Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-08
SPORTING WORLD
HAS CHAN GED
STARS OF FEW YEARS AGO
HAVE GONE
Short Stories Of Famous Athletes
Whose Prowess viii Ever Re-
main Stamped Upon Menu
ory of Thousands

bUhn w dSitEty DtbtSl FAiiVWi GN Niiiiho
Wagner, the hard-hitting infielder Of
the Pittsburg team, broke into profess
slonal baseball about eleven years ago.
His home was in Carnegie, Pa, and he
had been playing on the back lots for
some time. An outfeder was needed
vile, o., and some one who had seen
Wagner play recommended him to the
Steubenville management
A telegram was sent to Wagner, Of
fering him $100 q month to play and
asking him If he would come for that
sum. Would he come? He didn't know
there was so much money loose in the
country. OF course he would come. A
message was flashed back to him:
"Come on the first train"
Wagner hustled to the depot and the
first train" happened to be a freight,
though there was passenger train an
hour later which would have landed
him in Steubenville much sooner than
the freight. But orders were orders
the message said "the first train" and
so Wagner boarded the freight. He
landed in Steubenvile in the course of
time, and with a pair of baseball shoes
tied together and slung over his
shoulders he hunted up the manager.
II see you have the shoes all right"
said the manager, but 1 fear we have
no uniform that will fit you
"Oh, that's all right said Wagner.
"I have my uniform with me-"
Good! Where is it ?"
Here" said Wagner, rolling up his
trousers legs and exposing his baseball
stockings and the uniform where it
bagged below the knees.
you are a wonder" said the man
ager. Come in to dinner, and We'll try
you out this afternoon
Wagner was tried OUT that day and
the answer is part of the history of
the national game.
Applause Made MaIoney
One of the best examples of the effect
of applause upon players was furnished
by the Chicago National league team of
1885, says Hugh Fullerton. Maloney,
fast ball player was the one affected.
Maloney was like the dead Irishman,
"He wor a good shoveler but not what
you would call a fancy shoveler." He
never had made real good in fast COM
pany until he struck Chicago. He got
away well at the start of the season
and the right field bleacherites made
him their idol.
From q. middling good player he was
turned into the marvel of that year by
were prodigious. He made seemingly
impossible catches, covered wonderful
amount of territory, ran bases and hit
like fiend.
Suddenly, in mid-season. a little bad
luck put him off his hitting. and the
cheers ceased. The applause did not
die out much faster than Maloney did.
He ceased performing miracles. The
applause had stimulated him and the
reaction showed him worse than he
really was.
Just how many bal players have been
put out of the business by Kisses no one
knows. There are hundreds of them,
good men, who simply cannot stand
the roastings they are forced to endure
IL they remain. Josh Reilly, the old
second baSeman for the Chicago White
Stockings, was pretty bad as a fielder
and getting no better rapidly, says
Hugh Fullerton. The jeers, Kisses and
boots of the crowd merely made him
mad. He wanted to fight back His
Irish blood was boiling. For a time
1t seemed as if he would win and prove
himself a great ball player merely by
his nerve in playing at all under such
a constant shower of criticism But
one day Josh got through. / found
him frothing at the mouth out at the
club house. He was done. He never
would play again--unless he got a
chance to kill certain man. When he
grew calm enough 1 . discovered the
cause of it,
HE was big man sitting in the
bleachers." said Josh. while they
were all yelling at me for booting that
hot one, he sat still. 1 saw him and
said to myself, there's one friend OF
mine up there He never said a word
until the seventh inning. Then he
stood up. stretched himself, walked
down two or three steps and yelled:
Reilly, you're disgrace to the Irish!'
If had him I'd killed him.
SuIIivan's Joke
John l.. Sullivan described the other
day joke that he once played on Bob
Fitzsimmons.
when Fitz," he said, was interested
in farming, told him that my cousin
had a lot of fine Dorking roosters and
I would send him one if he would care
for it. Fitz said he would be delighted
to add a Dorking rooster to his collec-
tion of chickens.
so got the Dorking, packed 1t in n
basket and then, for a joke, laid an egg
beneath the bird on the soft straw.
Fitz wrote to me the next day in
great astonishment He thanked me
for the Dorking, which, though a
rooster undoubtedly, and a fine one,
luO, ldu yet ldlu an eBB OH lIS way TO
him. Could explain this phenomenon?
Had I ever heard of such thing be-
fore?
81 wrote back and said:
The Dorking rooster, in laying an
egg. has certainly broken all records.
What makes this happening still more
remarkable is that, If you examine the
egg, you will find it to be a hard
boiled one"
IF fighters would quit the ring after
they get two good lickings there would
be better fights, fewer fatalities and
room in lunatic asylums," said Tom
Sharkey.
ION the level" continued the sailor,
there's more dippy guys in the ring
today than people have any idea of,
and it's all because they just love to
get licked. l quit the game when
thought there was no chance to be a
champion. There's no use sticking at
the game, losing this week, winning the
next, and always taking a flyer at being
champion.
"These fellows go crazy before they
ever get near the top, and it's the same
crowd that cause all the trouble. They
go crazy in the ring. fight mad, and
think ghosts are beating them. Every
man is good In the ring until he gets