The Washington times., 1915-06-19

l male no spectfc charge against the
White Sox nor any other club. as any
one who read ny article must admit.
What did say was that a strong rumor
of sharp practice was abroad, and l re-
iterate that statement right here. Man
ager Jennings thought the report suffi-
GENTLY serious to detail one of our play
ers for plain clothes" duty in the
bleachers, and he also wrote Manager
warning we had received and caution
| ing him to be on the lookout. So you
see the signal tipping report was not a
matter Of sufficient seriousness to war
in his official capacity. Mr.. Jennings
is willing to stand by the statement that
and passed the warning along to Mr..
Donovan. If Mr.. Johnson Is going to
order myl baseball demise for printing
that truth. he can order the hearse for
| any convenient hour.
When l get ready to make any direct
| accusation against a club in the Amer
| lean League, / will come right out and
| name 1t and will have the evidence TO
proofs. This Is not the first time that
| there has been a rumor Of signol steal
| ing in the American League. The De-
| troit club secured proof that New York
| was getting them some years ago and
the matter was brought to Mr.. John
| sons attention. There wasn't any roar
ABOUT putting somebody out of the game
then, however On the contrary, the
matter was hushed up.
| Detroit has been accused Of stealing
signs. Connie Mack came out with an
interview last Wednesday, in which he
said that we used to do it. AS proof.
he said that there was advertising sign
painted on it and movable eyes. This
latter is true, but the eyes We're oper-
ated by a small boy hired by the con-
Germ owning the advertisement The
| kid sat behind the sign and made the
eyes roll by means Of a long lever:
| When Jennings heard that Mack had
made a complaint, he investigated and
found what was going on. He forced
eyes right away. too. Ira Thomas, of
! the Athletics. was on our club at this
time, and he knows that we did not get
any information from that sign He
wouldn't hesitate to say so now If there
had been anything crooked about 1t.
pitcher, recently told Edgar Willett. an
ex-Tiger, that Connie Mack had Kilroy
| ste toned out behind center field with a
pair Of field glasses at one time, so |
don't see where Mack has any license
to make a kick now. He knows per-
fettly we'll that the Detroit club had
nothing to do with that mechanical
sign. and he ought not to create false
| impression.
want to make it very plain that even
if it should be proved that the White
SoX ever tried signal stealing, it would
be without the knowledge of Mr.. Colnis-
key I have the greatest respect for
hin as a sportsman, and know that he
wouldn't countenance anything of this
sort for a moment. Such a thing as a
manager putting 1T over on the owner
has been known, however. l know
| that Mr. Comiskey would be very much
! distressed If he. learned that his club
had done anything out Of the way, for
he always has stood for clean baseball
perhaps all these sensational inter-
views given out by the league presi-
dent are designed as advertising. 1t
seems to me that every time bat
an eye, there is a great fuss about
it, and sometimes it looks like the
old circus dodge of getting the peO-
pie excited artificially. If this is
Mr.. JohnsOn's idea. wish he would
abandon it,. object to being made
a freak. If my ball playing IS not
enough to attract the fans, they will
have to stay away, SO far as | am
concerned, for / will not be made the
"gOat" in some near-scandal just for
the sake of helping the gate. am
hired to play the game, and not to
exercise the same functions as
two-heaedd calf in a circus.
My article last week certainly did
not warrant any such tempest in a
teapot. There have been, and are,
things going on in this league that
might stir up a whole lot bigger fuss
if investigated, and if Mr.. johnson
is so anxious TO do some crusading,
let him look around a little.
Getting back to the young players who
have been burning things up, Pep"