The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-20

this way and that only a few of them
can ever hope to rise to big league
standard. He knows in a general
way that many will fail, but he feels
sure that he will not be one of this
number.
1t is here that the coach or manager
begins to drill into him his first real
lesson in professional baseball He
learns much in ielding, batting and
base running which he never dreamed
of before. He begins to see how real
ly little he did know about the game
and how much he must improve if he
is ever to attain his ambition. This
minor league practice is great
school, and like all schools. it involves
hard work and many disappointm ents.
The young player in the minor lea
CUES has his eye fixed from the first
on the majors with their high salaries
and bright honors. He pictures him
self as standing on the diamond some
afternoon with many thousands of
spectators applauding his brilliant
feats. The picture looks very good
to him SO he works for it accordingly.
He may stay in the minor leagues
one year or several years, but some
day, if he is persevering and has it
in him, his work will attract the at
tention of a major league scout. In
this way he is recommended to some
one or more of the big league clubs
and after a good deal of negotiation
he reaches the first step in the final
realizations of his hopes and is sign
ed on as a big league player.
He is now fairly entered upon the
career for which he has worked and
struggled so long, but after all, he is
no more than fairly entered. What
he will do after he gets there and
how nearly he will live up to his am
billions is a problem which no one
can solve, least of all the player him.
self.
Ehe ranks of the big leagues are
continually overcrowded. In them,
more than anything else, to my knowl
edge, there is competition which is
fierce and constant and which keeps
a man keyed up to his maximum en-
durance from start to finish of the
seasons pennant race. The young
player finds himself thrust rudely into
this grand mix-up, where it is every
man for himself, where the ties of
friendship or appreciation of past SER
vice amount to nothing and where a
man is judged solely and wholly upon
his present abilities.
Il is here that the young player is
to experience harder knocks than have
been his lot at any previous time in
his career. He usually reports in the
spring to the major league club and
goes south to fit himself for the COM
ing season. This is trying period
for him, and he invariably has to play
for all that is in him to persuade the
manager of his fitness for a place on
the club. He has against him the
very men whose record he has been
trying to follow, those men who have
already made success in the voca-
ton he has chosen for his own and
he finds it a hard struggle to displace
these tried veterans. Usually he
doesn't succeed the first year; some
times he has to spend two Or three
years or more of waiting for an OPP
portunity which he sometimes thinks
will never come, and when it does
come, it is apt to be a failure. It is
certainly far from an encouraging
outlook.
After one of these trying spring trips
when he has shown enough life and
ability to persuade the manager to
give him a chance, he comes north to
take mis- chance only under the most