The Washington herald., 1912-01-28

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players In the group are Thomas. Barger
LapOrte, Hoffman, ElberGeld. Castleton,
Hogg. Brockett, Keefe, Keeler. Mcclure,
Griffith. Chase, Moriarty. Doyle, Orth,
Kleinow, Clarkson, Williams, and Con-
roy. Only six OF these twenty-one are
still playing in the majors. Thomas, Bar
ger. Laporte, Keefe, Chase, and MorlaTty,
and these six have scattered to as many
different clubs. Thomas is with the Ath-
letics, Barger with the Brooklyn. Lapcrte
with the Browns, Keefe with the Reds,
Chase doing business at the old stand,
and Moriarty With the Tigers.
Tommy Rice, of the Brooklyn Eagle, is
responsible for the following:
One OF the wonders OF baseball is Joe
Cantillon, manager and mostly owner of
the Minneapolis team in the American
Association. He has a perfect mania for
taking over players who cannot get aIong
well with other managers, or who have a
reputation for being grouches. Joe has
added to his long list of such characters
by-gettfug Bin Burns from the PhiIlIes.
according to a dispatch this morning.
Burns Is well known in the National
League because OF his work with Phila-
delphia last season. His peculiar mental
makeup is largely responsible for his
shunting around from one team to an
other. Why he does not become a star is
not clear. He has the speed. control. and
stamina, but he is unlucky. for one thing.
and he lacks something else which cannot
be defined. One opinion is that he works.
when he feels like working at all, too
hard in the early part of a game, and
does not conserve his strength for the
closing rounds. When going right he has
the pitching qualities to hold any major
league team safe. but III the game runs
into extra innings and the opposing twirl-
cr does not blow. Burns IS almost sIrely
in for a beating.
Hal Chase was no great success as a
manager. but & must be said OF him
that he was one manager whose duties
in that regard did not affect his playing
ability. In tact, he never played better
than last year. when he hit better than
he ever had done. He was OF anything
but a fretful temperament. but might
have done better as a manager had he
been more inclined to worry. As a mat
ter Of fact there Is no reason why. II a
man has Il I'm him TO manage a ball
club. he should not be able to keep up
his end as player. Good managers who
did not drop OF as players are the excep-
tion rather than the rule. Larry Lajoie
ment, but two noted managers whose
playing hasn't suffered a particle because
Of being managers are Frank Chance and
Fred Clarke. Maybe they were the bet
ter managers because of being in the
game. Nor did Dcoin's playing ever show
retrograde movement while he was
managing. Bobby Wallace played as
well as ever last year; Roger Bresna-
han seemed able to catch as well as ever
when he was in the game, and Fielder
Jones' playing never lost a bit OF its
brilIiancy just because that star had the
job Of directing, and handling a team on
his hands.
The American League has gone the Ma
tional League one better, and for the
better, in the matter of appointing
its committee for a meeting with a COM
mittee from the National to look over
the baseball rules and make such
changes as may be necessary. 1t is
not at all likely that any Of the PLAYING
sections of the code will be modified.
but there may be minor notifications of
the scoring rules, which need more or
less tinkering. Where the American
League has taken a step forward has
been in the appointment of Joe jackson.
president OF the Baseball Writers As
sociation. as a full-fiedged member Of its
committee. jackson is a deep student of
the game from all angles, knows the
views Of practically every major leaRue
writer. and will be the only man at the
joint meeting really qualified TO discuss
the finer points of scoring.