The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-21
SPORTING NEWS.
Four Champions in One Year Is
the Record.
City of Macon, Georgia, Proud
of This Distinction.
THE FEVER SPREADS.
Baseball Now Played Over Entire
World.
From Dawson City, Alaska, to
Mexico and Orient.
THE FEVER SPREADS.

Macon. Ca, March 21.-Where is
this baseball craze going to end?
Year after year the interest in
creases. The Sunny South vies with
the far off Yukon in paying tribute to
the great national sport that but IS
years ago had great trouble in organ
izing a six-cIub circuit for the Ma
tional league.
Dawson City has built a fine ten
thousand dollar ball park, and 1000
people attend the games there, where
the first ball is pitched after p. m.
Go along the Pacific coast and you will
find clubs and small leagues on every
side Mexico has taken up the game,
and young players from the east are
finding nice picking in that country in
the way of money for playing ball
The west has a dozen professional
| leagues, while an eastern city without
organized ball looks like dead one
to the lovers of the great game.
Not long ago, at the pretty town of
Leominster, Mass, I had the pleasure
of opening bazar for the benefit of a
! local amateur club, or rather club
to play Sunday games, where 1900
| people paid admission to the opera
| house to hear little talk on baseball
with a few other attractions. The
management informed me that every
one there came to help out the base
ball treasury; and, from the line of
conversation I heard that night, I am
convinced that baseball had the call
| in one of the most prosperous towns
have visited in many years.
The business men assured me that
the game helped the place and
brought business to the merchants.
The middle states are full of just
such places, and the best of it is that
1 the article of ball is up to the stand
ard of our best universities, for,
pace with the professional end of the
game.
The absence of first class players be-
| ing conspicuous by their absence from
| contrast to 10 or Is years ago, when
many of the most brilliant players
came from the colleges. The best of
1 the student players are now appearing
at the smaller of the institutions of
| learning. and in many places 1 am
sure the best players are not selected
for the work in hand, due to the great
| number of candidates for the team
and the lack of baseball knowledge in
selecting the makeup of the ball club.
| For years the bulk of the great
| ball players came from Boston,
| Brooklyn, Philadelphia Cincinnati
and Chicago. or in the vicinity of those
| large cities, and while many players
are being developed still in those CEN
tiers the great majority of the rising
players are now coming from the re-
mote corners of the country
The south has not developed a great
many players up to the present, but
the time is coming when the SCUM
will be literally represented in the
major leagues. and this will be mace
possible by the spring visits or the
great teams to this part of the SCUM
| try Here in Macon they pride them
| selves on turning out four champion
teams last season, viz, the champion
| colored team of the south; the Mer-
GERS. champions of the state among
championship of the South Atlantic
| league and the Boston Americans
pulled off the championship OF the
| American league. The local baseball
enthusiasts claim that training mere
| did the business for the Collins
brigade.
a lot for the Mercer students, as they
daily, and very willingly gave the
Youngsters valuable points
The coaching methods of the Mer-
Ger students are very unlike the work
of the northern college ball teams:
Here they keep up a continual line OF
| comment directly to rattle their OPP
| ponents and, perhaps, to jolly them-
selves along as a boy does when ne
! commences to whistle when walking
along a lonesome road late in the
| evening.
This was simply a waste of hot air
when directed at the champions, VINO
/
| louder the noise to stop them the more
brilliant becomes their ball playing 1
believe this kind of work injuries the
! chances of the team who affect it, and
my advice to the college boys of the
south is play ball, keep your eyes ana
ears open and learn something from the
great professional players instead or
working that old game of talking to
affect the work Of fair opponents, VINO
will come all the harder and give no
tips when they find the youngsters
playing ball with their mouths.
| The Mercer team has three or four
very clever ball players and looks fully
as strong as last season
The one feature of the game being
overdone is the pitching department
notice by the Atlanta papers that the
minor league club of that place has 10
good pitchers under contract and two
more in line, giving the club II box men
\ to start the practice season, with the
/ greater number of the men tried out
4 in the minor leagues as well as having
| had considerable experience with major
! league clubs.
About one half the men making the
game a profession will be box men in a
short time if this kind of work keeps on
No club should carry over five pitchers
and no minor league. club well man
| aged needs over four box men. The
men will not get work enough to be
effective and a lot of money is wasted
experimenting when the club has al
ready too many pitchers on the pay
roll. Players should try for other posi-
izz-z.-..---