The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21
BASEBALL VACATION TIME
 IS PRETTY NEARLY OVER
By MANHATTAN

New York. January -(SpeeiaL)- cation time is pretty nearly over for the baseball men. Within a month or there abouts the club will begin to move to the southern training camps and the war cor respondents will be discovering ''phe- noms" enough to start a new league which would put the old timers in the 'has been" class for keeps.
 -And yet i venture to say that when the championship season begins in April there will be just about as big per centage of familiar faces as there ever has been.
 Some spf the "phenoms' will make good, of course. They have to, or the game would die out, but the percentage will probably be no greater than it has been.
 And yet many of those youngsters who will be turned back will have the mak- ing of great ball players. Managers, the best of them, are not gifted with infal- lfble insight. For instance, it would be possible to line up one of the strongest teams in the country made up entirely from players who have been turned down by one or more major league clubs. Keen eyed scouts and managers not frequent ly overlook a real ball player simply btCSttfO the time that he was being observed. Here is a list of 8 few players who were discarded once or twice and are still num- bered among the good ball players of the majors:
 Catchers.-Archer, released by Detroit; Thomas, from the Tanks.
 Pitchers, O'Toole, cut adrlft by Clncy and Boston; Ford, turned back by Tanks; Suggs, released by Detroit; Keefe, re- 6 htr aaalr
 First i'ase-IaEbert, released by Cleve- land.
 Second gase-Neal Ball. released by Tanks.
 Third Base-Mowrey. cut adrift by Reds. Outfeld-Jackson, turned back by Ath- leties; Cree, turned back by Detroit; Lord, turned back by Philadelphia and Cleye- land.
 Mike Donlin and Jimmy Callahan are most prominent among the come backs" In baseball, and it can be directly at tributed to the fact that both of these worthies mounted the water wagon years ago and have teen riding it ever since. Just now there are two players in the National league whose reputation for n- ebrjety is such that neither is apt to hold his job very long. They are Salee of the St Louis Cardinals and Larry Mc-
 
 ing of this pair the St. Louis Post-Dis- patch prints the following:
 ''rhe cases of Mike Donlin and James J. Callahan ought to tell all that is necessary about tEe art of coming back. The instances Of both. are parallel and the theme of both is of the wayward youth who transferred his affections from the wine when it was red to the water when it was white. and not taken on the side
 Both Callahan and Donln quit major league baseball careers and left the po- tent stuff behind. Neither Donlin nor Callahan has for several years descended from the throne of the sprinter's driver. As result, when they wanted to get back into harness there were no black physical marks to be rubbed off the slate. A little overweight. which never hurt a clean interior, was all mat incumbered them. So Jimmy and Mike both came back, and evidently to stay.
 This means tbat Harry Sallee and Mclean need not give up all hope.
 Some idea of the magnitude of the baseball business may be gained from the fact that when the new grounds of the Yankees and Brooklyns have been com pleted the investment for baseball plants