The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-23
HANS WAGNER IS
 TIE M|CHT|EST Millions Of Fans Gall Him The
 Greatest Player BEGAN CAREER IN 1895 As Pitcher at $s5 Month Became Per feet Baseball Machine-onIy One Pitcher Gave Him Trouble.
 Bored by Fans.

 Chicago.
 That afternoon Pittsburg and Chicago were to start a series that in all proba- bility would decide whether Chicago's wonderful baseball machine built by Chance was to hold the championship or surrender it to Pittsburg.
 Thirty thousand persons were jostling. pushing, rushing to find seats or stand ing room to watch the play. An elevated was disgorging a mob, and after the eager crowd had damned and struggled at exit gates a heavy-set, bow-legged, weatherbeaten, powerful man. dressed in rather baggy clothes, a worse-for-wear straw hat and liberal square shoes emerged quietly and followed the rushing throng down the steps.
 "He looked like a prosperous, eontented German worker. One would have thought to watch the massive shoulders and the powerful bowed legs that he probably had been brewery wagon driver or an ice- man before starting his bakery for some- how Wagner always conveys to me the idea that he ought to have been baker,
 Managers of baseball teams assert in terse bromidian that Every player has a weakness For a dozen years every player and every pitcher has searched for Wagner's weakness and found none. He has played every position in baseball, is as great in the outfeld. perhaps greater than in the infeld. He is the best batter, possibly excepting Cobb, in the land, he Is the greatest base runner the game haa known since Lange.
 He Is one of the best throwers, one of the best fielders and he Is wonderfully fast on bases-and he can hit! He can bunt, he runs bases with Judgment and covers an immense amount of territory, takes chances and plays the inside game perfectly He Is .he nearest approach to a baseball machine ever constructed.
 Besides which he plays to win-plays for his team. No umpire has ever had occasion to accuse Wagner of rowdyism, and his opponents admire and like him, testifying to his sportsmanship.
 '"rhe career of Wagner in baseball has been interesting. He was reared in Car negie, Pa. before 1t was Carnegie, and he and his brothers played the game there. John q wonder how many admir- CTS of Honus, or Hans, know his name Is John P.D was not good player as a boy. The brothers thought he was bir
 
 when he wanted to pitch
 His arms were tremendously long, and they assert around his home that when he was a. kid and his legs were even more bowed than they are now he could walk along and pick up apples with out stooping. That immense length of arm has been one of the physical advan- tages that has gone to make him the greatest of all players. Besides, he has shoulders almost as wide as his arms are long, and he could throw a ball with ter rife speed. Because he could throw so hard all the other boys boasted no catcher could hold John,' and made him pitcher.
 Presently Al, who was Johns older brother, became a professional player ana got a job playing third base for team at Steubenville, O. George Moreland, who Is now the chief baseball statistican of the country. was seized with mania for owning and managing teams. and h. bought the Steubenville club and hired Al Wagner. Moreland needed a pitcher in the summer of 1895 and could not find one to complete his pitching staff until Al Wagner came to him and said:
 Why don't you give my brother John a chance?'
 "Can he pitch?' asked Moreland.
 "T don't know, replied AL but it won't cost much for you to find out
 .'Honus was playing on the lots around Carnegie. and Moreland wrote asking him if he would sign contract to pitch for Steubenville, and the second day there after came postal card on which was written Yes. When do you want me?'
 Wagner ignored the salary question entirely, and Moreland called Al into con- sultation. What will your brother want?' he asked.
 Oh. anything will suit him. re- piled Al.
 ''The salary limit of the Steubenville team was $500 month, and Moreland was within $35 of the limit set by the ner $35 a month to pitch for him. The following day came another laconic card. All right. Will accept.
 "Moreland telegraphed Wagner to re- port immediately and wired railroad order for transportation The telegram was sent at o'clock in the morning and the first train leaving Pittsburg for Steu- benville started at noon, reaching Steu- benville at about 30
 Shortly before 1 o'clock Claude Ritchey, who was playing his first pro- fessional engagement, said: Here comes the big Dutchman,' and Hans Wagner, covered with cinders sauntered up to begin his baseball career.
 ''As a player Wagner's work should be studied piecemeal and starting with the branch of the game in which perhaps he is most proficient. Excepting possibly Anson and Cobb, Wagner is the greatest batter that ever faced a pitcher. He stands loosely, slouchily forward and watching every motion of the pitcher He runs forward, moves In and out around the batter's box and hits with q 1unging swing with the full power of his massive shoulders behind the drive of his arms.
 It's no use to fool him. complained one pitcher this summer. Why, I fooled him three times on fast curves today, and after he had been fooled he followed the ball through with his bat and hit It.
 Pitchers who have looked for Wag- ner's weakness at the bat say he has none. His only weakness said Brown of Chicago, is a fast ball straight over the plate waist high. He doesn't think any pitcher has nerve enough to put one there. and he's likely to miss it.
 During all his career there never has been but one pitcher who troubles Wag- ner all the time, and he was Jack Tay- Tor, formerly of the Chicago club. The first time Taylor pitched against Wagner he was successful, and he said when complimented, That Dutchman can never make base hit off me-
 Every one laughed at the boast, but the players say that during six years in which Taylor pitched against Wagner, and he pitched perhaps a dozen games a