The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-03-08
.LAPP IS VALUABLE
CATCHER FOR MACK
Is Close Student of Oppon.
ents and Loves Sessions of
"Stove League.

Humorous stories have been written
about the recruit who was picked from
the village team for the big show. and
was welcomed home by the town bal nd,
at the close of the season. Usually the
country store or the village barber shop
is his trysting place, and there he tells
the amazed residents Of the Inside" OF
big league baseball.
The paragraphers of newspapers, wits
and stage comedians have often poked
fun at Philadelphia as being sleepy
burg, and compared the city as taking
second place 10 little isolated hamlet.
Perhaps they are MOI so far wrong AT
that. for the same scene is enacted al
most daily, during the winter, with Jack
Lapp. catcher OF the Athletics. the center
ber shop. West Lehigh street. Philadel-
phia.
Lapp takes things pretty soft in the
winter time. Gets out OF bed whenever
while, bustles into his sweater coat and
then beats II TO the corner barber shop,
Ihen the winter stove league opens an
other session. AT eating time the party
suspends, but then. almost every after
noon, the pan club" can be found work.
ing fun force, and every major Lacquer.
regular and recruit, comes In for discus
sion. his fate is settled and the player
placed on the shelf.
Jack IS married and has very pleas
ant home He lives near the Athletic
ball park, The baseball colony" the
people call Il; as up In that section live
Harry Davis. Jack Lapp, Connie Mack.
Charlie Doom, Amos Strunk. Ira Thorn
as. Chief Bender and lot OF others.
John w. LRpp WAS born at Frazer, Pa.
September 10. 1884. He started playing
baseball Tor Portsmouth. Va in 1907. as
catcher. Later III the year he leaped
10 the Chester team OF the Atlantic
trust baseball. Before the season OF
1907 had ended however, he was back in
organized baseball playing in the New
York state league.
Jack was taken III with typhoid fever
and suspended. lie applied for rein
statement to organized baseball, but was
turned down at the beginning OF 1905
and he joined the Hazleton Indepcndent
league CLUB, Here his work attract the
attention OF the major league scouts and
he was sought by several clubs. but IL
was The Athletics that landed his serv-
Ices and bad him put back In good
standing and he has been a member OF
the Mackmen ever since He was mar
ried at the close Of the iirst season he
Joined the Philadelphia club
lapp Is u close student OF opponents
His advice and suggestions have been
very valuable 10 Connie Mack. When
Mack, Davis, Thomas, Murphy and Lam
unite their wits. no stronger combinss-
,ion OF brains I'm baseball could be
brought together,
8, In n.I 1919 LaPR R.,t;;, hated in eishty;four
scored twenty-three runs, twelve OF which
were earned, and had fifty-four hits for
total OF sixty-seven bases. Including
four doubles: three triples and a homer.
lapp Is credited with two sacrifice hits
tNo stolen bases. was given his base on
balls thirty-seycn times and struck out
twenty-six times, finishing the season
with a percentage OF .22s In feldinr he
worked IN eighty-two games, had 3J9 nut
outs. i20 assists and fourteen errors. for
an average OF $40.
In the world series OF last year Lapp
hatted -2sO and iielded perfectly. He
only worked in one game. Schang
catching the other four. and In that
contest was at bat four times and hit
ont a two-bagger. In fielding he had
seven Putouts and one assist