The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-12-10

M winter vim ., s.,
the ball player drifts back into
his little home town whence he
has come to a big city with his talents and
just hangs around until it is time TO start
South again for spring training. Some
supposers even think of their heroes with
one foot neatly arched over a brass all
being lionized by admiring tOwnsmen
while the audience listens to stories CT the
bg leagues. That was usually the manner
in which the old time ball player passed
The winter, but it is not true OF the big
Lacquer of to-day.
With the development of baseball as
a game has come the development of the
individual who plays it, This is attrib-
uted to the great number of college play
6rs who have taken up baseball as a
profession in the last ten years. Most
of the old time ball players were harry
eSted from the dumps and the town lots,
while many of the present big leaguers
e. have been cullpd from the leading uni
verSities. Realizing that the professional
career of ball player does not last more
than a dozen years at the most, with
here and there an exception. the majority
of them now spend their winters in con-
structing some sort of business to which
they can retire when there is no more
room for them in the big show. And
those who have not been to college are
not slow to follow this example. One star
said recently
Il don't want them holding a benefit for
me when l get old
That is why the receiving teller is the
favorite author of so many ball players
nowadays and their bank books their most
entertaining reading. Few of them get
hoarse from repeating that Old and classic
refrain
Have another.
Probably no man in baseball ever at
tracted so much attention in so short
space of time as did Frank Baker. of the
Philadelphia Athletics in the recent
worlds series He won the highest base
ball honors for his club by his phenomenal
batting. He is a plain farmer in the
winter He tiIls the soil in Trappe, Md.
He has found the soil there rather re-
spOndent. too. Being d farmer in the
winter sounds as reasonable as ice boat
ing on the Shrewsbury in August, hut
nevertheless Baker is farmer. The
climate being warmer in Maryland, he is
able to plant the spring crops before he
leaves for the South with the team. and
he devotes the winter to taking care of
his live stock.
When Baker leaves his farm in the
spring he has everything mapped out so
that tine farmer who has charge merely
follows the chart Baker is adding grad
ually to his land area, so that when he
can no longer break up ball games he will
have an occupation to fall back on. I'm
media tely after his sensa tional playing in
the worlds series last fall several vaude-
vile managers offered him fabulous
amounts to 20 on the stage. hut Baker
refused them all.
Many of Men Are Farmers.
Yes" declared the hero of the series
10 the writer in the Athletics club house
after the last game lone manager Of
frrcd ME contract for FIVE weeks at
$1,000 week. hut. pshaw. what could
/ do on the stage? l guess | would look
like 'busher' all right behind the foot
lights And then while l was away trav-
elling the farm might go to pieces, and
next year, if things broke badly for me
in baseball, how many vaudeville offers
would l get? No. sir. I'm going to stick
by that farm. l want to go down there
and shoot and arrange things, and, be-
sides, don't think it does ball players
eye any good looking into the calcium
light every day. I'm a ball player and
not an actor
Baker went back to the farm.
Used to the open air life Of the dia-
mond for six months of the year, many
stars devote their off season to farming
because it keeps them out of doors and inI
condition. Fred Clarke, the manager of
the PittsburG baseball team, owns a bigI
wheat ranch in Kansas and is said to be-
worth a million dollars. Recently he
thought of retiring to his ranch and
abandoning baseball for good, but Bar
ney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pittsburg
club, refused to let him go. Fred Clarke
need never worry about going back to-
the minors.
Frank Chance, manager tof the Chi
cago Cubs and the winner. of four Ma
tional League championships and two
worlds pennants, has a big orangeI
ranch at Glendora, Cal, where he spends
his winters. As soon as the Cubs had
finished the series with the White SoxI
this fall Chance hurried to his California |
home, where he settled down for the
winter. |
Fred Snodgrass, the centre fielder of
the Giants, is another California farmer,
and he declares that he prefers farmingl
to baseball, although he occasionally
mikes dash of winter baseball with it,
as is shown by some of the California
newspapers box scores of games played !
in the State where baseball is in vogue
the year round SnOdgrass'. name is