The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-12-17
|DAUNTLESS Still, EVERS
AGAIN KNOCKS OUT FATE
~Human Crab" They Call Him,
But Fans All Rejoice At
His Recovery
FORTUNE PLAYS MANY
FRANKS WITH JOHNNY
Boston Star Repeatedly Comes
Back" When Apparently
Down For Count

Johnny EYers has won another
round In lifetime battle against the
toughest sort OF luck Stricken with
pneumonia, that malady that mows
down the best OF men, he has fought
his way through the crisis and is now
on the road TO recovery, with pros
poets of being up and doing again
within a fortnight. And the whole
world of sport Is glad, for IL holds a
! mighty warm spot in its heart for the
Boston second.sacker, grabbed scrap.
per though no be.
We call him the Human Crab"
And Il is a cold truth, too, that we
think OF Johnny most as grabbed,
scrappy ball player-grand player,
but an awful crouch.
But we'd all be grouchy il We had
faced the tough luck that Johnny has,
II started in 1909, after the famous
National league finish in 1908. He had
Invested all his earnings In a shoe
store in Chicago-all but enough TO
buy an automobile.
Going out for one OF his first drives
he saw Jimmy Sheckard standing on
corner.
.Come on and take ride he urg-
ed his teammate.
mot me-" said Sheckard. It want
to live a while.'
It'll take q chance" said George
Mcdonald, a Chicago baseball writer
and one OF Johnny's best friends.
There was an accident wreck
and Mcdonald was killed.
Johnny Evers was heartbroken.
They thought for weeks that he would
break under the strain. Many claim
Johnny has never been the same
since-except his nerve.
The following year Johnny's bust
ness failed. He brooded over this,
and again his friends predicted he
would suffer breakdown.
But in the spring he came back
and was playing his best game when,
Just after the Cubs had cinched the
1910 pennant, he broke his leg sliding
home. He was out of the worlds
series and for the most part of the
1911 season, besides.
"He's through this time" said one
of his staunchest friends.
Thin and drawn, more quiet of the
field, more grabbed on il, he came
back again. He was the same little
fighter Of old, and the same wonder
full mechanic.
Then his old chief, Frank Chance,
was ousted. and Johnny was given the
most thankless job in baseball--man-
aging a club for Charley Murphy.
Those Cubs we're a rough bunch.
Chance had handled them because
they feared his hard-hitting right
hand. Johnny did his best, but that
wasn't good enough for Murphy. He
was discharged
He was sold to Boston, tail-end
club His shoulders more stopped
, than ever. his hair tinged with gray.
he fought all the harder In few
months he represented the difference
between the Braves OF the cellar and
the Braves on the top floor.
But Old Hard Luck still logged his
trail. Right in the midst of a royal
fight for a pennant his little daughter
died. II seemed this blow was the
final one. Johnny went away and
stayed for few weeks Then he
came back-came back as he always
had, with his head up.
Then came this attack of pneu-
monia. He is coming back from that,
too--the gamest. scrappiest little fell
low that ever played out a string of
tough luck to the almighty end, and
never quit.