New Britain herald., 1915-01-22
SbOYtOgYAphy
BI "t.:tNG.

Captain Ira Thomas, skipper of the good ship "Ccnnie Mack" will be the
 rc cipient of congIa ulattors today on
 h.i tbirtv-fovrth birthday. The twenty second of January is nlsJ the rGtal day of another of tbe Athletic
 crew. Amos A. StTunk, Who--at this point we make our nautical eimile walk the plank-is a tiller of the
 outer garden. Amos was born tventy-siX years ago today. and he is about the only major league player
 in captivity who was born in the city W hose baseball insienia he afterWard
 wore upon his manly buZzun.
 According Go some s.um CT old
 Dame Rumor has been spilling about, CGptain Thomas won't st felicitations
 from all his cid cumrads of the
 Connie Mack bunch. Tho luckiest
 guy in baseball" as Ira has frequent-
 lE been called. is said to be in bad
 with several Of the Athletics. Connie
 Mack has officially denied that the
 sale of Eddie Collins and the dis
 rIissal of Fender an7 Plank had any
 hearing on the alleged friction be-
 tween those players and Captain
 Thomas. and wh1t Connie says goes,
 tut the rumcr still persists. One un-
 named but prominent member" of
 Mack's bunch was recently quoted as
 saying that the selection of Thomas
 as captain of the Athletics was what
 sent the craft on the rocks. Accord
 ing. to these s'Ippo osedly inside yards.
 the altitudinous Thomas was regu-
 lar bone of contention and his rule
 brought the crew to the point of open
 mutiny. Some of tho old boys, it is
 said, believed that Thomas was re-
 sponsible for sending Danny Murphy
 to the discard, and that peeved them.
 Ira Thomas was born in Ballston Springs, N. Y., January 22. 1881. In | his baseball career he has certainly | been one lucky fellow. He started 1 with Hartford. in the Connecticut 1 league where he quickly made a
 reputation as a backstop and got into l the limelight by catching four games 1 in one day. At the tail end of the 1 1903 season he went to Newark, and ! in 1904 and 1905 he played with l Providence. He broke into the big | show with the New York Yankees in ! 1906. The following year the High 1 landers let him out and Ira broke into l the Lucky club by landing a catching 1 job with the Detroit Tigers just in l tune to get his snare or the WOrld $ l series swag. In 1909 he was sold to l the Athletics, and with that bunch he | has shared in the splitting of four 1 wads of worlds series kale. He an | nexed a winners portion in 1910, got ] the same in 1911. shared the spells 1 gain in 1913 and last autumn divided l the losers end. Moot so worse for a | player who was canned by the lowly l Tanks a few annums ago, as not being , good enough for that club. Five worlds series in seven years. Huh! Ira should worry. should he not? Yes, he should not
 | As previously stated, Amos StrI.E k
 was born in the Quaker City. Cupid" | or Beau Brummell," as his intima tes l call him, made quite a reputation as l a schoolboy player, and Connie Mack 1 heard of him, gave him the once-over, 1 and decided that with a little season l ing he had the makings of a sure I enough ball player. Amos was sent ', to Milwaukee for his early training, l but Connie kept string tied to him and pulled him back when he began l to show signs of being ripe. Strunk ] is said to be the champion photo , grapher of the baseball world, and when he quits the diamond game you'll probably see pictures of cele- brities bearing the caption: Photo graph by Strunk."