The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-10

Chicagos have gone to Galveston, the New
Yorks to Jacksonville, and the rest will
follow before St. Patrick day.
This training in the southern climate
has become fad with National league
clubs. 1t is liable to become a fixed GUS
tom The benefits of team training in
warm climate last year and in the spring
of 1894 have been fully recognized. These
trips are expensive, but no club can afford
to put it's team at disadvantage in the
opening of the season by staying at homo
till the championship games begin.
Before southern training was extensive
ly practiced patrons of the game paid to
see very imperfect playing for the first
two or three weeks of the season, while
the stars were wearing off their stiffness.
Now the opening games are played with
all the dash and brilliancy of midseason.
A distinctive feature of this years Ma
tional league season will be an unusually
largo venture in young blood. !" Last
year so much good new timber was found
that it created kind of rage for further
experimenting.
Among the most successful debutants
in the National league last season were
Wallace of Cleveland, Harry Davis of New
York, Holmes, Clarke and McDermott Of
Louisville Dolan and Harrington of Bos-
ton, Orth of Philadelphia, b offer of Balti-
more, Anderson and Burrell of Brooklyn,
Friend and Thornton of Chicago, and
Cooley OF Sb. Louis. Ibis year new 4OFk
and Louisville will lead all other clubs in
the number of experiments. The New
York club VIII take south IA new players,
mostly young mon who made encouraging
records in the minor leagues last year.
Louisville will send the same number to
the clubs trimming ground, at Montgom-
cry, Ala. The other clubs will deal moro
sparingly with recruits; Baltimore has
two-Donneily and Gray; Boston three
| Bergen, Yorick and Mains; Brooklyn
four-Jones. Smith, Harper and Payne;
Chicago thSee-Flynn, Mcbride and
Dolan; Cincinnati four-PhilIips, Davis,
Kennedy and Phillips; Cleveland four
Schieble, Delehenty, Shearon and O'Meara;
| Philadelphia four = Berryhill, Hulen,
| White and Madison; Pittsburg five-Hew-
| ett Snyder, Moran, Hastings and Moran;
st. Louis two-Hart and Mcfarland, and
| Washington four-Demont, Lush, Rogers
and Macauley. Some of these will pass
muster, but 40 per cent will be found light
weight before the pennant race begins.
The present great organized system of
professional baseball is n graded school,
in which a player with abilities cannot
| fail to become a star and land in tho
| major League. The minor leagues, under
| the new national agreement, just adopted,
| are arranged in six classes, from ''A''
down to e. according to the total'popu-
| lation of the cities in each circuit. Clubs
of a certain class may draft players from
any lower class at the end of each season,
and the National league, which stands
alone at the head, can draft from any
minor league Thus young player who
/ shows ability will surely be called higher
| year by year, and if he continues to de-
velop will, in a few seasons, center col
| lege," or be drafted into the National
| league. This system is bound to give
patrons of the game the very best and
freshest talent for the diamond, and old
upon their departed regulations.
| And what wonderful reach this ma
I tional agreement organization has This
| year the cities where national agreement
| professional clubs are located are as fol-
lows: Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Phil
adelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Pitts
| burg, Cleveland, Chicago, ST. Louis
| Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Co.
lumbus, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Milwau-
kee, Kansas City, St. Paul, Minneapolis,
Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Toronto,
Providence, Springfield (Mass.) }, Scranton,
Wilkesbarre, Paterson, Jersey City, New
ark, Hartford, New Haven, Wilmington,
Hazleton, Reading, Lancaster, York, Car
bondale, Easton, Bangor, Lewiston, Au-
gusta (Me.), Portland (Me.), Brockton,
New Bedford, Fall River, Pawtucket,
Fort Wayne, Toledo, Youngstown, New
Castle, Washington (Pa.), Wheeling ST.
Joseph, Des Moines, Burlington, Cedar
Rapids, Rockford, Quincy, Dubuque, New
Orleans, Mobile, Little Rock, Nashville
| Memphis, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Evans
Vile, Lynchtrurg, Norfolk, Petersburg,
Portsmouth, Richmond, Roanoke, Dallas
Fort Worth, Galveston, Houston, San An
| tonic and Sherman.
These SO cities are united in one great
national baseball system, governed bv one
supreme body OF five persons, called the
national board OF arbitration, directed by