The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-16

players are solid Muldoons as to their
habits and behavior, simply can't be got
for love or money. They can't be torn
loose from the people owning them with
the aid Of wild horses or steam wincheS.
1t doesn't make any difference how the
players themselves feel about it. They've
got to stick with the employers who've
got the pa pers on them, and that's all
there is to it. They're worth just as much
TO the people owning them as they are to
the people wanting them-more. when it
comes TO that, for il they're turned over
to the club wanting them there's a howl
from the home fans hat means thousands
OF dollars at the gate to the club that sells
n good man. Get-the-coin motives are at
tributed TO the nan gers selling good players
and the club is grabbed in its home town.
The ball players that everybody really
bankers for and would give anything in or
out OF reason TO get are the ones who are
worth their weight in radium TO the people
hanging on 10 them. And the pretty good
players that they are willing to let go for
u hunk of change are virtually c%astois.
No team was ever yet built up with sure
enough c~astoffs. There's a certain good
team that ] could mention that is commonly
supposed TO have been remade by an un-
commonly clever manager from castoh
material, but when you fall to Analysing
the fellows of the alleged oastof variety
of that club you quickly find that they
never really were castofis at all.
There are a whole lot OF readable and
entertaining dope stories about baseball
castohs who have turned around and
dazzled the baseball world, thereby pouring
Goals OF fire and a lot OF molten lead and
bla zing oil upon the conks of the folks that
nave turned them loose. But you want to
take these hop narratives with all the pepsin
and bismuth your system can stand. There
are plenty Of cases where ca~stofs-chronic.
all-in c%astotfs, mean-who've done re-
markable things for a little while. but none
~ than that I aVar hanrd NJ has la0tad for
any great length OF time. I'm not referring
10 castotis who've been turned loose from
I one or two clubs, maybe without having
had a sufficient trial. The kind OF castof
I'm talking about ia the man who has been
in the game for n good many years, who
has worn his edge away, n who, knowing
this, begins to sulk on the bench. Such a
man may upon being transferred 10 a new
and %congenial outfit buck up and show
flashes OF his old time form for a little way,
but he doesn't go the distance.
The baseball business, in brief, has now
| settled down TO such u bedrock basis that
the crack players Of a club are simply nom
transferable assets, Every good player
who is at The same time a man Of sense and
| good conduct Ia one OF the cogs In the com
bination. Pull him out and the whole
thing collapses. Owners OF ball clubs
know all about this. They're not owning
ball clubs for hygienic reasons, and that .
why there's no chance 20 dicker with them
you suppose that II I had on my team certain
players that I'd give n piece Of my left ear
to get I'd ever listen TO any proposition
looking to having them taken away?
There are all sorts OF poppy tales going
around the baseball world all the time
about ball PLAYERS who lay down on the
clubs they work for for the purpose Of paw
ing the way for their transfer TO another
club that they want 10 join.
You can tin all Of hat kind 81 stun with
out looking al IL twice. There never was
q bit. OF truth in any Of those yarns since
the game was organized. A ball players