Evening journal., 1914-05-20
ERIN'S BASEBALL
SUPREMACY Gone
Irish Very Much il Minor
ity These Days in Big
Leagues
NOT ONE GENUINE
CELT ON SENATORS

During a recent tanning bee while
the Washington team was in New
York one OF the Senator scribes re-
marked. "Do you know that Griffith
has a remarkable club? II was con-
coded that "Grif" has pretty fine
team as TO playing strength, but the
remarkable part Of the club Is that
he has not a single real lrish-Ameri-
can on his team out Of thirty-tour
players"
When asked about Mcbride, the
scribe informed the writer that even
Captain George could not be included
among the pure Irish. Mcbride,
though possessing a pronounced Gel
tic name. IS only half Irish, as his
mother is OF German descent
Can you beat IL? Thirty-four ball
PLAYERS. and the only Irishman In the
lot is half German! Griffith, himself
of Welsh extraction, has a team of
all nationalities, including a Mexican
and Cuban, yet he cannot produce
a real son of Erin Germany leads in
the Washington ranks, with Schaefer,
Altrock, Moeller and Engel as charter
members. Johnson is of Scotch-Eng-
lish extraction, and the club has sew
eral members OF this ancestry. Gallia
is the Mexican and Acosta the Cuban.
This state of affairs brings out an
important question. Are the Irish
men fading out OF the big league?
There was a time when almost every
star IN the game was OF Irish eX-
traction, with maybe a Dutchman or
an Englishman thrown in for good
measure.
Few Irish Names.
How few Irish names do you find
among the stars of to-day: Look over
the list of the real big fellows Cobb,
Speaker, Jackson, Johnson, Mathew
son. Rucker, Milan. Collins, Wagner,
Laioie. Marquard. Tesreau, Bender,
plank. Alexander, Evers, Daubert,
Baker. Konetchy, Wheat thinner
man. Oldring, Doyle, Chase, Archer,
Movers, McInnis.
There is a sprinkling Of Irish In
th;t list, but they are greatly In the
minority. Eddie Collins name would
indicate that his ancestors hailed
from Erin, though Collins comes from
an old Tarrytown family. Evers Is
az Irish stock. and, OF course, there
Is no German In either Larry Doyle
on Sfuffv McInnis As for Archer, he
was born in ireland. which also was
the birthplace of two fellow Cub
maskmen, Roger Bresnahan and Tom
Neodham.
Yet contrast the list of the stars Of
today with some OF the stars of the
past. such as King Kelly, Buck
Ewing, Mickey Welch, Tim keefe,
Charlie Comiskey, Tiernan, Hanlon.
ORourke. Bennett, Dunlap, Duhy,
Joe Kelley, Meekln, Tebeau, Burkett,
Thompson. McAleer, BrOuthers, Dele
hanty, Jennings, McGraw, Jim Collins
and Mike Donlin.
Celtic Managers.
However, while the Irish stars OF
the game seem to be passing out, 1t
stiu takes the Irishmen TO run the
teams. One-half of the major league
managers are Irish, and the Irish
managers include John McGraw and
Connie Mack, who have more or less
monopolized the worlds series spoils
the last few years.
The others are Hugh Jennings,
Red Doom, Jim Callahan, Bill Car
rigan. Hank O'Day and Wilbert
Robinson. "Robby' is mentioned
lagt, as we are not absolutely certain
hat he is Irish
Several years ago the Germans on
he Giants wanted 20 play the Irish a
game on st. Patrick's Day, but
McCraw would not permit II, as he
said he did not care TO see any Irish
slaughtered by the Dutch on the 18th
OF March. A census of McGraw's
forces showed that the only real Irish
they could press into service were
Doyle. Murray and Mccormick, while
the Germans had enlisted Merkle,
Herzog, Shafer. Groh, Wiltse, Flet-
cher and Schupp.
The Brooklyn club also shows the
decline of the Irish in the big leagues.
Charley Ebbets's roster is almost as
shy of good old Irish names as that
of Clark Griffith. There is Don
Carlos Patrick Ragan, but d. G. Pat
pretty nearly lets the Irish out The
Nillers. Dauberts, Fischers. Stengels,
Pfeffers, Schmutzes, Reulbachs and
Waeners give the Germans a majority
bv land slide. No wonder Steve
McKeever says there are too many
Dutchmen on the club.
Connie Mack's Worlds Champs OF
last year was about as Irish clut
as Won will find nowadays. In tht
regular lineup were Eddie Murphy
Eddie Collins, Jack Mclnnis and Jacl
Barry. a substantial majority FOL
Erin. His outfeld assistants wer'
Dan Murphy, Jim Walsh and Pet
Daley. all Irishmen. while Ira Thoma
represented the Emerald Isle n
Mack's catching department Jo
Bush was Mack's only Irish pitcher.
Old Cubs TeutOnlc.
Chances old Cubs were a grea
boost for the Kaiser, however, am
contained hardly anything but Ger
mans. The original Cubs had an all
German outfeld in Sheckard. Slagl
and Schultz, with Artie Holman a
utility. Steinfeldt and Tinker wer
the Germans on the iniield. Will
Chance also has some German bloc
I'm him. King was catcher an
Reulbach, Overall, Pfiester and Luni
aren represented Germany on IN
pitching staff.
The fact that there are less Iris
stars than formerly does not prov
that the Irish take less interest
the great game. but that other NJ
lonalities take more. Formerly
was mostly the Irish-American youi
who played the game, but now il
played by every American youngste
Such names as Konetchy, Cow
leslSie. Boutillier (Butler), Sentell
aEnuffrrIlfn