Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-24
BUILDING UP A
BASE BALL TEAM
Difficult to Get the Desirable
Players.
CAPTAIN STAHL TALKS
LOCAL CLUB MANAGEMENT rs
READY TO PAY LITERALLY.
Many Good Men Would Like to Come
From Other Cities to Washington
Treated With Friendliness
CAPTAIN STAHL TALKS

Capt. Jake Stahl, In informal conversa-
ton with bunch of Washington base
ball fans. made some interesting observa-
lions on the subject of reorganizing ball
club when he dropped into town the other
day.
This is the time of the year." remarked
Jake. when the citizen fixit of the fan
world gets busy. He insists that the base
ball manager or the proprietor or proprie-
tors OF ball club start something
Well, now's your time to plug up those
holes walls the man who thinks he's got
the situation pretty pat. Go get 'em. So
and-so's just the man we need, and he's on
the market. Snap him up. He wants to
join your team Fact is, he'll burst nine
blood vessels trying to attach himseir
to your team If you'll only tip him Off
that you want him. And there's Such-ansl-
Such. What's the matter with coping out
that shifty boy. hey? He can run rings
around the man you've got on the job now,
and all you need to do to snag him is to
Let him know that you want him-hell come
a-runnini.' And so on, indefinitely.
TITS the kind of het-up chorus that the
ball manager Is staked to everywhere he
moves at this time OF the year. And
when he shakes his head over these propo-
oAIAoASp th0 WIZ lu<tASS tLo euSStStlOIlS
says to himself, Well that fellow might
do all right as a floor walker in the ten
cent store, but as the manager of a ball
club he's zero with the rim torn off,
Desirable Players Rare.
TITS about the hardest thing in life to
convince an earnest home fan that first
rate ball players are about as rare and
valuable as those 1904 silver 4dollrs No
sensible or grateful manager, understand,
would for a moment think Of speaking
slightingly Of those earnest fans who really
have the interest of the team at heart, and
who, with no personal axes whatever to
grind, merely think and plot and scheme
for the betterment Of the club. Speaking
for myself. I am only too pleased that
there are SO many good fellows in Washing
ton who are giving the matter of the
strengthening of the club their close study.
But the trouble Is that few of them never
having run up against the game of base
ball politics, have little or no idea OF the
tremendous, the almost insuperable diff
Guilty involved in trying to get hold of
ball player of established value and repu-
tation. Knowing so little on this subject
some of them are inclined to impute tight
wad prOclivities to the management of
club, whereas absolutely nothing of the
sort really exists. l should hate to say
just how large an amount Of money the
owners of the Washington ball club would
be willing and eager to spend today in
order to get hold of certain men who would
lend great value to the teams strength.
The owners of the club know just the men
they want, but they know equally well that
they can't get these men for love nor
money. The men they want are not on the
market. Nobody could get them. They're
barred in the betting, so to speak.
The Kind Not Wanted.
ION the other hand. the owners OF the
club know Just the men they don't want.
For example. there are certain ball players
of undoubted merit as players, who, being
to a certain extent foot-loose, might be had
upon the payment of goodly purses of spot
coin and, SO far as playing the game is
concerned some of these men might, for
a time, help the club noteworthy. But,
In scratching under the surface, It'll near
ly always be found that there's something
the matter with these pretty good ball play
ers whose present employers are willing to
let go somewhere else. They're liable, say,
to be disorgani3ers, grouches, chronic kick
ers, fellows who take the dark side of
everything. from the color Of the mattress
OF their sleeping CAR pUlh W The SOlQ-Illl-
ing in the umpire's teeth. Just one man
of this kind in a ball club will queer the
outfit. He's there every hour of the day
with some kind of knock or innuendo He
doesn't like the bus that takes the team
out to the track because 1t hasn't got rub
Der tires he doesn't like his hotel room be-
cause it doesn't get the south breeze and
the fittings Of the porcelain tub are of brass
instead of nickel. he's sore about the
pitcher the team skipper puts in on certain
days, he's grumpy because the official
scorers are, In his mind giving him the
worst of it all the time, and, In general, he's
bad actor who In rearing and kicking
around the barrier is more than liable .to
hash the whole field from flag-fall to finish.
''Or. If he's not a crouch or kicker, he's
liable to have something else ailing him.
He may be a whose habits are not
particularly correct and who declines to re-
spond to discipline. A man of this sort is of
no use whatever to ball club, no matter
how excellent ball player he may be.
When a ball player refuses to cut out his
injurious habits during the playing season
and deliberately takes the bit in his teeth
and defies the well-meant suggestions of
his mates, he not only renders himself of
no value to the teams ensemble and play
ing strength. but he sets an example that
in the long run Is bound to make his team
look like selling platers.
Il am not, understand, delivering myself
of mere goody-goody maxims just for the
sake of listening to the resonance of nv
speaking voice. 1t doesn't make the slight
est difference to me what fellow ball
player may do so long as he keeps him
self trig and delivers the goods during the
ball-playing season. I am not concerned
as to my mates habits unless their habits
hurt their playing ability. / speak In a
general and impersonal sense in saying this.
AS far as the goody-goody fellows in the
game are concerned. I am bound to say
that know very few of them who are first
class players. And the trouble with most
of the extremely good and leng-eared fell
lows who butt into the game is that they
are so dead proud Of their goodness. their
correctness. that they either hold the rest
of their teammates in contempt for GER
tain little shortcomings inseparabie from