The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1910-09-01

ledBue CluDS move DelOW Ine lTOSl
belt, scattering from California to
Florida, to train for the season. Ten
days or two weeks later the northern
minor league clubs follow their exam
pie, and by March 20 more than 1900
professional baseball players are train.
ing in perhaps 80 southern towns and
cities.
Major league teams are scattered
from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, and
there is scarcely a city OF town in the
south or west that will not receive a
visit from some team before the sea.
son opens. The movement, however,
is more and more toward permanent
training camps, and against exhibition
tours. Some of the teams already
have purchased grounds or secured
long-term leases. and are preparing to
build baths and gymnasiums. Some
propose operating their training plants
all winter and sending the young play.
ers drafted or purchased from minor
leagues there early in the winter to
develop under the eye of an expert
enced coach, who will turn them over
to the manager ready for play.
The scarcity of really good players
has compelled the movement toward
these permanent schools for educating
and developing players, and the busi-
ness as an amusement enterprise has
become so remunerative that the re-
turns justify the expense.
The veterans. chary regarding their
arms, throw with slow long arm
swings, while the youngsters, proud
possessors Of strong whips" begin to
Of the ball against gloves beats a
steady tattoo above which the warn
ing shouts of the manager rise:
Save some of that ginger-you'I
need II in a couple of days"
For an hour the players warm up,
throwing, running easily, scooping
balls. The warmth tempts them to
greater efforts, but experience warns
them to resist. Suddenly the high
low" game starts.
BY noon the individual players are
beginning to drop out of the groups,
and start some form of exercise de-
signed to At their own needs, slow
running, gymnasic exercises, or some
like hobby. One o'clock comes. The
players, dripping with perspiration In
heavy flannels and sweaters, have for
gotten time, and some of them have
forgotten caution. The ball cracks
harder against the gloves. They are
hard at work-playing
Every one run In" orders the man
ager, and before the words are out of
his mouth a line wheels across the
field, straggles out the gate and starts
on the long jog through town to the
bathhouse, perhaps two miles away.
For half an hour they jostle, slap and
scramble around under the showers,
throw themselves down, one after an
other, for a hurried massage by the
overworked trainer. dress rapidly and
are off to dinner.
If ever walters suffered for their
sins those who attempt to serve ball
club on the morning of the second day
of training are the ones. The break
fast room at ten o'clock is like cage
of sore-headed bears, each suffering
with rheumatism. The athletes limp
downstairs, hobble around the lobby,
nurse sore arms and strive to revive
quarrels two years old. The wretched
trainer confesses to a sympathizer
that 80 ball players wanted to whip
him because he could not rub them
all at the same time. BY II o'clock
a thin red line of cripples hobbies into
the park, limps onto the diamond like
a G. A. r. parade, and the sound Of
creaking muscles and groaning swear
words arises. The manager, who has
been waiting an hour, grins and says
nothing. He understands.
The collective work of a team,
which is here described typically, is
only part Of the real process of con-
ditioning. Massage baths, and the
use of every conceivable device, goes
on steadily IA hours day during the
preparatory season. The players are
working for individual condition and
effectiveness In their own way. Those
persons who imagine that baseball is
a SNAP" or some special gift of ma.
ture should have been in the training
camp OF the New York Giants a few
years ago, and their ideas would have
changed. Early in the training sea,
son the word had flashed around the
circuit: "Matty's arm is gone"
Translated, that meant a revision
of all the pennant calculations of all
the clubs in the National league. II
Mathewson's arm really was perma.
nently injured the New York club
ceased to be a championship factor.
On tho training field a few days
later nearly 40 men were hard at
work. Over at one side a graceful.
handsome, boyish-looking man was
throwing slowly and with evident eau
ton to a, young catcher Slowly. and
studying every move In order to avoid
Jerking or twisting damaged shoul-
der, he kept pitching. trying to throw
thesoreness out" He had drawn q
little cross in the dirt upon which he
pivoted his right foot. and two feet in
front OF that and foot to the left was
n hole In the aand Aa ha thraW he