Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-19

paid for playing the game. Not atl of these young men can play like CooD: many of them cannot play eX- pertly enough to join a major league club. But all think they are good and have a chance to manufacture base hts and put-outs for the Athle- tics. the Pliilies and the other big league teams.
 Put these 10000 ball players into one great auditorium--or, if thav is impossible, put their names on a long iiSt,-and how in the wide world would you select the wheat from the chaff How could you tell which were the Sbibbs and which were the plain Jones' es, wit no real big league ability? You couldn't and neither can the Is mar asfT's Of the major league clubs. It would cost millions of dollars to sep araTe the good ones from the bad ones and get 16 times 25 who were suffi- cientiy expert to play bang-up base
 bal! of the sort the fans of Philadei ph;a, New York and other cities are accustomed to.
 Now, to get into the real farming
 business. what would the great agri- CulCurisG do if he had in his posses sion 10000 Varities of wheat seeds That's easy. He would sent them out to be planted in Seperate tracts or land and when the harvest days came ne would know how many varieties were suited tc his purposes.
 Ah, there you have the secret of baseball farming. The minor Ieagi.e es the Tristate, the New York State, and others. Philadelphians know about are the farms. There the young ball players are soWed in the spring and cultivated throughout the summer. When fall comes along and the croo is ready to be stowsd away, it is easy CT classified tioE-n1aJSr or AA-to look it over and pick out the players ne wants. A.
 That is.~in realty all there is 10 the baseball far,niffg. 1t may have its evils; about them we are not concern ed. There may be other, ways to select the type of ball players it for the big leagues. But when IL comes to c!lItiVatiag. tine diamond seeds ard developing them into full grown flow CTS there. is+ no way apparent which has anything cn the rural pursuits of oTga ni2ed t1aseball.
 . Take a concrete exam pie Of how the the farming: progresses. Some years since, a. boy hung around Shibe park and seemed anxious to play baseball. FIe caught the attention Of Comic Mack Now, ,tEe Athletics manager is 2. baseball asriculturisr of remark able skill; that is, he can look at the seed and tell just about what type Of oV7e- will grow if il is properly cul- tiVate6
 . In any event. Connie Mack liked the looks of this boy and saw tda- iie i'm proved his mind by a course in Nflla- nova college, where he played on the varsity nine. Then, through the ef- forts of Mfr. Mack, the young man was pIaced in Scranton, with the New York State league club, for cultivation Aft CT one year tkere he went to richer SoiI-Ihe Baltimore Internationals- where he developed and grew fast. Tn the fall of 1912 AgricUiturist Mack phis and he has been the Athletics regular right fielder since.
 Eddie Murphy is the young man who became . big league ball player and shared in the honors and financial gains Of two worlds series beca use of the baseball farming.
 Many other stances could be given. Even the wonderful Cobb was the pr- ducr of a farm in Augusta, Ga. No ball player living is able to jump from his lSnickerbockers straight into a big league uniform and make good. He has to be cultivated and the hig league crowds will not suffer the cuI- tlTation in the big league parks when they are paying big prices to see ball games
 Just what the Federal league thinxs organized baseball is need not con- cern the fans, unless they so desire But when they object to the baseball farming, jump right up in meetns and. speak out loud. It's systsnl by which the men who delight us with the home runs and the brilliant catches are developed into first-class ball Aia2AAG- And until somepoI1 aads a