The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-13
MISSED HIS TRAIN
And SECURED ASTAR
Delayed i'm Memphis, Dreyfuss
Saw Clarke Play and
Signed Him.

If Barney Dreyfuss had not once
missed a train perhaps Pittsburg would
never have had Fred Clarke, manager
of the Pirates.
Eyes, it was very funny how 1 first
got a sight of Clarke years ago." says
the president of the Pittsburg club.
Its funnier, too, how / came to take
a liking to him, for his teams showing
on the day I saw him was not enough
to make me warm up-his team was
beaten % to or % to 2, 1 don't re-
member which, but either was bad
enough.
TT was in the summer of 1894 that
1 was coming through the South and
got held up in Memphis through miss
ing my connections. OF course, my first
shoot was for the baseball grounds,
where Savannah was booked to meet
the Memphis boys. I always liked to
look over the young fellows and keep
the best of them in view for an emer-
gency.
Il knew the managers of both teams
and when the boys got working / did
not feel favorably impressed with any
of them. Tub WEIGH, was to do the
catching for Savannah, but at the last
moment he sent word that he was sick
and could not come to put on uni
form.
This left McCloskey. of the Savan-
nahs, in a nice hole, for he had not
another catcher on the team.
Finally Mac called on a young fell
low who had been chasing punk hits in
left. This lad, who seemed understood
for a ball player, wore a fierce mus
tache. 1t was Fred Clarke.
After some time he agreed to go be-
hind the bat and catch the game. 1
learned before the game had gone far
that it was the first time the young
ster had ever been behind the bat and
this made me look at him carefully.
1t was nothing but a slaughter of
the innocents. The Savannah team was
killed the moment it stepped into the
diamond and the score rolled UP was
fearful.
The willing young catcher, however,
did creditable work behind the bat and
when at bat he made some nice hits.
He seemed to conduct himself like
ball player--a little green yet, perhaps.
but he looked as if he might learn the
game. When I returned to Louisville
We were not doing good work with our
team and 1 looked them over carefully
for place to break in.
II was always for Improvement in
baseball and did not believe in keeping
a clutch on the old fellows. Billy
Barnie, then our manager, was for
sticking over to the old-timers. He
seemed to have the idea that baseball
knowledge was tied up in few heads
and that the young fellows must wait
until the older ones died before they
would get a chance.
1.-The Louisville team was then made
up as follows: 'BilP Brown, first; Fred
Pfeffer, second; Danny Richardson,
short; Jerry Denny, third; Tom Brown,
right; Larry Twitchell, left, and Pete
Browning, center.
Now, there was a good heavy team.
They surely had the age and the eXpe-
rience, but didn't care for this if they
could only win a few games.
''They did not seem to do much at
this, so I insisted on a change. Barnfe
was against touching the team and
finally in desperation one day 1 sent
word to Savannah that I wanted the
young fielder who had caught that
game against Memphis. I asked the
price and was told 5000. 1 sent the
money and asked that Clarke be sent
at once.
1.-The day he arrived I had some
trouble The boys had heard of the
youngster coming, and, to tell the
truth, some of them did not like it
and were ready to revolt. 1 gave or
ders that Clarke should play left field
in place of Twitchell that day, but
when the lad came to dress he found
that there was not a uniform in the
club near his size. The best he could
do was to put on one of Larry
TwitchelIs, and when he came on the
field he did so with a grin, and he
surely made a hit. He had to roll the
pants up at the bottom and also rolled
the sleeves of the blouse up. He was
determined by this time to play if it
cost him his life, for he seemed to
think the cards had been stacked
against him.
Until they move Louisville across
the river the game will never be for
gotten by the people of the town. Gus
weighing, too, will always remember
it.
philadelphia was the attraction
then and weighing had UP to this time
been our Jonah. Clarke was placed
pretty well up in the batting list and
when he came to bat weighing almost
took d fit. Imagine Tommy Leach
coming to the plate wrapped in Hans
Wagner's uniform and you have a
good idea of what Clarke looked like
that day. The only thing formidable
about him was his mustache.
weighing laughed and made all
sorts of fun about the youngster and
the crowd in the grand stand began to
call Clarke Pants and shout ques-
tons up to me as to where had
picked up this child, etc. I said