The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-10-06

materially assisted in all the teams
recent victories.
Right off the Bat.
THERE is being general rush
made by the big leaguers for the
stars of the minor circuits, and
the American League In particular Will
lose by drafting.
Roy Patterson, the clever twirler or
the Chicago white stockings Is much
desired youth. Only Boston, Cincin-
natl and Chicago have filed claims for
him with President Young. Both Gin
cnnati and Chicago claim Topsy Hart
sell and the latter team threatens to
protest the games in which the clever
little outfielder played for the Reds.
Pittsburg has secured gem, 1t Is
claimed in Bransfield, the heavy hit
ting first baseman of the Worcester
Eastern League club. Dobbs. the fast
outtielder of the Utica team in the
New York State League, has been
grabbed by Cincinnati.
Eason, Chicago's latest find. won his
first game last week against ST. Louis.
The young twrler has only played in
with Elmira in the Atlantic, then went
to Cortland in the New York state,
next played with Syracuse in the East
ern and winds up in the National.
Honus Wagner, of Pittsburg, has
supplanted Elmer Flick as champion
National league batsman. Big Honus
has walloped out 800 and Flick Is
about fifteen points behind.
yl,t ,tVN@ NIn
ers under contract or engagement.
They are: Catchers, Donahue, Chance,
Dexter, Nichols and King; pitchers.
Griffith, Callahan, Taylor, Garvin,
Menefee, Harvey, Cunningham. Mil
Ter, Patterson, Eason. Hughes, Heimerl
and Weimer; infielders, -Ganzel. Childs,
Bradley, Mccormack, Strang; outfeld-
ers. Mccarthy, Mertes, Green, Ryan.
Hartzell and Dolan. 1t is said that
Childs, Cunningham and Ryan will be
released to make way for younger
players.
Kid Gleason has been announced for
sale by President Freedman, OF New
York, and both the Philadelphia and
Chicago managements are eager to
sign him. If the Phillies secure the lit
tie fellow, he will be played at sec
ond. Lajoie will be transferred to first
base and Delehanty will be sent back
to left field.
Sheckard. Of Brooklyn, is playing
grand left field for the Superbas,
while Joe Kelly is on first base. Mon
day Sheckard made six hits out Of
seven times at bat. in two games.
Among his drives were two doubles
and triple.
Poor Lajoie is out of the game
again. This great player certainly has
more than his share of baseball mis-
fortune. In Tuesdays game with New
York, one of Winnie MERGERS speediest
ones struck him on the forearm. and
broke the bone. This is perhaps the
first time in the history of base ball
that player has had a bone broken
by a pitched or batted ball, and Phil
adelphia rOOters are bemOaning the
unlucky whim of fate which makes the
accident happen to the terrific hitting
Frenchman.
Both the Philadelphia and Pittsburg
managements deny that their teams
have been using any method to dis
cover the battery signals of opposing
teams. CAPTAIN Corcoran of the Gin
cinnati Reds Is the man who i'm
peaches both Quakers and Pirates. At
Philadelphia he claims that Morgan
Murphy, the extra catcher, sits be-
meath the grand stand with a pair of
py-gasses and watches the signals,
tipping them off to to Petite Chiles in
the coachers' box by means of an
electric battery which operates "buz-
zer'' buried in the aforesaid box. This
same buzzer was triumphantly un-
earthed by Sleuth Corcoran at Phila-
delphia. AT Pittsburg he discovered a
man standing behind the Pirates CEN
ter field fence who watched the bat
terry with Il pair Of strong glasses.
After making out the signals this
man reveals them to the batsman by
arranging in various positions, a piece
of block iron, which is swung in front
of one of the letters in an advertise
ment on the fence. Outtielder Geier
climbed the fence and took possession
of the piece of iron. The accused mag
mates brand the accusations as ridicu
lous and false. That Morgan Murphy
has been carried by the Philadelphia
team for several seasons doing prac-
tically no work at all has always
aroused suspicion however, and talk
has gone abroad in the land before, of
the eXistance of a signal discovery
bureau, of which Morgan was the chief
operator.