Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-15

WIN ~ NiSNhf1W
as alert as he was 20 years ago and
much wiser through experience. Ply
sically he is still a marvel, though the
years have put some flesh on him and
the raven locks of yore are heavily
shot with gray.
There are some veterans of the wars
who are about the same age as Nc
Graw and who are still in the big
leagues, but none of them started as
young as the New York manager.
Fred Clarke, manager of the Pitts
burg Pirates, broke in at Louisville in
the COS, but McGraw beat him in by
five years or more. Hans Wagner is
forty, but he did not play his first big
league enga cement at Louisville until
1896. Napoleon Lajoie came in about
the same time. Bobby Wallace of the
st. Louis Browns probably ranks next
to MeGraw in point of continuous SER
vice
Clark Griffith can go back as far as
MeGraw, but his service has not been
continuous. AS McGraw remembers it,
Griffith joined Cap Anson's Chicago
team as pitcher in 1892, but was
farmed out to Milwaukee one season.
Then "Griff'' was out of baseball part
of the season of 1908, when he resigned
in July as manager of the Yankees.
Sitting around the festal board at a
quiet little party Monday night Nc
Graw was moved to "reminiscences
Il remember how proud was when
became a voter. It's funny thing,
too, that l cannot recollect where l
spent any other birthday. In 1894 the
Orioles trained here in New Orleans.
The season opened late in April and
We stayed south later than the other
teams. ! remember that we stopped
at the old st. Charles hotel, which was
afterward burned, and | gave a little
dinner party.
THAT year the Orioles were trained
TO feather edge, and we gave the
old National League a jolt by jumping
into Baltimore and beating the Giants
fer four straight games in the open
ing series. They had a good team,
too, but we pulled a lot of bunts and
other fancy stuff on their pitchers and
made them look like bushers.
Cap Arson, who had winning
team in Chicago, made fun of us, but
we got even with Anse good and plen-
ty, for We won the pcnnant that year
and gave the Chicago team many a
licking. We used to tell Anse to look
out and then we'd crack hits at him.
Cap never cared for ground balls, and
we would get him wild by kidding
him after he had made a mess of one.
We were not expected to do any
thing that hI1t W. he,
all Five years went by and the ORR
oles were broken up by the Brooklyn
amalgamation. That was when yours
truly got his first taste of managing
a baseball team.
Robby and l refused to go to Brook
lyn. so Ned Hanlon, who became man.
ager of the Superbas, took about ev-
erybody else and left us with what
everybody thought was a joke team.
Brooklyn won the pennant that year,
but we finished third in 12-club race.
and were the only team to win a ma
Jority OF our games from Brooklyn.
we were second until August, when
L quit the game as result of the
death of my wife, and Hanlon has
since told me that he thought we had
a chance to win the pennant up to
the first of September
THE Giants this year are as well
trained as the orioles were in 1894. and
1 hope to get another fast start. | am
satisfied with my pitchers. Every one
OF my reliable men has come through
in great shape so far, and | believe
Fromme is going to be a big help to
me. 1 have plenty of confidence and
7 n IN nt hal he t,-I
sition is going to stop US. Skaters
loss is a blow, I'll admit, but | al
ways try to build my teams so that 1
have capable substitutes for all emer-
gencies.
"Snodgrass may not be a great third
baseman, but hope to find a place for
him somewhere in the lineup, for he
is too good a hustler to stay on the
bench. A lot of people have an idea
that Snodgrass is my only hope at
third base. My suggestion to them
is to keep your eye on Stock That
little fellow has risen greatly in my
estimation this spring, and especially
in the last two weeks. I think he is
there, despite the fact that neither
George Stallings nor Mike Finn would
play him at third base, but trained
him as shortstop.
"Stallings never said much about
Stock, but l notice he had a draft in
for him last fall, and so did seven
other clubs. The kid is gritty, he can
hit, and he is a great fielder of hard
hit ground balls. Tuesday he made a
play that you seldom see when he
knocked down hard hit back of third
base, and got fast runner at first
base after throwing fiatfooted. He has
quite an arm. II Mike Doolan had not
jumped to the Federals would have
had great quartet of experienced
infielders to start the season, as had