The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-04-28
lant, were found to bring better

] hrst"class players, and developed th'
fact that, with perhaps 100000 active
, players in the minor leagues, college
semi professional and strong amateur
teams, it was extremely difficult tc
J find 325 men good enough, and will
experience enough, to fill the sixteer
clubs of the two major leagues. Thit
: famine in athletes not onIy acted tc
increase the demand for players, ano
TO add 10 salaries, but il impressed upon
both owners and managers the necessity
: of keeping good ball players IN condI
tion. The live stock, upon which the
fortunes of the owners depended, had
become so valuable that any, deprecia-
tion found its way into profit and
loss figures, and the watching care OF
managers over the morals and physical
grooming of players insured good be-
havior As the game advanced and de
veloped toward perfection. the demand
for men above the average in mentality
as well as in strength and speed became
| greater and greater. and the value of
the players rose steadily,
The finding and developing of play
ers is the greatest problem of the mod,
ern game. There is a dearth of really
good players; men of brains, speed and
strength, GOODNESS and character. The
major leagues alone demand nearly two
hundred new players each year TO fill
gaps in the ranks, and of these not
more than twenty, or one in ten, is
! good enough to remain with the major
| league teams as a substitute even. and
perhaps not more than An average OF
! eight for the sixteen clubs secure reg
nlar positions. replacing veterans.
| 1t is almost impossible TO purchase
players of WORTH but outside of all
monetary considerations il is certain
| that the manager of a weak MAJOR
| league club cannot, even if given his
choice of all the players in America
outside the major leagues, get together
team good enough to raise his city
| into the first division, unless phenomen-
al luck attends his efforts and a half
a dozen players develop suddenly after
being promoted.
There have been instances of teams
being thrown together. that fitted eX
actly, but they are baseball miracles.
The modern manager has as much
| chance of putting together a winning
team in one season as he would have
of throwing handful of mud into the
air and having it come down as
Sevres vase. John Grim, who has man
aged baseball clubs in almost every
league and state In the United States,
once put together a team Of ten men
TO represent Portland, Ore, in the
Northwest league. He had two weeks
IN which to create n team ont of moth
ing and a few thousand dollars, In
ten DAYS he gathered from all over
the United States ten players, most of
whom he never had seen before and
knew little about He moved to Port
land with his squad. Every man in the
squad developed into a good ball play
er. All ten renamed with the team
through the entire season. and with
only one recruit they won the cham
plonship from three other teams OF
experienced players.
Sometimes players are found in COW
eys. like quail. Hornellsville, n. Y,
once gave to the major leagues six
players In one year. Lowe. Long, Can
eel and Bennett went from one team
into fast company. There was team
which at one time represented Frank
lin, Pa, in the Iron and OIL league,
which. without making any spectacular
showing In that humble organization,
proved gold mine. In one season
that team developed and sent into
the major league Jimmy Slagle, Claude
Ritchey, Emmett Hedrick, Bill TAYLOR.
Sox - Seybold and Nichols the Pitts.
burg left-handed pitcher, every one of
whom at once sprang into prominence
and most of whom afterwards came TO
be regarded as famous PLAYERS
In the fall Of 1909. Connie Mack. find
ing his allstar Philadelphia Athletics
decaying rapidly and threatening TO
become a hopelessy slow club. dis. |
carded practically his entire team, and
starting afresh to build new club. |
retaining only few of the veterans
10 balance the new men and teach them
the tricks Of the trade, had the phe. |
nomenai luck to develop team which
came near being of championship cali |
her, He discovered Collins. whose in.
held play was the sensation of the |
American league in 1909, and krause, |
left-hander, who stepped directly into |
the front rank of the pitchers of the |
country. Besides these, he found sew
eral men better than those he had cast |
OH. But such records are freaks Usu- |
ally when team passes its prime and |
begins to retrograde, years are required |!
years and fortnnes-before another
winning team is produced
In the earlier days of the game play
ers usually came IN pairs, a pitcher
and catcher together; and were main
ly recruited from cities. The reason for
this was that they starred together
throwing and catching back Of the |
shop during the noon hour recess. Half
the players entered the profession eth
er as pitchers or catchers, and found
their other positions after joining the
team and failing in battery positions
such n thing IS next to impossible under
modern conditions, because baseball to.
day is one of the most highly special
lzed of all trades. a second bascman
is as distinct from shortstop as the
paying teller of bank is from the
individual ledger man. The. right fielder
may be able TO play left field, but not
nearly so well as he can his own posi-
ton. Why a player is fitted for ono
position and useless in others is ex-
planned later in the individual study of
the positions, the men and their duties.
The supply of players Of major league
cali ber is 80 small that the owners of
clubs IN the American and National
leagues, and the higher minor leagues
have resorted TO dragnet methods TO
discover, them and to pull them from
the back lots. the college fields and
tho country Fairgrounds. Each club
employs a scouting force, usually com
posed of veteran players or retired own.
ers. The duty of these scouts is TO
scour the entire country, league after
league, club after club, seeking men