The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-12-11
JENNINGS USED. TO GET
HIMSELF HURT So THAT
He COULD TAKE FIRST
Body Was Always Black and
Blue from Being Hit by
Pitched Balls.
LEARNED TO BE HITTER
Old Friends Who Sent Him Tel
egrams of Sympathy Recall
the Bygone Days.

nings in an automoDlle dCCiuoh''
him for a while again. the most talKeu
Of man in baseball. lie receiNeu
scores OF kilograms from old triehus'
among them one from John Z. Chap
man Jennings first big league nun
ager. .,a,r,ad the
.aai, ~ discovering Jennings, the
- Moosic pa a little town near
Souan,on while In Philadelphia one
dav chairman was glancing over the
papers OF that city, and MS eye nap
pened to light on the name
,inos" the catcher for the Leighton
club. Fifteen putouts ana lou, MS
one of which was home run; iooAen
pretty good TO Chapman, VINO
then manager OF the LoulsVliie ass
cation. and he Immediately wlreu 'em
nings an offer OF SITS per month"; VI
recting him. II It was accepted 10 an.
swer 20 Boston. the LouisVilie cruz
/ next stopping place. The reply
ceiyed at the City OF Beans was
orable, and Jennings was directeu ~
report at once at Louisville as .ne
club would arrive home in Few uay p
When we reached Louisville s1ye
chapman. there was Jennings ne
was a green youngster, put Ih.u
his looks and felt that he -"e"'u
achieve success. JACK Ryan nau
been hurt. and | intended TO uy
.Hughie' behind the bat. JACK nov
ever. came around ali right and our
trst baseman. Harry Taylor. got hurt'
and ! said to Jennings: Young man,
YOU will have to play first base To-
day
".Dear me. mister, Jennings re-
plted, Il can't play first base; never
played first base in my life.
After telling him that he wouid
iust have 10 go in and do the best nc
could, he promised, and he did very
good best He gathered In bad throws
from the dirt, and he jumped for them
I'm the air. In fact. he was decided
Z success. Some time afterward the
..shortstop. Cahill, got sick, and told
Jennings that he would have to essay
that position.
"But. mister, Jennings said, as he
had said before, 4 never played the
place In my life.
Never mind, that; go in and do
the best you can.
All right, mister, and it went at
that. 49,
"He went in and played great
game. He diyed after everything, he
covered ground in grand shape and he
had the spectators agape with won
r der He wasn't afraid Of getting err
rors. and made a great hit with the
crowd. At the end OF the season
told him that wanted TO sign hira
for the next year, and asked what
salary he expected
81 don't know he replied, I'll
leave that to you
How will 81 400 strike your
THAT will be nice he answered.
So | sat down and inserted $1,750 In
the contract when he looked over.
Il he saw the difference and called
my attention 10 what he believed had
been my error. When | assured him
that the figures had been raised in
tentionally,. he said: Mr.. Chapman,
will try 10 work very hard for you
for this And he did
But Manager Chapman, despite his
glowing tribute 10 jennings initia-
ton TO major league circles, was well
content TO allow Manager Hanlon to
trade T. O'Rourke, a highly regarded
outhelder OF the time. to Louisville
for Harry Taylor, first baseman.
with Jennings practically thrown in"
during the 1893 season. Jennings ar
rived In this city frecklefaced, awk.
ward lad, still very verdant as far as
the fHe arts of baseball were>con-
cerned. and no one uspected-unless
IL might have been Manager Hanlon
Vyfth Ia 80
lad was soon to become the talk OF
the baseball world and the most bril-
liant shortstop that ever trod dla.
mond
He was truly the most wonderful
helder the game has ever known. Abb
solutely without regard for his rec
ord which means that he did not care
whether the official scorer chalked up
an error against him or not he went
after drives that other shortstops
would never have dreamed of inter.
ferlng with, and. though he did not
always do the impossible he really
did do II a sufficiently large proper
ton OF times to stamp him as the
wonder OF the decade
He c>ered more ground than any
other shortstop in the business. not
ton. who was perhaps the second best
at that kind OF play. No shortstop
of his day or since had the great num-
her Of chances Jennings accepted, and
the records show that he has the re.
markable average OF 6,43 per game for
II years play.
But not alone was Jennings famous
for his fielding. That might be ex-
pected to be startling at any moment.
/ but as a batter there got to be one
stunt for which "Hughie" became IA
nous the world over-getting hit by
the pitcher.
That was the expected, and rarely.
indeed. did a game pass in the good
old days that "Hughie' was not
plunked In some portion OF his an
atomy by a pitched ball In those
times the. baseball powers that be"
were not ION to" the tricks of the
trade. for the simple reason that there
were very few "tricks"-points which
might be turned to advantage. care