Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-08-08
GRIFFITH TELLS
WHY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO
PRYLOOSE BASEBALL STARS

the papers on them. and that's all there
is to ii. They're worth just as much
10 the people owning them as they are
to the people wanting them-morc,
hen 1t comes to that. for II they're
turned over TO the club wanting them
there's Il howl from the home fans that
means thousands of dollars at the gate
to The club that sells a good man. Get
the-coin motives are attributed to the
managers selling good players and the
club is Grabbed in its horne town.
The ball players that everybody
really anker for and would give any
thing In or out OF reason to get arc
he ones who are worth their weight
in radium to the people hanging on
TO them. And the pretty good players
that they are willing to let go for "A
hunk OF change are virtually castoffs
No team was ever yet built up with
sure enough castoffs. There's ii Ger
tain good team that l could mention
that is commonly supposed to have
been remade by an uncommonly clever
manager from CASTOR material. but
when you fall to analysing the fellows
OF the alleged castoff variety of that
u you quickly find that they never
really were castoffs at all.
There are "A whole lot of readable
and entertaining dope stories about
baseball castoffs who have turned
around and daZzled the baseball world.
thereby pouring Goals of fire and a lot
of molten lead and blazing oil upon
the conks Of the folks that have turned
them loose. But you want to lake
these hop narratives with all the pepsin
and bismuth your system can stand.
There arc plenty of cases where cast
offs-chronic, all-in castoffs, ! mcan-
whove done remarkable thirgs for a
little while, but nom OF them that I
ever heard of has lasted for any great
N II In ne tn,a 49, ,s r.--. -
castoffs who've been turned loose from
one or w clubs. maybe without hav-
ing had a sufficient trial. The kind of
CASTOR I'm talking about is the man
who has been in the game for a good
many years, who has worn his edge
away, and who, knowing this, begins to
sulk on the bench. Such IA man may
upon being transferred to a new and
congen!al outfit buck up and show
flashes of his old time form for "a lit
tie way, but he doesn't go the dis
lance.
The baseball business. in brief. has
now settled down to such a bedrock
basis that the crack players of Il club
are simply non-transfernble assets.
Every good player who is at the same
tune a man OF sense n good conduct
is one of the cogs in the combination.
u him out and the hole thing col
lapses. n of ball clubs know all
ocoAe nus NY Ic Iol owning DaII
clubs for hygienic reasons, and that's
why there's no chance to dicker with
them toward coping out their good
men. Do you suppose that n l a on
my team certain players that I'd give
Il piece of my left ear to get I'd ever
listen to any proposition looking to
having them away? :.
There are all sorts of poppy tales
going around the baseball world all thu
time about ball players who lay down
on the clubs they work for for the pur-
pose of paving the way for their trans.
fer to another club that they want I'd
join.
You can tin all of that kind of stuff
without looking at 1t twice. There new
err was a bit of truth in any of those
yarns since the game was ganiz
"A ball players playing ability is his
one asset. When he permits himself
Tor any reason whatever to go bach
in his work he's simply handing him
self a personally conducted WALTON. and
you've got to show me the ball player
that1l do that. The ball PLAYER &C.
cused of laying down has in every cas-.
that | know anything about simply gone
on his form for a spell. He's Just lost
ms Keen edge for q bit. and this fact
being taken into account with the
knowledge that some other club would
IKE to get such a player the knockers
instantly fix it all up in their minds
and mouths that the player is LAYING
down with the connivance. they often
add. of he anage of the team tina,
wants him and that he wants to &c
with"