Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-21
YOUNG BALL PLAYERS
THRIVE IN WINTER
Umpire Evans Writes Enter
tainingIy of the Trial
of the Riddles.
By Billy Evans.

Far better than the great Cobb.
A harder slugger than the mighty Sam
Crawford.
Has more speed than Christy Mathew
son in his palmiest days.
AS a receiver he has Johnny King
backed into the discard and then some.
In another week foot ball will be but
memory. Then the fans will be COM
PEELED to listen to such expressions as
the above, concerning some of the youth
full recruits picked up in the minors.
The winter is a great time for the aver
age base ball phenom to thrive. He is
touted to the sky when the snow is on
the ground. In some cases he more than
makes good, but as general rule the
spring time proves beautiful season of
the year for the premature explosion of
base ball phenoms.
quite often the boosting accorded va
rlous youngsters is on the square. as the
men handing out the line of plea MT
'hinss really believe their protege has an
exceiient chance TO make good In the
MINOR league in which he played he
iooxeo hke The one best bet. Perhaps
rom the same league a year previous
some player had advanced to fast com
Pahy ana made good. On a comma rison
ne olont look as good as the latest re-
10 shine. " 40 "ue
TO maintain the high standard of base
an SET oy the TWO major leagues good
ntdterlal is always in demand. The desire
vi every club owner is to boast of n win
ner Money Is TO object when thor y; +.
cnance TO pick up or devotion a nlavar
S MI Grass, ana as result there is a big
neio Tor advancement in the great ma
tfonal game. "
The latest innovation in the base hou
game is the employment of scouts 70
touI the country and inspect the material
IN the various minor leagues Ten wears
go oase ball scout was an unknown
feature of the game At present 60,
'Is league club has from one tn 6,,a
scouts In its employ. PLAYERS who ,oot
LOU 70 these officials are highly recom
'enueo 10 the different club owners uho
seek to either purchase or secure +hnro
by draft 'heia
Advance Of Players Is Sudden
'h 'he demand so great for promis-
sieeh material. many players are
IMP" tio'n Inc smallest bush league
=. ~ .n, majors In single year. The jump
mueeu a dig one. and it is not at all
surprising that so many of the x,o,ng-
sters are turned back each spring for
iufther seasoning. In these rnoxia-ne L. ~.
II manager gets one PLAYER with his
!easue material from a bunch Of
t.aa OF more recruits he is perfectly
tho in,r,.n.a .He "oih or MS scouts and
~, ihinehse amount Of money invested.
VI tate years it has not been an nm
Usual happening for club to sio,, mn
a. many as thirty or forty young play-
ior try-out- Quite often this nun
Der is considerably reduced before snr,..
ny SAFE or release, but it is not unusual
tor team to take from fifteen to twenty
I'VE men south "
,Iylng-out Of the phenoms, as the
LEV LEV players are usually dubbed. is a
'ihcuit proposition for the MANAGER in
charge, and for several wears Various
,o nave been pursued to enable the
possible circumstances. e 'ee'
Manager McGraw of the Nom yor,
eam lnaugurated the stunt NJ toL;rH
an ms new men south several weets
i ~. ausance or any OF the veterans and
looking them over In this way tbe nan-
players We're not under the critica, 80
or the old stars and had no reason -
sunering from stage fright. McCraw
nsursa 1haI under such conditions they
shouid be able to show at their hos, 90
ne mas been quite successful With tie
theory. Win tne
Connie Mack's Experiment.
inree years ago Connie Mack gave the
base ball world a surprise bv start,n.
west on the final trip Of the wear with
every likely youngster he could corral
from the different minor leagues. He leet
nome
Realizing that he was out of the race
Mack figured 1t an ideal time to trv ont
IT'S new men in regular games He MIR
sued the same policy for two wears and in
the season Just closed he ran q close
second to Detroit with the bunch of
youngsters which two or three wears he
fore had been the subject of so much
ridicule. ~
Last summer Jimmy McAleer of the
ST Louis Browns, realizing that his team
rad no chance to better its position dur
ing the last month of the race made IL a
point 10 try out all the new men he could
ger 20 report. The experiment enabled
McAleer to get line on the future greats
ana gave the new manager OF the Browns
some ldea as to what he might exnact
from the raw material
The leap from the tall uncut OF +ba
minors TO the skinned diamond OF the
majors. as stated before, lis one long
jump. Quite often the PLAYERS toutaS
strongly fail most dismally whiIa the
men who draw but little mention in tho
advance winter dope develop into the
real stars. '''0
Many Reputed to Be Ty Cobbs.
Take Tyrus Cobb, the wonderful out
fielder Of the Detroit team. At Augusta
Cobb was only a substitute, but he look
ed good to Bill Armour OF the Tigers-so
good. in fact. that Armour paid part of
the purchase price himself When Cobb
In nefroft ,,njforv,, T., ~. or,