Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-01
Training Season for Major
League Clubs Close at Hand.
MANAGERS LOOK FOR STARS
Picking Out First-Class Ball Play
ers Is Like Looking
for Gold.

Two months from today the sixteen
managers OF big league clubs will be
I starting Oh their annual gamble.
! The big preliminary to the big pastime
! is Just like ordinary mine investments.
| There are such things as rch-paying
mines; the thing is to find them. And
finding them. is tough work. Nearly all
mines look alike, some hold rich ore and
others do not
Ticking ball players is like picking
the right mine. Hundreds of them are
picked up every year and those who look
best often turn into lemons while
those who cooked to be an abandoned
nope turn out to be wonders.
| Tyrus Cobb says that Buck OBricn
Boston's new pitcher, would be the best
hurlcr in the major leagues. According
to the worlds premier batsman, O'Brien
has moro than any young pitcher he ever
batted against.
! Year before last. when the Tigers We're
playing in Cuba, O'Brion was down there.
but no ono saw anything in his work
, that would attract attention. After the
| Tigers left the island Charley Carr and
his Indianapolis team invaded Cuba Carr
also looked OBrien over. but saw nothing
| in his work that would give promise.
Carr did nor oven think OBrien capa &C
of making good in the minor leagues.
-AuotiIel tIlnS nIplleileu year DPIblC idSt.
+ y young fellow OF the name Of Grover
Cleveland Alexander was pitching in the
minor leagues. Several big league scouts,
among them one engaged by the Detroit
club. who happened that way. looked him
over. Few even went to the extent OF
filing a report on Alexander. lie was re-
garded simply as an impossibi.ity.
Nothing else to do. the Pfillies put in
When Alexander was awarded to phila-
delphia no one made a fuss about it.
Not man in the major leagues suspected
that Alexander had d thing in his roper
torc that would fool tho big league bats
men. No one commented on him.
At the same time Owner Frank J..
Navin Of the Tigers got several players
by draft that everybody was after. They
lshoc Navin,' because he pulled them
down for practically nothing. one III
two of them were players that were
highly valued in tine minors. They
Jeanne by draft simply because the own
erS of the minor league clubs for which
they played thought so much of them
that they asked in the neighborhood of
$4,000 and $4,000. which none of the
ma jor league clubs was willing to pay.
tThey all put in a draft for them, though,
and Navin got them. Not one of them
turned out to be even mediocre bi.
Lacquer.
While the new Tigers were proving
unworthy, this young person owning
the name OF Grover Cleveland Alexande
was making himself the biggest sensa-
ton in the jor leagues. He Is
wonderful pitcher. Ask Charlie Doom
who caught him, and ask some of the
sluggerS in the present organization who
batted against him. IF he keeps in con-
.dition next year see what his record will
be-
Lightning always strikes from unex-
.pccted quarters in those spring training
camps. Those that are to be are not,
and those that are not are, AS johann
klausenberg. a prominent butcher OF
iSickamore, Kan, used to say. The UNI
expected happens in selecting ball play
ers just like the unexpected happens In
regular games during the season. 1t Is
"a big gamble.
. Now, several years ago. they said that
!, Connie Mack had IL millien-dollar base
, ball plant and ten-cent ball team An'
Connie himself started that saying
Cornelius appeared to be telling exactly
what he thought. and what everybody
else thought at the time. The mex
pectcd came. Collins. Barry and Baker
seemed to develop all at once. Other
managers are lucky If they see one man
develop in a season. But this gang IN
Philadelphia blossomed out like q troupe
) Of morning glories. except that they re-
NAMED out The most surprised man
in the world was Mack.
They are already looking over the 191.
crop What will the harvest be?
, ! Tho American Association talks of