The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1907-03-29
| SPORTING
Star Ball Players Passing

| famous baseball stars will be more
pronounced this year than ever before.
1t will be back to the minor leagues
for them, and then, when they have
outlived their usefulness there, OBJ
security. Baseball fans will miss the
familiar features of Billy Gilbert, Doc
Newton, Heinie Peitz, Joe Kelley, Jim
Jackson, Jimmy Sebring, Bob Wicker,
Kittredge and others who have seen
their best days as major league play
ers. Gilbert not long ago had big
following in this city when he played
second base for the New York Ma
| tionals, former worlds champions.
His friends Landed him to the skies
until Gilbert believed that much of
the success OF McGraw's men was due
to his Efforts. But without the slight
lest warning McGraw has cut Gilbert
tout of the once great team and has
sold his release to the Newark club
Iof the Eastern league, So rapidly has
this player gone back that no club in
the National league put in claim
for his services. Gilbert cannot I'M
lderstand that he has become a player
of minor league calibre. and has
opened a saloon in this city, declaring
again, but he may think better of it
later on.
i Doc Newton, who was suspended by
the New York Americans last fall,
has been practically forced out of the
lbig leagues. and has accepted the
terms of the Montreal club of the
Eastern league. Newton has been a
Inoted left handed pitcher. playing with
| nLo
Eaiso in California. But his habits
have not been the best and the big
managers have passed him up. In
Montreal under the mana cement of
Malachi Kittredge, the veteran catcher
who quit major league bah last year
, after a campaign Of nearly seventeen
seasons, Newton may cut wide
swath. He is not an old man, by any
/ means, and if he does well in the box
, he may get another chance with one
} of the clubs in the big league
u Heinie Peitz, a star catcher in his
I day, has dropped from the Pittsburg
7 lclub to the Louisvilles of the Ameri-
can association, but he may not play
> ball again, as he does not care for the
Y terms offered to him by Louisville.
> Peitz made his mark with Cincinnati.
3 With Theodore Breitenstein he helped
. to form the famous "pretzel battery,
and both became warm favorites
r wherever they went. Cincinnati let
him go to Smokevflle two years ago
and he did good work for the Dreyfus
, team for some time. But last season
Peitz began to slide down the tobog-
Igan In such way that it was appar-
lent to everybody that he had reached
the limit.
Joe Kelley, another famous player
has left the Cincinnati team to take
up the managerial reins at Toronto
Fanothef Eastern league club. Kelley
Twas young player of promise when
Hanlon got him from Pittsburg In
1898 in exchange for Van Haltren AND
$4,000. Kelley, as left fielder of the
Baltimores, became a star and in two
years time his release could not have
been purchased for $4,000 and per-
lhaps more. When McGraw left Balti-
more to take the management of the
New York Nationals, Kelley went t.
Cincinnati in a similar capacity. HI
received a big salary and it was pre-.
| dicted that he would be success ir
his new role. But, strange to say
Kelley was a dismal failure, not only
as a manager but as a player anC
when Hanlon was engaged by Gary
Hermann he found that Kelley wal
practically all in. Not club in thu
National or the American leagu,
wanted Kelley when he was placed Oh
the market, so that 1T was possible t,
sell his release outright to Toronto
where he will receive as much salary
however. as he got in Porkville.
James Sebring had a brilliant futur
l when he broke into major league bal
some time ago as member of tn
Pittsburg team. Then he was trade,
Ito Cincinnati, where he became dis
/ satisfied and soon jumped his con
4 tract to join the Williamsport club 0
1 the Tri-State league, at that time a,
\ outlaw organization. When the Tri
I State was admitted to protection un
der the national agreement, however
Sebring wanted to get back into tn
I National league to play with the Chi
1 cago club, which had purchased hi
\ release from Cincinnati in the mean
1 time. But the national commission
after subjecting him to a trial, de
icided that he would have to renal