Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-18
Who Pass Through College as
Ball Players Only.
HOW THEY MANAGE TO PASS
As Collegians, but They are the Same
Old "sloppies," Pie Faces and
Bull" Mahoneys - Revere Rodg.
ers Explains ali About How the
Trick is Turned.

NN-N- NA-SNN%e NN~ FNooAA5 away Va hAAE Ddl4
Lot Boy, both by word of mouth and
through the medium Of the daily papers,
that it has set me to wondering as to lust
what Ounce school the present day scribes,
who are breaking into the newspaper bust.
ness, were educated at, to make them so
gullible and so ready to believe that our
old friends of the Sand Lot would allow
themselves TO be forced out of any partici-
patton in either the National or American
League games. For allow me to tell YOU.
that the boy from down on the Sand Lot is
in just as great force now in the Big
Leagues, as he ever was.
You thought judging from what you
have read in the newspapers, that they
were all college men now getting into the
game? Why, bless your innocent souls,
where there be one man playing ball, upon
college team, who is paying for his tut
ton, there is twenty FIVE or say fifty. who
do not, only not pay, but besides dress hne,
eat and drink the best and besides-but why
60 into details7
Where do these, pay nothing, and live
well students come from then7 Why, from
nowhere, but off the Sand Lots, the college
athletic committee, hearing that Bull"
Mahorney, Pie Face" Ellis. or sloppy,
Bob wilkins are putting up "crackeriack"
game down on the Sand Lot, so down there,
witness the work of the trio in question
and being satisfied after whispered conver-
sauon, make an appointment to meet next
day up at the college grounds.
In another week sloppy" "Pie Face, "
and Bull, are playing fast ball on the
college teams, and are logged out in regular
coronation clothes, not to mention plenty
OF rich food to eat and good wines to drink
and something in their pockets besides.
II they are ambitious boys they quickly
take advantage of the chance to get an
education, but if they are not, they idle
away their time in perusing the sporting
papers and puzzling their brains with such
highly intellectual thoughts as to whether
Napoleon Lajoie or Napoleon Bonaparte
were the greater man OF whether they
would rather be Jim Jeffries or Admiral
Dewey, with a strong leaning towards the
former.
But even though the Sand Lot boy be
ever so modest and retiring in the matter
of brains when he shall have become
'acclimated" so to speak, to his college
surroundings, he soon begins to rapidly
let fall every peculiarity which would serve
~ N~-AAA~~N AAAAA W ltA HIS f0dIlQ Lou QGElu-
ming, and assumes as naughty an exterior
as If born to the purple, and when he has
played upon the college team for a couple
Of years and his work has attracted the
favorable notice of some league magnate
he issadvlsed as to the best way to sign, and
when he does finally sign the newspapers
herald the fact that T. Dempsey Mahoney,
the well known college boy, has gained the
consent of his parents to play ball and this
announcement, through the newspapers,
acquaints the young collegian' S friends with
the fact that their one time companion,
Bull Mahorney," has signed with such
and such a league, and T. Dempsey's
father is so Overioyed at the news that he
sends out for pot of beer, but stays home
from the gas house in order to curse the
newspapers for corrupting the name of Tim
Mahorney into such a monstrosity as 7.
Dempsey Mahoney. If he knew that 7.
Dempsey, himself, was the responsible
party for such corruption, then, possibly.
he would swear full and plenty.
This little depression from the main
thread Of my article is merely to show you
that no matter from what sphere you take
boy, if you turn him loose among lot of
we'll bred boys, he will soon acquire their
habits and ideals But if you put three or
four Sand Lot boys on a college team they
will band themselves together against the
college boys and will preserve all of their
Sand Lot manners, even down to calling
one another by the most barbaric nick
names
But separate these same boys and in two
years time ''Pie Face" Ellis or Sloppy
Bob Wilkins will have become the best
dressed fellows-provided they can play at
base ball well-in the college, and it is just
such college men as these cases I have
cited here that you are getting into the big |
leagues nowadays It's the same old Sand |
Lot boy, who has been brushed up, had his |
intellect greatly sharpened. and who in
stead of buying the drinks, now spends his /
coin on clothes and trinkets with which to
adorn his person.
tell you this, so that when you hear the
folks crying about the disappearance of the
Sand Lot players, just you direct 'em to the
nearest college, and there some Of 'em will
be certain to be found; though registered
under vastly more high sounding titles than
when they played on the "Shamrocks"
'Rosebuds," "Cresceuts, " and other Sand
l. Lot teams.
But il is just these same college associa-
lions which makes the one time Sand Lot
boy wise and great deal harder to handle
than in the old days. and it is these same
boys that have latterly taken to having
heir own lawyers present when il comes
70 drawing up contract. But where the
Did Sand Lot strain shows above the college
is in the lack of confidence ball
players seem to have in one another; what
mean by this, is that there has never been
IN organization yet, made up of ball play
rs, which was not always, sooner or later,
ated to be destroyed; solely on account of
Internal chickering's" and petty jealousies,
which mostly have had their origin in the
hick skulls Of cub" reporters, barely able
o spell correctly, but these same reporters
speak of-of course, don't mean any re-
iections upon reputable men in the news
,aper profession mean these little pool
harps, race horse touts, slangy wretches,
Who get on the staff of some "trust-to luck"
,aper, which gives them the entree to base
all parks free, aud enables them to CON
erse with ball players, and either through
or pure maliciousness, they carry
ales from one player to another, and the
1ost harmless sentence spoken in their
reseuce Is Immediately construed far, far
iferent from what was intended when It
E,-re