The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-06
Comics College Men
 Don't Always Pan Out

Connie Mack has dug up a. lot. of great players in the colleges, and his finds among the rah-rah boys played big part in the construction of his Immortal pennant-winning machine. Eddie Plank of Gettysblrg College, ssChief Bender of Carlisle and Dick 1nson College. Coombs of Colby Col 1ege, F7ddie Collins of Columbia Univ ersity. Jack Barry of Holy Cross Col 1sge, Eddie Murphy of ViI1anova Col Isgeno other major league club in Baseball history has ever had such an H3ustrfous bunch of men whose i1l-s tsIIects have been sand papered in the Institutions devoted to the higher edu-5 cation.
 During the last two or three years, However. Connie has been having bad luck with shfs e04legianss whether this fsg the fault of the colleges or of Connie cannot be definitely stated, al though there is a strong suspicion that the educational institutions are failing tp fulfill their mission. Anyway, in pIcking his 1916 bunch of recruits. the Athletic Nchieftain has passed tip the rah-rah lads and has dug up his ma teriaI from the minor leagues and seni-pro circles.
 Today is the birthday of two of Connis more recent college finds E1oyd Davies and William Kopf, neither of whom has set the baseball world on fire.
 Davies was born in Peabody, Mass, twenty-four years ago today, and was a prominent athlete and pitcher at Amherst when Connie got wind of him q couple of years ago. He was sent into the box against the St. Louis Browns, and helped to win his first game by getting two hits and swiping a couple of bases. That gave Connie the hunch that Davies might be use full in the outer garden, and he was placed in left field while O1dring was out of the pastime. Davies was only feet inches, and Mack decided he was too small for a slab artist, but he used him in the olitfleId quite fre- Quently in 1914 ahd 1e1 15-e His fielding was fair but last year he batted only .182- It is understood that Davies in- tends to become a business man and abandon professional baseball
 Bill Kopf, who was born in Bristol. Conn, March s, 1892, was playing with FOrdham College in 1912 when Con nfe's eagle eye fell upon him. Kopf went to San Antonio with the Mack men in 1913 under the alias of Brady, so as not to do damage to his amateur standing. Connie believed that the youngster had a great future on the diamond, and Kopf decided to aband- on his. college course and go to Toledo for further seasoning, with the prom 1se that he could return to the Ath- 1etics when ripe for the big show. kopf returned to the Athletics the fol- lowing year by the waiver route, Cleveland having given him a trial. Last year Connie used him frequently ] at third and short. but his fielding was mediocre and he batted only .225. 4 Wyckof is the only remaining mem- Der of Mack's college bunch to go to JacksonviIIe this year J. weldon was picked up by Connie while he was a student at Bucknel College, Christy Mathewson's alma mater. Wyckoff has pitched good ball at times but his record of ten games won to twenty two lost last year doesn't indicate that he has as yet finally won his big league spurs.
 In spite of Comics recent failures, there are still good players to be pick ed up in the colleges, as other pilots have demonstrated in the last year Or two No such galaxy of college stars as Mack had at one time, however, is likely to be seen again very soon