The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-18
we hope the brick top will put his
Phillies to the clery every time he
10 give nthe opportunity to oppose
them,
CONNIE MACK
may RETIRE
Famous Leader Of Athletics
Wants One More Worlds
Championship

Philadelphia, Sept. 18.-The nation
al pastime will e many changes be-
fore the season of 1912 rolls around,
and probably the greatest of these
will be the retirement from the &C.
tive management of the Athletics OF
Connie Mack, considered by the ma
jority of experts the country over as
the shrewdest Judge Of ballplayers
the game.
Connie says that If his club wins
the worlds championship again this
season he will surely quit the dia-
mond and allow somebody else-prob-
ably Harry Davis-to lead the team.
Although Connie says that. the
chances are that he will quite the dia-
mond, 1t does not mean that he will
give up all his interest in the game.
Although 1t isn't generally known,
Mack is one Of the biggest stockhold-
ers in the Philadelphia club, and 1t
would not be surprising II he bought
enough additional stock to permit of
his being elected president Of the
club, like Charley Comiskey of the
Whitesox has done.
Health is Poor.
There are a number of reasons why
Mack wants to leave the diamond.
First and foremost is his poor health.
He has not been a we'll man for the
past few years and this season he
has been ailing more than ever He
is greatly subjected to colds, and the
riding about the country, with subse-
quent change Of climate and inter-
rupted sleep has raised havoc with
him.
Another reason why Mack wants to
desert the game is Mrs. McGillicuddy.
1t will be remembered that at the
close of the worlds series last fall
Connie was married again and the
couple went to Europe on their hon
eymoon. They had the pleasure Of
meeting the pope, and n of Mack's
friends is credited with the statement
that Connie thinks his team will cop
the championship this season because
of the well wishes and hopes of sue
cess he received from his holiness.
Mrs. MAC" doesn't like to see her
husband absent from home SO much,
and she realizes it is impairing his
health. He is no longer a young man,
being 40 years old now. He has been
grooming Davis lately in the duties
of a manager, and instead of this for
mer star going to the Clevelands to
manage them it is likely that he will
sit on the bench and direct the Ath-
letics next season.
Mack, before assuming the manag-
erial job in Philadelphia, vas one of
the greatest catchers in the business,
and he has a son-Earl-by his first
wife, now dead, who promises to de-
velop into every bit as good a back
stop as the old man.
Mack caught for the Pirates from
1890 to 1896, and was captain of the
club for two years. The Athletics
were a member of the American
league for the first time in 1901, but
1t was not until the next year they
won. the pennant. They captured an
other flag under Mack's direction in
1905, but the Giants beat them in the
worlds series. Last year they won
another championship and the worlds
title for the first time. Mack is anx-
ious to capture one more-and then
he will consider that he has captur-
ed his share of baseball laurels and
retire.
Mack for Short.
Comics proper name is Cornelius
McGillicuddy, but when he first broke
into the big leagues the writer's
started calling his Connie Mack for
short, and it has stuck to him so that
the average fan thinks that it is his
right name. He was born in East
B%rookfeld, Mass.-"ffty miles from
Boston, place in which George
Cohan laid the plot for a play some
three or four years ago.
The secret of Mack's ucces has
been his ability to recognize ball
players in the rough. He seldom has
sought to corner stars, but has been
content to secure unheard of players
for small prices. or generally no pur-
chase price at all, and teach them all
of the fine points of the game.
There are few people who have
ever seen Mack on the diamond in
the past ten years. When he goes
out to the grounds he stealthily wends
his way to the players bench, hides
himself in a corne and leaves
the spot until the game is over. He
is unlike McGraw, Jennings or any
other manager, inasmuch as he never
even goes down to the coaching lines.
Mack always dresses in some plain
business suit and doesn't wear dia-
monds or loud clothes that will give
him a flash in baseball circles. He is
a tall. thin man, who is loath to talk.
However, when he does say anything
to a newspaper man it is without any
"ego," he being content to give his
players credit for any success that
may have come to his club.
Baseball will sure lose one of its
best types when Mack decides to
abandon the game, and it will be
hard, Or next to impossible, to find
his equal again.
Roller Skating.
Every Saturday evening from 8 to