The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-03-16
SPORTING LIGHTS
Is IT?

LTTERACHURE Is 1T?
A Cleveland baseball writer on the
Plain Dealer that this is to
be a literary season for tho baseball
PLAYERS. Please put the accent on the
litter" Goodness knows last season
was bad enough. Nearly every player,
especially those who achieved the lit
crary distinction Of getting into the
worlds series turned author" Any
n OF them owning two good fists.
a CLOSE. a bat or a mask and being
in this sacred series. plossomed forth
with unsupported smoothness Of vo-
%cabulary and phrase. Some Of them
must even have thought literature
while sliding to second or spiking
somebody at third. for 10 and behold.
while h game was going on and the
players were playing they were also
writing desperately. 1t was wonderful.
Especially noticeable was the dual
personality of some Of the players
in the opening game of h post-sea-
son group at New York. There we're
$50 reporters on the press benches and
Who doing the Bender dope today?"
and WHO'S got the Muggsy job?' and
Other similar queries among the illit-
crate writer gang were quite enlight-
ching as to the alter ego. Hold up one
hand and cut off a finger or two and
the remaining ones will pretty nearly
number the real hall players or ex-
dictated their stuff" Christy Math-
ewson was n of them and Hughey
Jennings seemed to be taking notes
with a Observation-Disclosures man
alongside of him. Incidentally. Hughie
got into something of a mess. through
his literary proclivitieS. that may not
have hecn his fault at all. What's in
u name? a whole lot, especially if YOU
arc ii pitcher With a perfectly good
literary spitball. IA manager with a.
fine literary roar from the bcnch. A
third hascman with an eXquisitely
tuned literary home run in his hat
stick or a shortstop who covers much
ground with feet of amazing literary
ability. while there are great oppor-
tunitirs for outtielders and others with
fine literary swats and slides and
estate" after testing the resiliency Of
considerable real estate, by way OF
education.
Tho Plain Dealer man, in comment
ing "n the prospect of a much larger
baseball literary crop for 1912. and
the wonderful achievements which
opened up this new field of literary
endravnr i'm 1911. SAYS:
In tho Hall of Fame.
Hal Chase OF the H~ighlanders, ran
a close second to Mathewson; Hughey
Jennings made a venture or two with
the pen; Nee Hsnlon's name appeared
occasionally; Amos Rusic came back"
for a last word-then. last season. es-
periallN about the time of the final
games. u young army of PLAYERS. from
Chief Meyers to the office boy cap
tain of the Neversweats in the Sunday
Morning laaguel. either lent their
names I" the sporting department or
soilcd much good paper recording
impressions ot this and that play. Ev-
on Connie Mack and Ruhc Vanguard
We're bitten by the scribhling bug.
Charles Murphy of the Chicago
club did not overlook this opportunity.
Almost before the series was over h.:
had a plan To legislate in the nationa!
commission against players and man
ayers %deNotinE n time to writing
for any sort Of publication. There was
4 whisper and Garry Herman agreed
with this. Things looked rather dark
for the sorihes in the ranks. But moth
Ing has come of it. and plans are now
in making for %nusua and continued
activity in the writing line by those
in the national game this season.
Thus iii" literary baseball era dawns.
one enterprising eastern paper has
already signed a contract With the
third baseman of q certain team to
report all games for it. Another has
arranged for a utility man to report
all games away from home. And. as
il ia lend authority to this from a.
managerial standpoint. John j. Me
Graw of the Giants has signed on
for a series of articles on baseball. the
first of which will appear in the New
Story magazine for May. 1t is he
who gives what is rrobab1 W. the best
explanation for his departure into
print by the player. He says:
McGraw Talks.
"A great many of the sporting
writer's are graduates of thu, field. or
diamond. or court. or whatever branch
OF the sport they have specialized in.
Some are merely students of the
game. All of them lay a certain claim
t" the knowledge of how to put up IL
story. andt l must acknowledges. some
of their yarns are great. BY the w
pert use of words and phrases they
certainly can work mp a tremendous
interest to the very last word. Until
within the last few Years this has
seemed To suffice. Then somebody
who fought and lost and won on the
fold, who knew why he had lost and
hen Won who had felt the ache and
thrill. told his story in print. 1t had
not literary value: ii may ever have
been ungrammatiral. but it had the
punch. Besides tho first lonely editor
who printed the story, who else well
coined it" Everybody. From ii num-
Dor of letters that poured into that
office it was evidcn, that Il new chord
had been struck.
People who want to hear sermons
are prepared for IL preacher who pre-
parcs hem: how 4 salmon is caught
from a salmon fisherman; how base
bali is played from a baseball player.
II isn't hard to understand why"
Hay Fott. Straw Foot.
San Antonio. Tex. March 1.-two
weeks OF regulation rounding into
shape remain for the maestro who
compose the bunch that branded
broadway and its h%oulevards with
sorrow last october. that is ii dame
nature hnstles through with some-
thing respectable in the line of wealth.
or TO-DAY.
ing the present writing. the squad
which the tall tacticisu has mustered
here will he dissected. While the vet
rwirlers will hike for the north with
the Van hroilers. the colt curvists
and the main guard will roam north
ward also. following tho trail Of the
lone star route.
All thai is needed besides the brisk
manner that Old Sol assumes when
he gets started on his daily race, is
one complete week with weather that
is as torrid as some of the Gertrude
Hoffman, dancing numbers.
Also with that sore of kickapooing
by the mercury. the senile limbs and
arms will be just about ready for reg
ular pastiming. which starts Jour days
to the ideS of April.