Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-02-11
sx cHRIs1Y MArAEwsoN.

61 WIZ "SSTNs
Three Of four attempts have been
made lately to start a training school
for ball players to develop men fit to
get Jobs in the major leagues. Base
ball has boone such a remunerative
profession within the last ten years
that managers are the constant tar
gets of requests from young ball play
ers to give them a chance. There
are not enough good ball players to
equip the present teams in the two
big leagues, and, with third one
trying to break in, it looks as if the
market were going to be very short
of the right sort of talent.
A training school for ball players
might be possible, but do not believe
it is practicable For one reason, a
boy can not pick out baseball and
say that he is going to make it his
profession as he could that Of law or
medicine. The big leagues are strict
in their demands for certain natural
qualities. OF course, a certain pre-
liminary physical examination might
be required, different in nature but
similar in purpose to the one that has
to be passed before a candidate can
enter either the military or naval
academies. But for a boy to make
good in fast company now he must
have speed, as managers are demand
ing this more and more, and he must
have brains, and, above all, he must
have what we call heart" which is
nerve under fire. No one can deter
mine whether a boy has the latter
quality until he has been put to the
big league test.
Few "Miilionaires" in Game.
Here is a clipping that cut from
q newspaper recently for future ref
erence:
AT last, the idea of regular base
ball school has passed from a posi-
biIity to a reality. Next Friday Char
ley Carr will open his baseball uni
yersity at San Antonio, Tex, for the
matriculation of youngsters who de-
sire to enter the big leagues by
route which they hope will entirely
eliminate the bush circuit"
The great trouble with the plan, as
l see it, is that most youths DESTROYS
of entering the big leagues have not
the money to pay tuition unless the
originators of the school intend to ca
ter simply to sons of the rich or we'll
to do who think they would like to
take whirl at the big leagues for a
few years Just to see what they could
do. In spite of many reports, there
are few millionafres' sons playing ball.
Every now and then we hear of some
bali player being independently
wealthy, but these are usually pub
licity stories. Young fellows with
money do. not do as we'll as those
who are dependent on baseball as a
profession. They have not the ambi-
ton and Tearnestness, and the present
game requires both.
Shafer One Exception.
Shafer, the young third bRseman of
the Giants, is an exception to this. He
works hard, and he has some money,
but / believe he would be a better
ball player today if he did not know
where his next meal was coming from
without his baseball salary. Campbell,
the outfielder once with Pittsburgh
and later with Boston, would have
been a wonderful ball player if he had
been up against baseball for his living.
These are the only two that !, think of
at this writing who were fairly we'll
off when they started in the game.
Plenty Of the stars Of today have
made comfortable fortunes out of play
ing baseball, but they realize that hard
work did it for them and they con-
tinue to plug.