Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-10
BALL PLAYERS TRY
GOLF IN TRAINING
Athletics and Yankees to Linn
Der Up This Spring on Hot
Springs Links.

| HOT SPRINGS, Va, February 10
| When the Shibe brothers. owners of the
Philadelphia Athletics brought their base
| ball players down here last spring to
| play golf. climb mountains and take the
| baths as a preliminary training for the
| seasons work, the experiment was looked
| upon as more or less of a joke. The
notion of putting men over the golf links
| to get them in shape for work on the
diamond was Tfdiculed by many experts
i and by most of the players themselves.
but at the end of last season, when it
was discovered that the men who had
shown the greatest skill on the links had
also carried away the greatest honors
in both the league and post-season rec
| ords, the scoffers became believers, and
now there are applications from all quar-
tiers for accommodations here for crack
players during the month of March. In
fact, many of those who are interested
in the work of the leaguers are contend
ing that, in the future golf and other
tonic exercises, such as the men get
here, will become the universal method
of early season training for professional
men of the diamond.
More than fifty of the best known play
ers will come here early in March to re-
Athletics year ago. Frank Farrell.
! owner of the New York Americans, has
made arrangements for tWenty-four Of
his men to come March L., The Shibe
brothers will arrive with the Athletics at
about the same time and applications
are in from several other teams of both
leagues.
When Capt. Harry Davis introduced
March most of them were entirely ig-
norant of golf and were inclined to look
upon the sport as bit of foollShness
that had very little virtue in the way OF
preparing ball player for the summers
hard work. But the surroundings We're
exceptionally pleasant. and the play
ers submitted to the ''whim of the boss
and went at their task on the links like
good soldiers.
Those on the team who gave most at
tention to golf were John Coombs Chief
Bender. Eddie Plank, Cy Morgan. Paddy
Livingston, Ira Thomas. Eddie Collins,
Frank Baker, Jack Barry, Topsy Hart
sci. Dan Murphy and Rube Oldring.
For a month these men spent most of
their time on the links. At intervals they
did mountain climbing stunts and took
the old Hot Springs treatment, which
consists of tubs. spouts and packs, using
the naturally heated water
Coombs. Bender. Barry Baker. Oldring
and Murphy developed proficiency as golf
players. and went away from Hot Springs
enthusiastic devotees of the game.
The Athletics and the New York Ameri
cans. who are likely to be contcnders
for the seasons pennant are to be here
together in March and their work will
he closely watched. They will do little
If any practice work in playing ball. but
will spend their time on the golf links,
the mountain paths and in the baths.
Gen. Scott, the veteran. golfer. who
coached the Athletics here last spring,
believes that within the next year or so
golf will become the accepted mode of
early season training for all professional
ball players.
There is no system of training that
is equal to it," he said. 1T puts the
ball players muscles and nerves in a
perfectly healthful condition without any
of the excessive strain or exhaustion
which are sure to come from other meth
DDS of violent training, and which are
sure to detract from the efficiency of
the average ball player before the end of
a long season. After a month or SO of
golf and road work here. with the tonic
that the ball player gets from the noun
tain air. the road work and the baths,
he goes to his summers work in perfect
form and with reserve force that counts
at the end of the season. One has ONLY
to study the records of last summers
playing for a demonstration of that and
I am very sure that next falls records
will show that the top-notch men will be
among those who are to come here this
spring