The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-07-26
CLARK GRIFFITH TELLS
WHY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO
PYLOOSE BASEBALL. STARS

AT this time of the year it is diff
tult to get good players. Fans n
newspapers who are so ready with Sug-
gestions and prone to knock. do not
seem to understand the situation. The
other day at Washington, Clark Grit
filth. manager of the New York Amer
leans. who are in the second division
IN the American league race, and gen
orally regarded as one of the shreWd-
est managers in the business. was dis
cussing the difficulties ne had encount-
tered. a nunber of New York fans
pluggers for the success of the Grif-
fifth outfit, had been Il bit too liberal
with their suggestions to the manager
as to what he should do to improve
the percentage standard of his team.
The flood of suggestions reused Grit
fifth to a Conversations point decidedly
unusu to him.
fellows behind their backs" he OBJ
served when the chaps with the heaps
of suggestions had gone away but
they don know-that's all. They're
,fussy wussies who possess more en-
thusiasm than understanding. You
heard how they all advised me to start
something?
"Now's The time to plug up those
holes one of them said to me. Go
Set EN-. 80 ana SOS a man we heed.
He's dissatisfied with the club he's at
tached to now. Snap him up. He
wants to Join the Yanks. He'll break
nine blood vessels trying to hitch up
with your team If you'll just tip him
off that you can use him. And there's
Such and Such. What's the matter
with coping out that finger? He can
heave rings around two or three of the
tossers you've got now, and NIL you
need to do to nail him is to let him
that you want him-he'll come
a%-runnin'.'
And all like that. I'm pretty we'll
used to that kind of stuff by this time,
but there are times when it gets me
into a fume. ali the same. And when
I shake my cad and tell these we'll
meaning pluggers that the things they
suggest aren't possible, they go off say
ing to themselves. Well, that fellow
might do all right as a floor walker in
a 10 cent store. but as the of
a ball club he's a goose egg with the
rim torn off,
I'D like to know of anything harder
than it is to convince a home fan that
first class ball players are about as rare
as 1904 silver dollars. They fx UP these
ideal ball clubs OF paner by the simple
process of s%cribbling a list of the best
men playing in every diamond position.
and then they skate gayly to the front
and inquire why these men aren't
Sts'oeu. iiley re pretly llable, too, to
lay it to pure close f%stedness on the
part of a club the crack players
OF the game are not all assembled on
one team. I'd hate to say Just how
much money the owners of the club 7
work for would be willing to paw to
1eteh together one of these ideal ball
clubs that look so fine on paper. The
outlay they'd be eager to make would
run away up In the six figures. Tn
owners of any ball club know lust the
men they need and want, but they also
know they can't get these men for any
amount Of money.
1t around, the owners of n
oall club know just the men they don't
want, too. There are plenty of PLAYERS
who are there with the goods when it
comes to playing the game and who
might be got. But 1t doesn't take much
that there's something the matter with
o OF these pretty good ball players
whose employers are willing to turn
them loose for a piece of money.
They're pretty liable to be ~disorgani2-
efS,. srouches. crabs, chronic kickers,
erything, from the color of the mattress
of their sleeping car bunk to the gold
ming In the umpire's teeth.
Just one man OF this kind on a ball
club will queer the outfit. He's there
every hour of the day with some kind
i'NSil L lIke Inc OBJ
that takes he team out to the park
because it hasn't got rubber tires. he
doesn't like his hotel room because If
doesn't get the south breeze and be-
cause the fittings of the porcelain tub
arc of brass instead of nickel. hes
there with a mut,er about the pitcher
tAe team skipper puts in on certain
days, mes lumpy around the neckband
because the official scorers, according To
ms dope, are giving him the pound
thlns all the time, and in general he's
a bad actor who in rearing and kick
ing around the barrier is liable to hash
the whole layout from flag fall to finish.
IF he's not a grouch or a kicker, he's
pretty sure to have something else ALL
ing him. He may be a periodical souse
or one OF the slinkers who gets corned
UP on malt every night or so under,
cover a man OF this kind isn't of any
use to a ball club, no matter how crack
a player he may be when he's behaving
himself. When a ball player deliber-
ately flags the training rules and stakes
himself to a pickle whenever he feels a
gen for the wet stuff. he not only makes
himself useless, but he gets the others
going by his example.
I'm not unlimbering on the goody
goody things just to give my tonsile cx-
ercise, but I'm telling about what /
know after having watched the thing
for a good many years. 1t doesn't make
llS SiiS'.ltcSl dtiIeItllCG 10 me what n
ball player Of my outfit may do so long
as he keeps himself fit and delivers the
goods during the playing season. I'm
not concerned With the mems habits
SO long rs their habits don't Interfere
with their playing ability. AS far as
the l~ong-eared boys in the game are
commemorative Epworth Leaguers,
mean, who never toe a smoke or a
chew and never got lit up in their
lives-I'm bound to say that I've known
mighty few OF them that were first
class players. n the devil of it about
the dead good ones who butt into the
game is they're so mighty proud of
their correct habits that they either
hold the rest of their team mates in
contempt or they try to impress their
way Of looking at things upon the rest
of the gang, thereby making their team
mates sore or tired.
II can't dope it out why those fans
who are there with the suggestions fai
to understand that the good players
the chaps with real brains and ability
and the fellows who IN addition to be.
Ing good players are solid Muldoons as
to their habits II behavior. simply
can't be got for owe or money. They
can't be torn loose from the people
owning them with the aid of wild
horses or steam wincheS II doeSo,,