The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-09-23
Chalmers Offers
 Baseball Trophy
Leading Newspaper Writers
 Will be Judges

sRen Mulford, jr., chairman Of the Chalmers trophy commission, has ap- pointed the members of the com mission who will choose one baseball player in each major league as the re- cipient of a Chalmers automobile. The men are representa- baseball writ CTS of the American and National League cities. Their names, the names of the cities in which they live and the newspapers for which they write are: H. P. Edwards, "Cleye land Plain Dealer;;" John B. Foster, New York Telegram" J. c. .Isamin- ger, Philadelphia North American" !" J. S.. Jackson, washington Post" Tim Murnane, .'Boston Globe;9 M. F. Parker, +St. Louis Globe-Democrat '" c. B. Power, Pittsburgh Gazette Times D Jack Ryder, Cincinnati En-
 bune;" J. S. Smith, Detroit Journal" Abe Wager, Brooklyn Eagle"
 The Chalmers trophy really origin ated in 1910 when Hugh Chalmers, an ardent baseball enthusiast, offered a
 motor car to the champion major
 league batsman of that season. The
 car was accepted by the national
 terms of the contests. The race
 among the big batters of both lea
 gues was watched with great interest all season. During the final few weeks of the season, Cobb of Detroit
 and tLajoie of Cleveland gained such a lead that the contest developed into
 a duel between these two great play CTS. The race was so close it was not settled until the final day of the sea- son, and then only a fraction of one- l'thousandth of a per cent. separated the leaders.
 Because of the closeness of the race and the remarkable record of both Cobb and Lajoie, Mir. Chalmers gave each an automobile. The two cars were presented by Mr. Chalmers Oc- tober IS, 1910, at the Philadelphia American League grounds just before ! ies between the Athletics and .he Chicago Cubs. Cobb accepted his car in person, and John E. Bruce ac- cepted the other car for the national commission and Lajoie. The award | of 1910 brought forth great deal cf discussion among the baseball fans players, magnates and newspaper l men. It finally seemed to be the con- | sensus of opinion that broader and 1 better basis could be found to1 | awarding so valuable a trophy than | simply the one standard of batting | average.
 It was decided to make the compe-
 tition broad enough so that every player in. both leagues would nave as | nearly as possible a fair and equal | chance for the trophy. A trophy fo1 | batting alone automatically barred | out of the contest a great many o1
 the greatest players-players who ir many cases might be deemed more valuable to their teams than the mer who were simply top notch hitters
 After discussing the matter pro ana con with the leading men in base ball and the leading baseball writ | CTS, MT. Chalmers decided that Inc
 would offer trophy on the broales possible basis, namely, the basis o1
 the greatest all arohnd value nf 2 player to his team in the pennan l race.
 The next question that came ur | naturally was: Who can decide wht
 is the most valuable player to hi | team in each league? And next How can. the decision best be made B. F. Johnson, president of the Am l erican League and Charles A. Comis | key. president of the Chicago White 1 SoX, suggested that the best men tc make this decision were the baseball
 writers in the big league cities, tn, l men who see all the players a mum | Der of times during the season, wht | follow each angle of the game, whose | business it is to know all that hap l pens in baseball both on and off tht | fieid.
 ! The suggestion led to the plan fol