The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-07-06
WHAT THEY THINK or ''JAY'
NEW YORK .CLIPPERss" oPIN-
ION OF HUGHES.
The Sacramento Lad Regarded as
One Of the Phenomenal Pitch
ers Of the Day


Probably never before in the his
tory of the national game did young
pitcher make such a sensational entry
into the leading baseball organization
as did James Hughes, in the spring of
1898, when he joined the Baltimore
club of the major league, and cele-
brated the event by allowing the
Washington team only two safe hits,
and a few days later he did still bet
ter by shutting out the champion Bos-
tons without a solitary safe hit.
HE was born June %, 1874, at Sac
ramento, Cal, and learned to play ball
at his native place. He soon attracted
attention by his clever pitching against
amateur teams. In 1896 he accepted
his first professional engagement, when
he signed with the Victoria Club of the
Pacific Northwest League, but it dis
banded early in the season, and he
afterwards pitched for California teams
and made a fine record
Zone would hardly believe that this
young man had been for several sea-
sons vainly trying to induce the Cali
fOrnia managers to recommend him to
some of the managers of major league
teams, and was always laughed at for
his temerity, yet Hughes is authority
for this statement. If some of those
managers had been shrewd enough to
see what was in the young pitcher,
what reputation it would have made
for the one who had discovered the
fact. But it was left for Hughey Jen-
nings, the famous short stop, now of
the Brooklyns, but then of the Balti-
mores, to make the find.
This was during the winter of 1897
'9S, while picked teams of major league
professionals, under the management
of Barnie and Selee, were on barn
storming expedition to the Pacific
Coast. Hughes, then playing with the
Sacramento club, pitched against one
of. the Eastern teams, and did so re-
| markedly well, allowing the visitors
only five safe hits, that Jennings i'm
mediately wrote to Manager Hanlon
of the Baltimores, telling in the most
glowing terms of his find With the
Sagacity that he has shown ever since
! his advent as a captain and manager,
| Hanlon answered at once, Sign your
man.
ct is needless to say that Jennings
was not long in arranging the business
end of the deal that made Hughes a
| member of the Baltimore team. Early
| in 1898 all kinds of rumors were sent
| East from California. At one time it
would be that Hughes was dissatis-
| fled with his engagement, and would
| not come. Notwithstanding all these
| reports, however, he came East, and it
| is safe to say that he has never re-
GREETED the day he did so.
| while Manager Hanlon had every
reason to believe that Hughes was all
| that Jennings had cracked him up to
had been presented with a genuine blue
stone diamond, and that, too, without
putting up a dollar for purchase
| money. Hanlon tried out the young
man against the Washingtons, on
April IS, 1898, and he shut them out
without a run, allowing them only two
safe hits. A few days later along came
| the champion Bostons, and they
| stopped at the Monumental City for a
| series of games. On April 22d Hughes
| faced them, and the result was that
| he not only shut them out without a
run, but prevented them from making
a solitary safe hit, which was certainly
a remarkable feat against so renowned
| a team, and that. too, with the pitch
| ing distance of sixty feet
Then, on Baltimore's first visit to
Boston, May 9th, he again retired the
Bostons without a run, and allowed
| them only two safe hits. Among other
| notable pitching performances he ac-
| complished during that season were
one two-hit, two three-hit three four
| hit, and three five-hits games. He
| participated in forty-nine championship
| contests during the season of 1898, in
| thirty-five of which he took part as a
pitcher, winning twenty three, losing
eleven, and tieing one.
His work in the pitchers position
| for the entire season was high class,
and he was reckoned among the lead
| ing pitchers of the country. He was
included in the bunch of players trans
| ferred from Baltimore to Brooklyn
early in this year, and his work thus
| far this season has been exceedingly
good. Up to June Sth, inclusive, he
pitched in twelve championship games,
winning ten, losing one, and being
! taken out of one in the sixth inning,
although Brooklyn finally won the
game. Once he allowed st. Louis only
| three safe hits, twice he held Washing
| ton to four hits, and Baltimore and
| Louisville each made five safe hits to a
game. He is handy with the bat, and
can chase fly balls as well as any util-
| ity man. He certainly has a great
professional future before him.
|