The sun., 1916-08-27
DAME FORTUNE
PLAYS STELLAR
BASEBALL ROLE
Acquisition Of Great Major
Leaguers Is Largely
Matter of Luck.
MANY HIGH PRICED
MEN ARE FAILURES
NJ sHORrsT0P.

~ sHORrsToP.
The subject under discussion was the
1915 Athletics. No tailender In baseball
history ever evoked the conversation
which has been spilled over Connie
Mack's TERRIBLE misnts. The sight OF
this team grovelling In the dust, after II
had been cock Of tho walk for many
years. has opened many channels for
thought.
The moro I zee Of baseball the more
! am convinced that the development
OF baseball stars Is entirely a matter of
luck" said the old time fan.
Take the case of Connie Mack. lie
mas brought results; he Is the only
manager who ever won six major league
championships and three worlds cham
pionshlps. Yet to-day he has the most
miserable tailender of all baseball his
tory. q team which IL an insult TO Amer.
lean League fans. understand that
Connie Mack has tried out over q hun
dred players, and his team looks worse
DOW than before. Just . fortnight ago
The team ended a losing streak which
was worse than anything ever hung up
In acknowledgements defeats In forty
three games. The question I now wan,
to ask IL, Was IL the keenness Of Mack
that enabled him to build up that in
neld Of Baker. Collins. Barry and Nc.
lnnis from an obscure minor Lacquer,
two college stars and a schoolboy or did
the element Of luck figure almost entirely
In the development Of this infeldT
Does Luck Fisures
Can Mack ever bring together such
~ inneld? II he can, then he deserves
the title Of tho 'wisard Of baseball
However. 90 far Connie has tried out
about two dozen players on third base.
collegians. minor ieaguers, semi-pros,
catchers and outhelders, but Is he any
nearer to n second Frank Baker than
when he startedr'
The veteran fan who opened this ar
sument knows baseball. He has seen
many high priced minor league phenoms
blow. while each season he has seen sew
eral new obscure names recognized as
stars. He says from personal observa-
ton at least 90 per cent. OF. the little
leaguers that bring thousands to their
owners are boomers and that every
thing In baseball hinges on luck.
ohortstor would not string along with
him or all his dope. but his reasoning
was sound and his questions and state.
ment were pertinent and to the point.
10 there such q thing as the develop.
ment of u baseball star or IL his discov.
cry and subsequent development entirely
a matter OF luck? shortstop will not
~ entirely" but he will say largely"
Bench Course Not Needed.
believe Connie Mack or some other
nrst class manage can tell a youngster
who IL possible of development from an
absolute dub. but after that neither
Mack nor any one else can tell how thai
player will act under big league fire or
what several years Of baseball tuition
can do for him. From close observation
Shortstop does not think much of the
bench method Of development. When
permitted to carry a large roster Nc
Graw used 1t successfully In the develop
ment OF Merkle, Burns. Fletcher, Robert
son and Snodgrass. Yet would not Burns
or Fletcher have been as good IL they
had been put to work Immediately. as
was Doyle? The Hornsbys. Watsons.
Mamauxes. Sisters. Maranviiles needed
no bench course to finish their instruction.
On the other hand HcGraw carried
Art Wilson for five full seasons. and
when he needed a man to take Chief
Meyers's place in 1913 he was forced to
20 out buy Larry Mclean. Grover
Hartley put In three full years on the
Giant bench n isn't a better catcher
to-day h when he Joined the Giants in
19ll.
Ferdie schupp was carried three full
years before McGraw entrusted him with
games. and after showing flashes Of rare
form he has developed into an in and
outer. Schauer came n few months
after Schupp in 1913. and In his fourth
year knew no more about big league
pitching Than In his first. He had natural
ability. but no head. To-day Schauer Is
going bad In the minors. Did his long
bench term In New York enhance or re.
lard his development?
Plank q Star From the start.
But we started TO bring out the point
es to whether a manager can tell how an
obscure ball player will act In the big
leagues. In 1901 Connie Mack heard Of
a young pitcher going great with Get
tysburg College. Mack sent MIN a con-
tract. His name was Plank. who then
was 20. He was a star as soon as he
pitched one big league game Sixteen
years later Plank still Is pitching the
same kind OF ball and recently permitted
hve hits In three consecutive nine inning
games.
In 1906 Mack sent a contract to the
all around star of the Colby College
team. Jack Coombs. Coombs reported
and won a shutout In the first game
against washington. a rev months
later ne won a t~wenty-four Inning game
against Boston. Coombs then pitched
just mediocre ball for three years. but
in 1910 he won 33 games for Mack. 10
shutouts and 3 Worlds Series victories
over tho Cubs. TIT other day he held
the Cubs to one hit, and only 81 men
faced him.
Now for the other side OF the story.
A young man named Hasselbacher was
pitching as great ball for Penn STATE
this spring as did Eddie Plank for Gettys-
burg In 1901. Mack sent for him. An
other young man. Williams. pitched in
vincible ball for North Carolina Jing-
ling Johnson was a star AZ Ursinus ;
Minott Crowell pitched as grand ball for
Brown as any college pitcher ever
flashed. All were called to tho Athletic
Colors. SO far none OF these boys has
shown anything. and after getting SOM
fierce drubbings Hasselbacher and Crow
ell have been released.
Luck q Mig Factor.
Who can say mat any manager could
tell that Collegians Plank and Coombs
would be stars OF the first magnitude
almost from the minute they camo into
fast company and that Crowell and Has.
selbanher would fan? Was II not q
greur element Of luck In Mack's favor
that Plank n CoOmbs turned out the
players they did? Why does Connie
Mack bring his army of college pitchers
10 Sh!bc Park? Is II not In the hone