The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-28
BASEBALL CRANKS HAVE GOOD 'DOPE" Harry Vaughan Writes That He
 Is in Fine FettIe. SOME NICE TEA PARTIES First Crowd to Brave the Wrath of sIagtown Will Be New York
 Giants-Important Con-
 ference Is HeId.-
SOME NICE TEA PARTIES

The Birmingham Baseball association has issued instructions for work to begin on the baseball park February 1 and in a few days the echoes of old Slagtown will be awakened by the sounds accom- panying the preparations Of the grounds for another season of the real article ths. keeps the dope men busy
 The oefutld will be rolled and all of the bare spots will be sodded so that Blr- mingham will have as smooth a field as can be found In any park in the league It was at first intended to sod the dia- mond but on account of the pecliar soil this was found impracticable and the grass will be kept off. The top of the ground is covered with burnt sand and as it would be too difficult to grow a smooth lawn on this it was decided not to attempt it until next fall. The bleachers will be rebuilt and extended further towards the left field fence and the wire screens in front of the smoker and bleachers will be kept there to prevent persons from run ming on the field. These screens were erected during the football season and have been found valuable for the base ball season.
 Harry Vaughan Writes.
 letter was received from Harry Vaughan yesterday enclosing his contract for next season. Harry says he is in fine shape and will leave in a few days for Auburn where he will coach the college team during the early spring months. He makes an urgent appeal to have the left field fence strengthened as it is the avow- ed purpose of this giant first baseman to knock every plank off the fence with his three base drives. He has purchased new bat with which he intends to do tricks that H. Scudder Ryall in his palm fest days never dreamed of. The bat is so adjusted that by turning 1t on one side home runs can be knocked. When such are not needed he can turn the bat over and crack out three sackers As base balls are too expensive to throw away the management has requested Harry to use the three base side of his bat except in cases of urgent necessity. MT. Vaughan says the spring sap is rising fast and that he can hardly wait for spring to open. He is full of capers and as frisky as a young colt on a cold morning.
 Secretary Jackson received Harvey Clark's contract yesterday and the Ohio pitcher will again cavort around Noun. Slag.
 
 The local management has several nice tea parties in store for the fans and the opening performance will take place on March 21, when the Coal Barons will en- gage Muggsy McGraw's New YorK~giants. The New York team will remain here un- til the middle of April, when they will light out for their own dung hill.
 One of the choicest articles in the way of baseball will be an open battle with the all Cuban team from Havana. These fellows can't root in English and the fans will get a new line of coaching that they never heard The bases will be run in Spanish. The scorers will use Chinese laundry lists for score books and each will be provided with an interpreter.
 It now looks as if Birmingham will give Boston good run for Wilhelm It is understood, however, that Wilhelm says if he is not allowed to accept the Boston contract he will play independent ball be- fore he will submit to an adverse re- port from Secretary Farrell.
 An event which will be looked forward to with considerable interest will be the appearance of the Chicago American lea gue team. The redoubtabe Smitty, other wise known as "Biffer' and the Big Horse" will be with the big footed visi- tors and will probably be given an ova- tion by the local fans. If Manager Com iskey is not on to his job Smitty is liable to jump his contract and hide out in some of the caverns in the wilds of old Mount Slag and refuse to travel. He says he will never be satisfied until he puts one more drive over that left field fence. Comiskey has good job on his hands,
 An Important Conference.
 conference of leading cranks was held in the Florence hotel billiard room last night and some of the rankest rooters in the business were present. Short ad- dresses were made by Nose Lazarus, James Brophy Champ Yeargin, Johnnie Silk and Scott ChesEutt. which met with liberal applause. Al, of the speakers, and especially MT. Yeargin, talked as if they had something good up their sleeves and gave the unwise cranks to understand that there would be something doing when the boys lined up. They believe that the Coal Barons will do little business with the visitors this summer and sev- eral of them grew very eloquent in their iaudations of Sis Hopkins. Harry Vaughan ct als. It seemed to be the concensus of opinion that if Sis would drop his usual line of con and get down to business he would have the goods. After a general discussion of the situation the following resolution was unanimously adopted
 Whereas, the Birmingham Baseball as- sociation has seen fit in it's wisdom to present the fans with some ball players who can swat and whereas it is well known that base hits win games; and whereas, the said management has graciously satiated our appetite for dope, in part therefore,