The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-23
CLARKE MAY QUIT
Pirate Leader Reiterates Talk
of Retiring From Game.
Wants to Spend Rest Of Days on
His Kansas Farm.
HAS WON 4 REMNANTS.
Great Manager Is Regarded as
Topnotch Outfielder.
Pittsburg's Loss Would Mean
Much to Chicago Cubs.

Chicago, Ill, Oct. 23.-Fred Clarke,
the farmer from Winfield, Kan. Is
now the biggest figure in the world
of baseball. He has won his fourth
pennant in the National league, and
now will quit baseball, according TO
declarations he made at the start OF
the season and repeated since then.
If he keeps his promise and quits
baseball this winter it will mean al
most certain victory for the Cubs next
wear. AS things stand, Chance q Co.,
VOW and declare that they Will go
back and beat out the Pirates even IN
their full strength, but II Clarke is
out of it the race ought TO De easier
for the Chicago team, unless Some-
thing amazing and surprising ana to-
tally unexpected is done in the way
of strengthening the New YORK or
Cincinnati clubs. .
Clarke is the driving force behind
the Pirates. Wagner may be the
Pittsburg team the man who pounds
in the runs, who steals the bases and
who is the keystone of the infield-
but Clarke is 1.-The man behind" Wag-
ner, great as he is, is a trailer. Clarke
is a leader, and one of the greatest in
baseball.
He is not so heady as Chance, and
moreover, he plays the outfield in
stead of the infeld, and is therefore
= just so much farther removed from
the center OF ne Is p0IHd PS
. not so much a fighter as Chance,
hard fighter though he is. But he
= knows how to wait, he is judge of
ball players hardly to be excelled, an
: excellent field general, knows pitch
er at sight and for gameness cannot
20 be beaten.
And now he wants to quit!
He wants to go back to the farm.
o. He hears the call of the soil. He
would rather listen to the sound of
the wheat breaking through the soil
than to the rattle of three base hits.
He would rather discuss silos and en-
silage than the theory of taking
leads of first and the underlying STRAIT
: egg of the delayed double steal.
Would Go to Kansas Farm.
The phenomenon is familiar one
the fighting man who fights though
wearied of fighting, and yet through
1t all hears the song of the wheat A
Cincinnatus, called from the pillow, he
would fain return to the pillow,
And If he returns, good-by, Pitts
: burg pennant hopesi Managers like
Clarke are not found along the street,
Clarke is one of the richest players
in baseball. He is said to be worth
more than $4,000. Manager of the
Pittsburg team for nine seasons, he
has saved his money and invested it
carefully. His first investments went
into Kansas farm 1ands-for he was a
the game.
When he won the first pennant for
Pittsburg, in 1901, he bought an eigh-
ty-acre farm with what he had saved.
He extended his holdings the next
year and the next. and in 1903, when
he won his third pennant, he invested
$17,5O0. Part of this, it was said, was
borrowed, but if SO the Indebtedness
has been paid of long ago.
He kept on investing in the rich
farm land around Winfield till last
year 1t was estimated that his hold.
tngs amounted to $4,000. He bought
farm in idaho. where he has a herd
of hundreds Of cattle. and has in
vested in Texas oil wells. All his in.
vestments have turned out well. and
he long since reached the stage where
he could retire If he wanted to-
He says he has wanted to-that he
has chung to the game year after
year only on the principle of "only
one more" and that his heart Is in the
soil on the Kansas ranch
The strangest thing about Clarke
this year is the way his batting has
come up. He has been for severa