Waterbury Democrat., 1902-10-29
BASEBALL NEWS.
Mystery Of New Grounds IN New
York Practically Solved.

| Mystery or New GF0unuS IL new
York Practically Solved.
New York, Oct 29--Much Of the
mystery attending the location of an
American league club in this city next
season was cleared up yesterday when
the statement was made that Ban
Johnson and his friends have been
pulling the wires to secure Manhattan
field, adjoining the Polo grounds.
Backed by political influence of no IN
certain power, Johnson & Co, through
representative have made a PROPOSE
ton to joni T. Brush, the reputed
owner of the New York club, for the
lease of the field According TO this
] informant the negotiations have been.
going on in this way.
"The men who have offered to find
the backing for an American league
| club here are New Workers and they
4 informed Johnson some time ago that
unless they could have the franchise
the American league would find it a
difficult matter to get in here. They
notified Johnson that they could secure
a ground on Manhattan island and he
1 then informed them to go ahead. As
q result they have been bringing great
pressure to bear on the New York club
to surrender the lease of Manhattan
1 field. with the additional threat that
4 unless Brush accedes to their demand
he will experience trouble in the shape
of an ordinance cutting 15Sth street
| through the center of the Polo grounds.
i Brush recently bought the New York
club from Freedman, upon whom he
relies for support; but the WOuld-be
American leaguers say they have in
/ fuence enough to force Brush to terms.
They argue that with nom conflict
! ing schedule there is plenty of room
in this city for both a National league
and an American league club. The
presence here of healthy rivals in the
baseball world would boom the game
and would provide the public with
stronger mines than have been seen
here in years.
National league men say that Brush
| will turn deaf ear to the above prop
osition.
i Joe Kelley, the manager and captain
of the Cincinnati baseball team, has
this to say on the judging of players:
"A man should have a most thorough
tryout," he said. 1T is mistake
TO size up a ball players ability on a
game or two. We all know that Ned
Hanlon has a reputation of being one
of the greatest men in baseball as a
manager and judge of players, and
yet Han1on did not think Lajoie was
good enough for the National league.
i We were playing in Philadelphia when
Lajoie and Geier joined the Philltes.
Geier came touted as star and play
ed second base, while Larry was put
on first After this series Hanlon told
lot of us that Lajoie would never
make National league player, but
that Geier was a star. don't have
to tell what happened. Lajoie is now
regarded as the greatest ball player
on the diamond, while Geier is playing
in the minor league. Hanlon simply
judged by too few games. I don't
ever propose to make that mistake if
can help it,
The smoking of cigarettes in the
last. Pittsburg- Cincinnati game by Joe
Kelley and ICY" Seymour, to show
their contempt for playing baseball
condition, recalls some monkey didos
of other players in years gone by
President Dreyfus was very much dis.
pleased with their actions, and he
threatened to make examples of them
Il
not likely that anything further will
be heard from it unless a general rule
is made prohibiting future fantastic
performances that have nothing to dc
with the game. One of the finest
games was played in Chicago years
ago, when Mike Kelley undertook to
get even with Arson Early in the
season Arson appeared in contest
against Boston with long gray whisl-
ers, and to even matters Mike Kelley,
for the last game of the season at
Chicago, got Eddie Foy. the comedian,
to go to the fremont house and fix up
the boys with all styles and colors Of
whiskers. Arson was wild when the
Boston players in their mn 'Ie-ups
were driven on the grounds. The lat
ter managed to win by a score of 3 to
?. Another new fad struck the play
ers Of several teams last season on
the wind-up that furnished amusement
but very poor ball. That was switch
ing the players in positions they would
have the most difficulty in filling.
Joe Corbett who was a tower of
strength to the Baltimore club in 1897
is telling his friends at Frisco. that
Il Manager McGraw wishes his services