Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-03
STONES EARLY DAYS.
Manager Rourke Started Great Batter
In Professional Ball

All sorts Of weird yarns have been print
cd about the discovery of George Stone,
the Browns sensational left fielder, who
now leads the American Leagues bingling
brigade, and who is beyond doubt the
greatest batsman in the world today.
The st. Louis Star-Chronicle had it fort
night ago that BIZ Rourke ana DICK
Buckley, the veteran big mltl men, were
Joint G. Columbuses.
A contemporary claimed IT was Joe Can
tillon That II was Buckley, and not can
tillon is proved by the appended story; the
ant hor of which is Otto F'loto of the Dem
yer Post the main scribe in the Western
League circuit:
.Only the other day my old friend. Man
ager Joe Cantillon of the Milwaukee clup,
calmly appropriated half a column of val
liable newspaper space in telling the good
people how he discovered and developed the
phenomenal Stone into the most talked
about base ball star of the year. Now, as
a cold matter Of fact the diplomatic Mr..
CantillOn had no more to do with the
finding of George Stone than you or /.
1t was Bill Rourke who dug Stone out of
the brush of Iowa gave him his first job,
polished off the rough edges and finally
turned him out as a finished ball player.
"Rourke told me the story last night and
I think it makes a more than valuable ad-
dition to base ball literature.
Back In the fall of 1901 began the
Omaha magnate, "a friend of mine in On
ava Iowa, asked me to loan him battery
for day on which the Onawa Reds were
battling for the amateur championship of
the county, and wanted to win the de-
cisive game. 1 sent him one of my young
pitchers and Dick Buckley, the famous old
timer who was then catching for Omaha.
The next day my men returned 10 Omaha,
and | will never forget the expression on
old Dick Buckieys face when he walked
into my office
g. Say, BILL" he said, there Is young
fellow UP in that rube town who is the
greatest hitter in the world He can hit
the ball mile. and what he did yester-
day with the stick was something awful.
I don't know what his name is, but for
heavens sake get him down here and look
him over yourself. He's wonder"
Half an hour later l had my Onawa
friend at the other end of a gdistance
telephone wire. and after finding out the
name of my unknown phenom, l arranged
for his coming to Omaha. He showed up
the next morning, and was so modest and
bashful that he sat In the reception room
of my office for more than an hour before
he told me who he was. Well, / asked
him II he wanted a try at professional ball,
and the boys eyes glistened when he an
swered yes.
He told me that he thought he was a
pitcher, but l soon found out that he
wasn't. Then L worked him for day or
| two on the infeld, where he belonged. But
hit-why, say, he batted like fend from
| the very start.
I'm the first three games he played,
George made nine hits. and four of these
nine bingles were home-run drives over the
fence. After he had been with me for a
couple of weeks ! called him into the Of
| flee one morning and told him that wanted
| him to sign a contract for the following
year. He was tickled to death, but when
| asked him what sort of q salary he
wanted. he said he didn't know
" Then asked him II he would be will
| Ing to play ball for SIS month, and he
fairly jumped at the offer. Then began
| the task of coaching the boy, and I snent
a lot of my time with him, for knew that
| he had the making of genuine star He
was willing to work, and eager to learn.
| ana the result was that before the season
| was half over I knew that / had landed .
simon-pure phenomenon"