The age-herald., 1901-01-13
BASEBALL SEASON WILL OPEN IN APRIL Great Interest in the Sport is
 Being Manifested HONEST RIVALRY EXISTS The Shreveport Team is Completed and the Fans of That City Say
 They Have the Pennant
 Already Won.
HONEST RIVALRY EXISTS

interest in base ball in the South increases In all of the progressive Southern cities where ball is to be played the coming summer the fans are now discussing the chances of each team for winning the pen nant It is said that everybody in Shreve- port is offering to bet all sorts of money that George Reeds aggregation will head the list at the end of the season, and that if he should fail to do so nearly every man, woman and child in the town will be broke next fall. The same state of af- fairs is said to exist in Memphis, though on less scale. Charley Frank has about completed his team and assures the pub lie that he has sure winners.
 Sam Mills has several of his men under contract and says he will make all of the other seven teams hustle if they win from him. However he is not boasting much, contenting himself with the remark that the real playing does not begin until the latter part of April, and that it will be time enough then to win games
 President R. w. Kent of the Southern Association has signed two umpires for the season-E A. Cline and Tom McNam- ara. Both men have been deciding balls and strikes on the diamond for years and are said to be as good as any in the bus mess Two more umpires will be signed, but the president is in no hurry to close the list preferrng to wait and get the best to be had.
 President Kent has named the schedule committee, and Sam Mills of Birmingham is of the members. This committee will get together at an early date and pre- pare a schedule for the season. It is prob able that the season will be opened with the Eastern teams, that is Birmingham, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Nashville play ing amoung themselves, and the Western INz convenience the circuit has ben divided into the Eastern and Western halves Memphis, Little Rock, Shreveport and New Orleans compose the Western end Of the circuit. The Eastern teams will prob ably play twelve games among themselves before meting their Western competitors.
 The next meeting of the Southern As- sociaton will be held in Memphis at a date to be named by the president.
 Charley Frank has completed the inield of his Memphis team. His players are: Bussey, first base; Jack Frost, second base Beecher short; Muggy McGraw and Spencer, third base.
 The following from the Memphis Scim- eter will be interesting to the fans:
 The efforts of the Southern League base ball managers to pull the wool over each others eyes with regard to the players they have signed are in many instances very amusing. Each manager is trying to
 
 uncovering his own cards The impression has gotten out that Little Rock is playing the foxiest game of any of them. Over there they claim to have signed no players, not even a manager, yet; but the other managers are not disposed to believe all that. They believe that the team is prac- ticaly complete, and that it is regarded by the crafty Arkansans as the beatinest aggregation that ever threw back talk at an umpire.
 The Shreveport team is complete, prac- tically, and the people down there make no secret of the fact that they have the pennant already won. The whole team is enthused with the prospect Memphis man went down there recently and upon his return announced that the league CO., test was settled in advance shreveport has got it and gone" said he.
 "How's that?"
 Well, the people down there are pos tive. They are willing to bet all kinds of money that Shreveport will win"
 How much of it did you take?'
 Not a cent"
 "Why not?'
 Well, those people were so confident and seemed to have it cased out so clearly that I supposed there was nothing in it."
 "But there are seven other clubs in the league"
 'Yes, I know. But you ought to hear how those Shreveport people talk"
 Frank Hahn, the crack twirler of the National League last season, has been throwing bouquets at the Southern Asso- citation. In a recent interview in the Cin- cinnati Post he is quoted saying:
 "About the only league in the land that is acting and not talking is the Southern. They've got money down there in large rolls. I saw Sam Mills, who is to man. age the Birmingham team counting off the green centuries.' They mean business. have money up and are signing players"
 Mike Ryan, the old first baseman who played with Birmingham Chattanooga and New Orleans in other seasons, has asked for a position as umpire in the Southern Association. Since leaving the South he has been umpiring games around Cincinnati and is said to have given en- tire satisfaction.
 It is now settled that Atlanta will get the eighth franchise in the Southern As. sociation and the circuit is thereby cone pleted. The knockers in a few sleepy towns did everything in their power to prevent the completion of an eight-club circuit by the Southern Association, but they were up against odds they could not overcome. The circuit is completed and those fellows who fought the organization will have to content themselves next sum- mer with reading the scores of the games played by their more progressive neigh borS
 Sam Mills, manager of the Birmingham team, announces that he has signed Joe Veitch to play third base the coming sea- son. veitch played third base in 1896 and was a favorite with all of the fans.
 Chattanooga has signed Will Wood to play outfield. New Orleans has attached the signature of Myers, first base; Yer mille and Miller, pitchers, and McKeevit McDaviss and Malone1 outfielders. Ander- son, the Tulane lad, who was given a hearing by Franks Memphis team last summer, has also signed New Orleans contract. New Orleans is after Joe Dowde who played with Selma last season. Bob Fender relic of the former Southern League, will be with Little Rock.
 President Kent went to New Orleans last night to look over the situation there. He has been to most of the cities comprising the circuit and expects to visit all of them before the season opens.
 Fusionists Having Trouble.