The Washington herald., 1911-09-17


baseball circles and failed. "If fellow has dress
suit cane and some money he can break into tne
Four Hundred but to last in the big leagues ne has
got to have something
That statement clad in the crude vernacular OF
ball player is true. AS a youngster starts 10
play ball with any he allows his eyes 10 ""
der until their glance embraces him as great p'cne
or a great catcher infeder or outhelder In Ine
large leagues As every chorus girl thinks tha' sue
has the latent ability to be prima donna II only
given the chance, so every playing ball IN 'ne
minor leagues believes that, If once allowed ,ne 0p-
portunity to show what he could do be would set the
sporting pages afre with his deeds
Ball players have squeezed into the Dig leagues III
all sorts of ways. Some have stayed and more nave
departed after only the briefest Of visits Still more
have spent all their lives striving to get tryou anu
have gone down to their baseball graves still minor
learuers. having never been a first class Al hero
The natural way a ball player to get into the Dig
leagues is to be discovered by scout, but this at
hest is slow and tedious process. 1t is like stand
ing under the tree and waiting for the peach to fall
instead of climbing up and picking it. Ot'en the
scout never comes In the ordinary course OF events
the scouts make the rounds of the larger minor
leagues during their playing season and Gull from
these the players who look if they might hold up
in the big show This is done by means OF the oraII
unless player appears be very much out OF FOCUS
TO the class in which he is appearing and then ne IS
boupht outright This occurs seldom, the minors
are gone over with fine tooth comb for material
But perhaps the day that the scout visits town the
ambitious player is i'll hurt or has bad day. The
best of them have their bad days. Then his one
chance is gone The hope of every minor league ball
PLAYER is that he will be taken South with some major
league club for the spring practice, so that he can
show day after day what he do Not one of them
but feels confident he will make good If he can just
get chance. matter of fact the greater part OF
the recruits South sent back before the real
season starts sometimes additional schooling, but
more often for good.
The other natural source of supply for tie big
leagues is the coleges-big and little Some of the
best ball players have been turned up out of the
smaller institutions of learning for it is a recognized
fact that bail player is the product of the
country and the soil and not Of the city 1t not to
the natural channels through which ball players flow
into the big Leagues the side eddes and streams
that this story will refer. In the United States
nearly every boy plays baseball If he develops into
a good player while at school he joins either anna
teur or Il semi-profcssional club when he finishes un
less he goes college.
Then he tries for the mystic varsity. 1t is estt
mated that there several million ball players in
the United States of greater less degree. Go to
a public playground in any large city Saturday
Sunday and watch the number of games in progress
If you are in New York visit Van Cortlandt Park
some nice Sunday afternoon in the summer So thick
are the players the immense Parade Ground there
that the games blend and cannot be distinguished
from another.
Every little country town has its main
and several lesser In the big leagues there
only n few hundred ball players. 1t does not require
mathematician to deduce that the chances Of being
noticed for the big leagues very slim. Yet al
most all the players have their eyes on some
certain and favorite uniform their own and re-
solve that they will wear it some day and be heroes.
That is a human desire-to be hero.
Amos Rusie's Start.
Amos RIse, once great pitcher for the New
York Giants and now working in a lumber yard
OH the Pacific coast got his peculiar way.
He is said to have had speed than any other
nitcher who ever threw baseball Players say that
he only hit u man once, rule. Then that man
was carried off to the hospital for few days and
ont of the game for weeks. Batters would do any
thing TO get out of the way of ball that he pitched
He did not lose many hters who got to first base be-
cause they were capable of dodging his offerings
As young fellow Rusic lived in wild district in
Tennessee with his family When boy he led n
rugged life and became unusually strong. The shoot
ing in that part of country good and day.
so the story goes RuSic was starting out with his
father and brother. The two Others picked mp their
guns and set out but Rusie stopped in the dooryard
and began selecting some smooth. round rocks and
filing his pockets. ..
where's your gun, Amos?" asked his father.
Don't need any," replied Amos. Wait till you
see"
The party first encountered Jack rabbit Before
the elder Ruse hao time to get his gun to his shou
oer Amos had pulled a stone out of his pocket and