Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-29
BALL CLUBS SELDOM
DUMP into WRECKS
Few Accidents Mar Sport
While Players Are Travelling.
Maps Had Narrow Escape
From Catastrophe.

In the forty years history Of pro-
fessional base ball there has never been
recorded serious accident to a base
ball team while travelling on the railroad
This fact is especially noteworthy be-
cause Of the large amount of travel In.
dulged in by yball teams. which are con.
stantly on the road from city to city dur
ing the five or six months Of the play
ing season. Not a day or night passes
from the first Of April until the first OF
October that does not see several clubs
each composed Of from a dozen to a score
Of players journeying from one town to
another. The schedule Of an eight-clut
league calls for three trips by each team
to every other city on the circuit.
In the two major leagues. the National
and American, whose circuits extend
from Boston to st. Louis. this means ar
average for each club Of about
$4,000 miles. or more than half the dis.
lance around the world each season. Each
league has eight clubs so that the total
mileage for the sixteen teams of the two
leagues reaches 225O00. This Is simply
the distance traversed in playing the reg
ular scheduled games for the champion
ship of the leagues.
Training Trips Are Long.
In addition to this every major league
club does its preliminary training in the
south during the month Of March. in
volving many more miles of travel The
spring trip from the northern cities to
points In Florida, Georgia, Alabama.
Louisiana and Texas. together with long
jumps to the larger southern cities for the
purpose OF playing exhibition games. in
creases each teams mileage enormously
Nearly every spring some league club
goes to southern California, which adds
1000 or 5000 miles to the distance cover
ed by that club during the year A con-
servative estimate Of the total distance
Travelled by the sixteen clubs of the ma jor
leagues Is 100000 miles each year. Then
there are some forty minor leagues whose
schedules also call for constant travel
on the part OF the clubs composing them
1t may be concluded that base bali teams
counting all grades and classes patronize
the railroads to the extent of several
million miles during the playing season.
This constant travelling by ball clubs has
been going on for many. years without a
fatal or even serious accident ever be-
falling a team while on the road. In
fact. very few minor accidents to. trains
carrying ball teams have occurred
Accidents Are Very Few.
In the summer Of 1893 a train carving
the Chicago team from Cleveland to Chi
cago experienced rear-end collision with
g freight train, owing to the contested
traffic during the worlds fair. Two
players. Malachi Kittredge and Jimmy
Ryan. were shaken up and bruised, but
no one was seriously hurt A few wears
later a special train making a fast run
from Cleveland to st. Louis with two
ball teams representing those cities was
derailed and the sleeping cars occupied
by the ball players were overturned, but
so insignificant were the injuries received
that the clubs were able to continue their
way on another train, arriving In st.
Louis In time for a scheduled game the
next day, in which all the players took
part This practically completes the list
of railroad accidents to ball teams in
transit
1t has come to be almost a superstition
that train carrying a ball club is i'm
mune from accident. Passenger agents
are always delighted to secure base ball
business for this reason, as we'll as for
the revenue involved. Travelling men and
theatrical people like to travel on the
same trains with ball teams, believing
that the presence OF the athletes Is better
than an accident Insurance policv