The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-27

MONTY EXPLAINS RISE AND FALL OF
 THE ''PHENOMS"
By MONTY

came a national pastime, but which are very often a source of wonder to those who are not versed in baseball matters beyond the natural interest in the game from spectators standpoint. One is the great numbers of wonders" discov- cred every spring among the bush league recruits who are given try-out with the big leagues, and the other is the aston ishing regularity with which these same recruits, when matched against their old CT team mates, pull down victory-in fact, the seemingly unpardonable suscep- tibility to defeat displayed by the reg ulars' in games with the bush league finds" or the minor league teams of the sunny south. One would think from southern news dispatches that the re- cruits should be given the places of the former baseball stars and that the com ing team ought to be composed of minor leaguers.
 To begin at the beginning and show the rise and fall of 'phenoms' of the bush necessitates an explanation as to the methods used by the major league teams to secure available baseball material in the minor league circuits. This is done, in most cases, by means of scouts These men are usually old major leaguers who have passed their day of active use fitness on the big teams, but whose judgment of good baseball material is a salary drawing asset Each major league outfit has one or more of these scouts, games of the minor leagues and note the form" in which the players perform.
 At the end of the season comparison is made between the notes of the scout and the tables issued by the minor leagues. These tables, which are the re- suit of carefully systematized scheme, and show the average playing ability of the men, the number of hits, runs. errors, etc, made by each individual player dur ing the year, and enable the initiated to tell almost at a glance the particular branch of the sport in which the prospec- tive big leaguer is strong or weak. The manager of the big league team then decides which of the players he needs and negotiations with the minor league teams are in order.
 The reported brilliancy with which these men perform during the early training season and with few exceptions their re- tirement when the season opens is ex- plained by two circumstances One is the presence of a salaried baseball corre- spondent, whose editor demands read able copy, and whose imagination is therefore under more or less strain; and the other is the fact that the recruits are usually the first to go south for training, nd for on the training field representing their teams, thus becoming stars" by virtue of the absence of the seasoned men who usually adorn the diamond.
 The defeats, or at most the close vic tories and uniform bad playing shown by regular teams which later in the season bring thousands to their feet by dis play of brilliant team work, when match ed with the minor league teams of the south or playing scrub games with these bush league recruits can usually be at tributed to lack of training and don't care" spirit. This don't care" phase of the baseball stars character during the early spring training might be called in other circles an "artistic temperament : and is as prevalent among the heroes of the diamond when training as is the fa- miliar spring fever which attacks the of
  news while comfortably seated before blazing fire in the north.
 The average star of the diamond with long winter to idle away and plenty of money in his pocket, lives life more or less open to criticism. He Is prone to take on flesh and self esteem, and when the time comes for five or six hours hard work under a blazing sun he is neither mentally nor physically fit for the ordeal and must be driven to his task by the Yatchful captain and manager. Then, too, he feels his superiority over the minor league 'cubs," who have had weeks of hard practice while he has been saying good-by to his friends in the north and who are in the best possible physical con dition. This conscious superiority, or, as it is more commonly called, ''swelled head,' is apt, therefore, to get more or less of a jolt when the overfed and unfit regulars come in actual contact with the men who have been playing ball and are in good physical trim-hence the news dispatches chronicling the inability of such players as Ty Cobb, Bugs" Ray1 mond, .Matty'' and many others to dis play their old form.
 From now on, however, a new order of things will be apparent The team man. agers will take the whip hand, if they have not already done so, and drive all thoughts of the "artistic temperament from the prima donas of the diamond by demanding hours of hard and cOnscien- tious work and a training table diet. Their playing will improve, their victories will increase, and the newspaper corre- spondents, who have been so busily en- gagged in touting the newcomers for | major league uniforms will Toll, back in their swivel chairs and reap the harvest | of news they shave been so careful to SOW, by chronicling the release of Ira l McSwat, the world-famed. pill bouncer | from the Kentucky bush, who showed such great form in the early spring but has fallen down in his play during the past few weeks"