The Washington herald., 1912-03-11
BEST ALL-COLLEGE
BALL NINE, THIS
Combination of Professionals Should
Prove a Hard One
to Beat.

New York, March 1o-Among the end
less variety OF .'aIr' teams which have
been picked in the realm OF sport there
Is one field which has been shamefully
neglected, the college baseball field. All
college mines are chosen annually, but
nobody has tackled an "alI" college
team; that is, one chosen without any
limit as TO time
An all-college team of this sort can be
found which would be as strong an ar
ray as could be put together, whether
professional or what not, for a majority
OF its players would be men who since
leaving college have turned professional
The fact that they have turned profes-
sional and been professionals Of high
rank Is the best proof of their ability.
SC naturally the place to look for mem
bers Of this hypothetical team is in the
professional ranks.
The colleges have had players who, had
they turned pro" would have been
smong the best, and there are few that
never turned pro who, nevertheless,
were so proficient that they make the
an-college team for all time. but there
haven't been many of these. In baseball
the two majo leagues are the highest
measure OF skill, and consequently dem
onstration OF ability to travel in this
company is the best OF reasons for choos-
ing anybody who has done so for the
team in question
Many to Choose From.
The field is a wide one. but the fol-
lowing team would not only be the
strongest team Of college players possible
to select, but, as said, IL could hold its
own with any kind of an all-star aggre-
cation: Pitchers-Carter, Yale; Coombs,
Colby; Plank, Gettysburg; Bender, Car
Isle: Mathewson, BuckneIl Catchers-
Meyers. Dartmouth; Jones, Yale; Reid,
Harvard; kafer. Princeton. First base
Chase, ST. Mary's. Second base-CoIlins.
Columbia. Shortstop-Bsrry, Holy Cross.
Third base-Deylin. Georgetown Out
heid-Fultz. Brown; Cree. Penn State:
Thomas, Pennsylvania For substitute
infielder, Derrick. Georgia University,
would NIL the bill. and for substitute out
fielder, Birmingham, Cornell
The foregoing team is strong beyond
the average in every position. Any man
ager would jump at the chance of pilot
ing such a team through a big league
race. The nonprofessionaIs on the list
are Carter. Reid, Kafer, and Jones. Neal
Snow, who played first base and the out
field at Michigan and Harry Keator.
Yale captain and outfielder. are mighty
near entitled to a place on the team. for
they were college players Of exceptional
skill Jake Stahl, Illinois, and Fred Ten
ney, Brown, could be placed on the team.
but both were catchers when in college.
and besides the team has Chase. White,
Georgetown. could be substituted for
Flank without hurting the pitching de-
partment much.
Decline to Become pro"
Walter Carter was a wonderful college
pitcher in his day, and good enough for
the big leagues had he cared to become
2 professional Bill Reid, of Harvard:
Tad Jones, OF Yale, and Red Eafer. of
Princeton. were all backstops above the
average, heady catchers, good throwers,
and hard hitters. They had the native
ability TO develop into first-class catchers
Is professionals. Chief Meyers has DEM
onstrated his ability, but he has made
such big Improvement as a Giant that
it is a question whether he was in the
class with the three men mentioned when
he was in college.
CoOmbs. White. Bender. Mathewson-
what better pitching staff could any club
wanG And then an infield composed Of
Chase, Collins, Barry, and Devlin-why,
that's as air-tight a quartet Of inner gar
den guardians as the present Athletics
with their crack infield, have. 1t is
made up of fielders, base-runners, hit
tiers. and every one Of the four a smart
ball player
As to the outfield, it isn't as strong
hitting trio as some, but a pretty capable
batting combination nevertheless, and a
combination Of batters. sliders. and base
runners that makes it a rare run-get-
ting combination. Cree Is a 300 batter
and Fultz and Thomas had their 900
years when they were in the game FuItz
was one Of the best sliders the game
hss had, and he and Thomas covered a
wide expanse of ground on the defense
1t also would be a good throwing field
Even Hughey Jennings, who doesn't en-
thuse over college players, might rejoice
in a team such as this.