The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-12-01
Now We Will Hear of
The Coming ''Phenoms''

III ADVANCE OF any of the veterans and
looking them over. In this wav the
new players were not under the cri+ico
eye OF the old stars and had no reason
Tor suffering from stage fright. McGraw
/ Inquired that under such conditions thew
should be able to show at their best
and he has been quite successful with
the theory
Connie Mack's Experiment.
Three years ago Connie Mack gave
the baseball world a surprise by start
ing west on the final trip of the year
with every likely youngster he could
corral from the different minor leagues.
He left practically all the veterans at
home. Realizing that he was out of
the race, Mack figured it an ideal time
to try out his new men in regular
games. He pursued the same policy
for two years and in the season just
closed he ran a close second to De-
troit with the bunch of youngsters
which two or three years before had
been the subject of so much ridicule.
Last summer Jimmy McAleer of the
st. Louis Browns, realizing that his
team had no chance to better it's posi-
ton during the last month of the race,
made it point to try out all the new
men he could get to report. The ex-
pertinent enabled McAleer to get a line
on the future greats and gave the new
manager of the Browns some idea as
to what he might expect from the raw
material.
The leap from the tall uncut of the
minors to the skinned diamond of the
majors, as stated before, is one long
jump. Quite often the players touted
strongly fall most dismally while the
men who draw but little mention in the
advance winter dope develop into the
real stars.
Many Reputed to Be Ty Cobbs.
Take Tyrus Cobb, the woncerfu1 out
fielder of the Detroit team. At Augusta
Cobb was only a substitute, but he
looked good to Bill Armour of the
Tigers-so good, in fact, that Armour
paid part of the purchase price himself.
When Cobb appeared in a Detroit uni
form in the fall of 1906, he received no
more than passing attention. Inside Of
a week he had them all sitting up and
was being heralded broad and wide as
the find Of the year. There is no more
shining light in baseball today than
Cobb, yet as a minor Lacquer he was
regarded as only ordinary
Since Cobb made his mark at least a
dozen outfielders have drifted into the
majors with the reputation of having
Tyrus backed off the board, but most
of them are again doing duty in the
minors Tvs crown remains undim-
med. Many are sought as the real
thing. but players like Cobb, Wagner,
Lajoie, Mathewson, Killing and a host
of other big league stars are the eX-
ception to the rule. If such wasn't the
case the major league owners Wouldn
spend money so lavishly each year in
an effort to dig up high-class material.
Of all the young players who broke
into the two big leagues for time late
last year none showed to better advan-
tage than Catcher Killifer of the ST.
Louis Americans.A we'll known man
worked back of the first game the rex
as league recruit caught in the Dig
league. as we'll as quite few others,
and he looked like a fancy pickup FOR
the Browns. That Killifer has the spirit
and the nerve that makes great play
ers was proved by very unfortunate