The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-01-16
HARMONY WINS NO
REMNANTS
Teams Have Contained scrappy
cliques and Internal
Dissension.

i Chicago, January l5.--To hear many
Mans and largo numbers OF able critics
ltaik OF championship baseball clubs,
1t would aeem positive essential that
harmony" should prevnil among tho
men--that peace and brotherly love
should be preserved unDroken. and that
no team could win where iss members
j Jared and disagreed
Every now and then NE hear of como
Player getting the hook or being trad.
ed, sometimes for much inferior man.
and the cry at once goes up. 'Soli to
/ re store the harmony OF the club" f,ow
and then some player is In the wiring
extremely wrong. and 1t becomes I'm.
possible TO keep him. irrespective OF his
.skill, but, as q rule. HARMONY, counts
as much In ball team as the color OF
! the batboy's hair.
We hear. now and then, that such
and such pitchers complain that they
don't set the support they should. be-
cause other players have it In for them.
Then. TOO. we hear OF clidues and fac
tons. with rulnou3 effcts upon tho
standing OF the team. once in great
while all thcsc things are true, but in
seven cases out of ten poppycock and
baldcrdash.
The cllques that exist In every bali
club have no bearing whatever, In
most cases. upon the SUCCESS or fall
#urc OF the team. The fact that an en-
ttre club may like one pitcher and dis
like another cuts no ice at any stage.
Startling remarks, but absolutely true.
3 1T is Impossible for twenty or moro
young athletes to dwell In harmony.
Never happened yet and mover will.
It Is impossible that one pitcher should
fall to be popular, equally Impossible
that some other pitcher. a surely crab,
should be otherwise than dtslilsed.
But that cuts no figure. Ball clubs
do not throw down pitchers. nor do
they toss away games-at least. not
while they are In the forefront nnd
tive OF the rich worlds series money
following.
{ Take this for straight goods-any
time ball club sec that coin In the
dim distance, II Is going to get out
there pnd play ficndish ball. no matter
whether Jolly Bob Jones or Grouchy
Sem Sockum is on the slab.
Harmony Is a dream. There was
never yet n champion ball club that
didn't have q lot OF fights among It's
men. There was never yet q topnotch
team whore there were not several
little cliques and combinations. Better
that way than in sheeplike harmony.
II all the gang agreed as angel faced
cherubs are supposed to do. they would
get lazy. loggy and too utterly con-
tented. All
There were men on the old Chicago
White Stockings who never spoke to
each other of the field. There were
men among tho old st. Louis Browns
who hated each other and haven't
made UP in twenty years. There were
fist fights among tho old Orioles. on
the field and off, There were hand-to-
hand mills among the Athletics when
Connie Mack won his two flags Some
IF the fights among the Tigers were
corkers AZ
When Tyrus Cobb Joined the Tigers
40 was one fresh kid. and the older
men tried to get him IN his place. Cobb
licked some and got licked by others.
His fued with Matty Mcintyre was so
1erce that Jennings had to play them
n right and left fold, with Crawford
He WAS at war with Charlie
Schmidt, and Schmidt punched his head
,fr. But the Tigers played ball Just
he same and won. n
Tho Baltimore champions wore nl-
Ways lighting, and some Of their mills
we're JOY to any one who understood.