The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-08-20
JOE JACKSON WAS
AFRAID OF CITIES
Connie Mack's Scout Had a
Hard Time Getting Play
er to Philadelphia.

New York. Aug. 20.-Many are the
odd experiences the baseball man.
ayers N scouts have had with new.
players. some of whom are attacked
by stage fright or some other sort of
fright as they approach d big city
where they know they will have to
face a larger crowd than any that
has seen their lesser league work. One
OF the funniest of these experiences
was that of one of Connie Maek's
scouts who went after Joe jackson.
the outfielder. who subsequently, ioin-
ed the Cleveland tenn.
J~ackson's ball playing was tho ONT
come of games in the South Carolina
cotton mills district. where the rivalry
is Keen n the quality of plan not
lnfrequently surprisingly good. He
played on a small team representing
the mills prior to the discovery hy
one of Connie Mack's scouts thai the
Schreckengost. the former Athletic
catcher. who became famous as the
receiver of RUDE Waddell, when the
Dig left-hander was in his prime. was
the o who, South Carolinians saw.
found Joe Jackson.
at that time was plaving
on the G%reenville. S. c.. team and was
lts best batsman and leading runget-
ter. 1t was while with the Piedmont
mills outfit that the manager of the
Greenvllle team saw him play. He
was a country boy then. plaving base
nall n picking up his schooling
wherever he could
Down in Newberry, S. c.. where are
the Mollohon mills, they say that it
TOOK three railroad trips to get Jack
son to Philadelphia. where he PLAYED
Tor a. hrjcf 1oarinj ,t-stJ, 49,. Min,
phia Athletics. AT that time the boy
nad never been in a city of more than
10000 population, and it is said that
ne was mortally afraid of the big
town. The Athletics scout in the
llrst attempt to get jackson north
succeeded in pilotins him as far as
C~haflotte, n. c.. when the boy de-
'luea ne mad goh" far enough. and
leaving the train he successfully hid
from Schreckengost. a day later the
boy showed up in the Piedmont coun-
try.
Whats the matter. Joe: don't YOU
want to be a big %leaguero" the sur
prlsed friend of tho Young star asked.
NO; the big places are too big.
relzer. Piedmont and Newberry just
about suit me- was the gist of his
answer. and the next afternoon he
was slamming out three-baggers and
nome runs for the mills team.
"A few days passed and the Ath-
letlcs' scout returned to find u why
Joe had given him the slip in Char
lotte. Joe ~laughinglv told him the
reason. and after much persuasion
hnally consented to start a second
time for the Quaker city. The second
Trip was a little more successful than
the first one. according to Jackson's
Carolina friends! in tina the cotton
mills fielder got about 200 miles near
er to his destination than on the first
trip. They say he kept his nerve un-
III he was somewhere in Virginia. and
tnen the memories of the big smoke
stacks and the cotton fields back in
fledmont got in their work. The end
of the story was similar to that If the
hrst, for two days later Joe was back
in Piedmont.
A third time the scout appeared
ana a more heart-to-heart talks
with Joe. and once more Joe con-
scented to emisrate to the Pennsyl-
Vanla metropolis. This time he went
all n way and he PLAYED a few.
games With Connie Mack's can No
dld Inc work and everybody was sur
prised when Connie Mack let Cleve-
land get him.
Before the boy got to PLAYING ball
for money he never wore shoes ex-
cept in bitter cold weather. Every
cotton mill in South Carolina has a
ball team. and in the Piedmont coun-
try there is still a lot of good league
material. but whether any of it is as
good as Jackson only time can tell.
BUT the big league scouts are look
ing out for promising youngsters all
the time.