The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-10-01
FAVORS
SUMNER BALL

Fred Tenney. the great first base
man who has just retired from base
ball, comes out strongly in support of
summer baseball for college students,
and takes occasion also to eulogize the
profession he has SO Loyalty followed
for the last fifteen years.
A college graduate himself. and one
OF the cleanest and best that old Brown
university has ever produced, Tenney's
words cannot fail to impress baseball
fans, college men, and every one with
enough red blood in his veins to APP
preciate the merits of the great ma
tional game.
When a man enters the profession
he feels he is fittest to follow let hi !
make 1t his life work. This is true
whether the profession chosen be med :
icine, the church. the law or baseball.
1t becomes his means of livelihood. and
the harder he works the more conscien-
tiously he devotes himself to IL the
greater will be the remuneration and
the greater the credit conferred upon
both that profession and himself.
Glad He Played.
After fifteen years Of professional
baseball, after a decade and a half Of
close and exciting strife upon the dia
mond, can look back upon the day I
graduated from Brown university and
say with all honesty that / am glad /
adopted baseball
Not that / have acquired wealth or
even laid the foundation of a fortune
l don't expect that / ever will be a
rich man. ] have ambition TO become
either manager or magnate. and don't
expect that my name ever will appear
in the list of Winthrop's heaviest tax
payers, but I feel that in devoting the
best years of my life to an honorable
profession / have done both as nature
ana common sense dictated, and when
l retire from baseball will feel happy
In the accomplishment of a life's hon
orable ambition
For the baseball profession Is as
honorable as any other A man can
dignity any profession. God has given
every man talents that lie along a GER
tain line, and If that man follows them
10 the best advantage and serves the
procession he chooses faithfully, then
All honor to the man and all honor to
the profession
Years ago the professional ball play
er was not regarded In exactly the
same light as he is today. But that
was simply because the American pub
tic had not begun to appreciate the abb
solute honesty. Of the game, nor the
sterling character OF the men who
chose to adopt 1t as a means of live
lihood
Many "Pros" College Men.
But today considerable portion OF
the men playing in the big leagues
are college men. Many Of them have
Won their degrees, some of them have
excelled in languages, literature and
other branches, and their ability would
undoubtedly have insured them a COM
Portable future had they chosen to fol-
low one OF the so-called learned pro-
Lesslons. But they have preferred to
LonoW baseball, and | have yet to hear
OF an instance where a single college
man has regretted the choice made.
some or them undoubtedly have
round the profession far more remuner-
ative than their selection OF law or
medicine as q means Of livelihood
would have allowed. know many a
college man Of my time who got his
sheepskin, went into one of the pro-
ressional schools, and graduating in
the course Of time, put out his shinRle.
only to find the struggle for existence
IN an overcrowded profession Ndfhl
cult one. But the baseball profession
can never be overcrowded. AS IL il
today, there are not nearly enough
player OF merit to go around.
This brings me to the question OF
summer baseball-basebal PLAYED bv
students during the summer vacation
for money consideration practice
which has been frowned upon by col
lege authorities and supporters of pure
athletics for years past but which Id
now seemingly finding favor with those
disposed to take more liberal view Of
the matter.
II want to say right here that the
college man who goes TO college for the
sake Of an education NOT for An ath-
lefic training. has every right In the
world to devote the talents that cod
gave him 70 legitimate and lucrative
use during the summer vacation. wilt
candidly admit that only for summer
baseball could never have graduated
from Brown. But for the money III
made during the long summer months
could never have paid my way
through college, and ! know scores. Of
college graduates who will say the
same.