The times., 1899-03-13
CURRENT GOSSIP OF
THE BASEBALL WORLD
Assembling of the Washington
Players.
The Team TO Leave Wednesday for
Hampton, Va.
A Fad OF Certain Fake Sporting
Nriters-SaIc of The ST. Louis
Franchise

Beginning today. the Ebbitt House will
be the scene of the gathering of the Wash
ington Baseball Club owners, manager, and
players Ear; Wagner and Arthur Irwin
are expected to arrive early this morning
and fast upon their heels each day until
Wednesday, when the team leaves for its
training grounds at Hampton, will come
the men who are TO battle upon the dia
mond for Washington in the pennant race.
New faces will be seen in the persons OF
Hulen, OBrien. Padden, Slagle. Harry Da-
Wis, and DunkIe. The only old ones who
will tread the historic corridor of the hos
telry will be Mercer, Farrell. Mcguire, Kill
len, and Gettman. The Canadian trio,
Freeman. Casey, and Baker, are already in
the good graces OF the fans and are looked
upon as old uns" May they all work to-
gether in harmony and finish at least with
in hailiDg distance of the coveted flag, is
the wish Of The Times.
The printing of certain fictitious sport
ing news seems TO be the way of a certain
class of newspapers which have been tell
ing their readers all winter that there were
going to be great things done in pTofes-
sional baseball. and that the greatest
among the great was that the League cir
niagantes denied repeatedly that there
would be any change. going so far as 10
show by the constitution of the National
League and American Association of Base
ball Clubs that such thing was impossi-
BILE Every club owner in the League went
out of his way TO inform everybody that
there would be no change in the circuit,
but fake sporting editors continued 10 push
the canard day after day, and have kept il
up for the past two months. The facts are,
as heretofore stated in The Times. that
the magnates never had any idea of re-
ducing the circuit and could not do it If
they so desired
Tomorrow the St. Louis franchise will be
sold under the hammer dispatch from
ST. Louis says the creditors of Sportsman
Park and Club have agreed TO raise S3j. 900
10 bid for the franchise. This was done at
a meeting Friday. E. c. Becker was not
present. The creditors concluded that they
did not want him, fearing he has a deal
on with Robson or is maturing a scheme
of his own TO buy in the property. II is
now certain that Robson will have TO bid
more than $4,000 to get the franchise.
The last player TO sign a Washington
contract was James +. Slagle, the out
fielder recently traded with o'Brien and
Padden TO the Senators by Pittsburg for
Reitz. He was born at Worthwhile, Pa, on
July il, 1874. Slage learned TO play ball
at Clarion, Pa, and accepted his first pro-
fessional engagement in 1888 with the
Franklin Club of the Iron and Oil League.
In 1895 he played with Omaha, in 1896 with
Hamilton. and in 1897 with Grand Rapids.
He belonged during 1897 TO the Boston
Club, which farmed him out 10 Grand
Rapids, and at the close of that season was
sold TO the ST. Paul Club by the Western
League. but Boston's claim was recognized
and Kansas City secured his services. Last
year he led the batting OF the Western
League with .37S to his credit, and his per-
centage as . center fielder was -el2- He
made six sacrifice hits and pilfered forty
one bases Slagle is diminutive in stature
and is hard man to pitch TO. He is
great bunter and fast and clever base
runner.
Al Selbach. whom the local fans will re-
member as the left fielder of last seasons
Senators. has got into print. In the Gin
cinnati Enquirer" he says:
Il earnestly hope that I will suit the
people of Cincinnati. / am just about three
pounds lighter this year than ] was this
time last year" said Selbach. Il don't
expect to have any trouble in getting off
the ten pounds that will have TO take off.
We never did much training al Washing
ton. In fact, we did no training at all last
year. We tried to do it on the Washing
ton grounds. but the weather was so bad
that we could not get in a day. The truth
of the matter is, We had to play ourselves
into condition last season"
What do you think of Catcher Jimmy
McGuire?'' vas asked.
He would make great man for this
team" was the enthusiastic reply. He
can catch any kind OF pitching. and is one
OF the best men in the world TO coach
a pitcher. He has been behind the League
batters so long that he knows every one Of
their weak points. was surprised to think
that Wagner wants to let him 20. ! can't
figure out what Wagner intends to do un-
less it is to get all he can out Of the play
ers, run cheap team one season and then
drop out Washington. with a good team.
Is the best j0-cent city in the circuit. With
a team like the Reds Mcclure would bat
better than he has ever done and that is
saying d great deal"
DO you think well of the teams
cbances?"'
I should say ! did said SeIbach. II
thought We had a great team before We
got Phillips. and now l think better Of II
than ever. Al Hulen, of the Washingtons,
who was in the Western League last sea-
son, told me that Big Bill Phillips was the
best pitcher in the Western League BY
the way. II the Washingtons play the first
Sunday game OF the season, there will be
a big crowd come from Columbus. Hulen
has wintered in Columbus. Billy Swift and
my brother will run an excursion from CO.
lumbus that day. Not only my friends
but Hulen's friends. will come down to
the game"
PROFESSIONAL BILLIARDS.