Waterbury Democrat., 1901-07-16
ROGER CONNDR RETIRES.
The Big Fellow Sells the Team
 to George E. Harrington.

AAdAA IAt1pAlAlCA AdS DSNAA s9'S--~-
 to Play Second Base-Peter Kier-
 nan Will be Released Roger Connor
 Will Play First Base Until Another
 Man is secured-A Poor Exhibition
 Yesterday.
 After several seasons of tough luck in trying to make both ends meet in conducting q baseball team ill the State league in Waterbury. Manager Roger COnnOr made up his mind yester day to quit the field and give some one else a chance to get into the har- ness and pick out if possible winning team There have been several parties after the local franchise but Som6 of them wanted it for song. George D. Harrington had a long conversation with Manager COnnOr before the game yesterday and it was resumed again last night. The result of this conver satiOn was that both adjourned to At. tOrney RuSSelI's office and there q deal was cOnsummated whereby Harring- ton assumed Roger COnnor's interests In the Waterbury team. These inter ests include all but one share of stock which is held by another party. Mir Harrington will assume the manage ment of the team at once and Roger Connor will cover first bag for this week at least.
 The new manager is not unknown to the Waterbury public for he has acted in similar capacity some sea- sons ago and he has never made q fail- ure of anything in which he was con nected. 1t will be his earnest endeay- or to strengthen the team if possible and to that end he will first start at the second base position now filled by Peter Kiernan. Manager Harrington will try to induce Frank Fitzpatrick to get back in the game again and will make an offer to that player to-day which will be some dollars over the sal ary he received before. In all proba- bility the rest of the team will be re- tained for the present, although Man ager Harrington says he wants to have them play ball and play it all the time. If they shirk their work they will be dropped right off and others will be found to fill their places
 What Roger Connor's intentions are for the rest of the season it is at this time hard to say He has made T gal lant fight against big odds. For some reason or other the big fellow has lost q good many of the fellows who l1sed to swear by him when he was the idol Of the New York team. There have been some royal rOoters who stuck to him through all his trials but there has been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction which could not be prevented and it has helped to demOralize the attendance and to hurt the game in this city. He has tried hard to put winning team In this city and he himself has never played better ball in years than he has been doing this season. Still the crowds WouId not come out and even when he won the pennant one year and came in i second the next seaSon he received no better patronage than he has been re celYlng this season. They tell you that manager can only last just so long in any city and when his time comes it is better for him to step down and out and not wait to have the fates force him to the wall Perhaps this is so in Rog- CT COnnOr's case. There is one certain sure thing that the big fellow will not be long out of position if he desires
 
 near the top i'll the league and his fieId- ing is the same. If he is not lending the league in both he is pretty near ii. He is q valuable man and he is sorry to-day that he did not accent one of inc offers made him when the season hrst opened He has not made one dol lar in baseball this season and he has sold out the franchise at q low figure The fact of the matter was that he be- came disgusted at the whole thing and quit He will still have the good wish es of many people in this city who know that he has fought the game we'll against the hardest kind of knocks.
 An alleged game of baseball was played yesterday at the Athletic field between the Waterbury team and the Derby sluggers A chap named Brown was in the box for the local team and it was said that he had been sent here by Frank Donahue. If that is fact Frank ought to be arrested for deliver ing goods under false pretences. Brown not only pitched a poor game but the team behind played like a lot of tin soldiers and they made the fans very tired It is not necessary to go into the details of the game for it was the most disgusting exhibition of baseball ever witnessed on the local grounds. Mat thews made an exhibition of himself by making an uncalled for attack ori the umpire. This attack should merit severe punishment for it was disgrace ful and reflected no credit on the play CT Umpire Mckee had called third strike on Matthews when the latter ad- vanced toward him looking for trou- ble- Whatever was the conversation between the two, Umpire Mckee told Matthews to go to the bench. This further angered the already pugnacious Matthews and he proceeded tn Whin