to the allegiance of Captain Arson.
Walter Wilmot has also offended the big
man, and he would do better at the Falls
City thar in a Chicago uniform. Neither
Tom Bronson nor Jimmie Canayan are
Louisville favorites. They come with the
promise of great things to be accom-
nlished Neither will prove the cards