The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-21
WHY GREAT LARRY
LOST FAT BERTH
AS NAP LEADER
WRITER SAYS HE'S GREAT PLAY
Err BUT TOO BASHFUL TO GRASP
THE UATlON-PLAYERS DIS
LIKE HIM.
BY TIP WRIGHT.

Cleveland, August 20.-Would you be
surprised to read something like this some
sday next winter: 1.-THE Cleveland club
has sold Cor traded Napoleon Lajoie?"
No, 1 guess not, Ell? You'd sit up In your
chair, rub your eyes and look again
Then you would laugh and get bunch
that the LIST of April was too sudden.
Well, you need not be shocked to read
some such paragraph. Unless I am very
much mistaken Lajoie's days are num-
bered. Indeed. will be surprised if he
plays with the team next season.
1 know of no baseball story half as
important as this right now. The trans
fer of Hans" Wagner, Mathewson,
Brown or Chance would make all of us
sit up and calculate What the hotell'
But to see Lajoie's name in some other
batting order than c1eveland's would be
as strange as reading a real poem by
Atty Austin.
Would Be a Big Sensation.
Why, when Nap Lajoie is transferred
you and the man next door and the fell
low around the corner will forget to go
to work while you talk it over, and the
back fences will all be decorated by the
cooks. The mysterious disappearance of
Leon Ling and Charley Ross won't be a
circumstance.
Ask 10 men which American League
team ought to come home in front with
the jockey breaking his arm to prevent
the other seven getting the flag, and
nine Of them will say: Cleveland ought
to, but
And there's lot of meaning in that
last word Every baseball writer around
the big wheel knows that the real trouble
with the Cleveland club is Larry Lajoie
AS matter OF fact, the Maps will never
win pennant while the big Frenchman
is retained as manager.
Maps Badly DemoraIized.
And 1 don't believe Lajoie is a big
enough man to step down as a private
and let some other man manage the team,
as did Fred Abbott, the Toledo catcher
who retired in favor of "Sox' Seybold
There is more dissension in the Cleve-
land club today than there is suds on
Monday The players have about as
much. ambition as you will find in the
annual meeting of the Ancient Order of
the Sons of Rest.
The reason is, they don't like Lajoie
They don't like this constant reference
to king Larry" in the sport pages.
They realize Lajoie is not great leader
nant, but they cannot while Larry is
manager. Consequently. they have lost
heart. Quit cold, and If they are not
laying down, then lot of men who think
they know a heap about baseball are Off
their bang.
Great Player. Poor Skipper.
Not one not even the men who like
Lajoie the least. will deny he is one of
the srandest players that ever wore
spiked Shoes AS a second baseman he
is in class by himself. As a batter
he is wonder. He plays with mechan-
ical perfection. I never saw him make
mechanical mistake. But that lets him
out.
Lajoie's great fault, If fault it can be
called is a peculiar degree of bashful-
ness. This makes him hesitate at criti-
cal times. When a real leader would
jump in and grasp the situation, Larry
let's the situation get by before he
sees it.
And because he is not a Comskey,
Clarke, a McGraw or a Murray, the
players have no respect for his ability
to manage them, and refuse to give him
the respect he should command.
Team Needs a New Monarch.
Place any other major league manager
in charge of the Maps and the team would
go through the league like electric
drill through a bag of beans. The play
ers are there, and the spirit is there, but
it is dormant, and it will remain DORM
ant while Lajoie is manager.
If the Cleveland owners expect to
ever win pennant. they must get rid
of Lajoie or the rest of the team. They
are in a peculiar position.
No matter which way they jump they
will be criticised. But they must do
something, and do 1t soon. And I expect
to see Lajoie get it where Gretchen wears
the beads.