The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-16
HANS WAGNER TELLS STORY OF
 LIFE FOR AGE-HERALD READERS
One of Worlds Greatest Baseball Players Tells of Actual Experiences From His Youth Present Position Baseball WordWas Taught National Game by Brother Over 25 Years Agos Story Not From Diary But Memory Book-Arte Appear Every day-Exclusive AgeH Herald Readers
By HANS WAGNER

and he was more up in the air than "lucid' after the sixth hit. Next l had two singles, a double, a triple, and d home run off a pitcher named Fry. Those two bits of fireworks display probably helped me into the bis league
 As l understand it, and Fred Clarke
 ought to know, the man who tipped
 me off to the Louisville club was Claude Mcfarland, who was then all
 umpire in the South Atlantic He told
 the late Harry Pulliam about me and Clarke and Dreyfuss went over from New York to SC me play. 1 did not do so much that day, but they made an offer Barrow thought me worth lot of money and I guess the following ! clipping from a Louisville paper is
 about the correct dope:
 IS SOLD FOR $2OCO Hans Wagner, hard hitting young ball player, has been bought from the Paterson club of the South Atlantic league by the Colonels. The price was $2000, and the young fellow, who is in his tWentythird year, seems worth it. He can play first base the outfeld, i weighs 180 pounds, and is five feet 10 inches tall"
 i I had branched into the majors, and met my future pal, boss and associate
 
 I professed that Dutchman's awkward ness Even Dummy" Hoy found me 1 very amusing. Time went along swiftly with our tailenders. The great little i Tommy Leach came along two years l after me. So did Heine Ritchey, with 1 whom l had played in the old Iron and 1 Oil league. Clarke secured him in ] one of the greatest trades ever made when he swapped Pitcher still Bill' 1 Hill and Billy Clingman to Cincinnati | for the Emlenton star. Little did l 1 think then that right there was the ! formation of an aggregation that in a i few years would be cemented together l into one of the greatest baseball clubs l in history. Deacon Philippe and Tom McCreery were soon on deck, but still we were tailenders. The great Rube l Waddell rolled around ere long and of 1 him were many rich tales from the 1 start
 TWO STORIES OF WADDELL TheTfirst good story I ever heard on 1 Rute related to suit of clothes. He 1 soon acquired habit of borrowing $50 or so from Harry Pulliam, with which | to 'tbuy a suit" Half of the money would go for the suit and the other half to suit WaddelTs immediate con 1 veniences.
 l We'll. Waddell bought suit and went to his room Taking off the old
 one, frightfully bagged at the knees
 and yet IS gaudy-looling as ever, 1 Waddeil donned the new raiment. He
 started to toss the old one out the 1 window when "racks" Lattimer. his
 catcher and roommate, yelled: ! "Here, don't throw those clothes away, Rube. Give 'em to me-"
 Rube tossed the old suit into Latti- 1 mer's lap and went out, picking the 1 price tags off the vest. Two nights lot +, ,n
 saw Lattimer strutting around in the i hotel lobby in his old suit The more Rube saw of Lattimer the more he fig
 ured that the old suit was all right Here, come upstairs and make a 1 change ordered Ruze, taking Tacl1s 1 by the arm. q like that suit best" | And the pair disrobed. Lattimer get
 ting a suit only three days out of the store.
 1 On another occasion in Boston, when Waddell had room next to 1 Clarke, the manager lost a suspender
 button off his trousers. Clarke rapped
 on Waddell's door and yelled: 1 Hey, Rube, have you got a pants
 button?"
 Sure thing, Fred" replied Waddell,
 as he took a sharp penknife from his ! pocket, shipped a button off his own
 trousers and handed it to his boss.
 CLARKE BAWLS WAGNER OUT 1 The life of a ball player has been
 one sweet song, compared with what l it was at the time I broke into major
 league service, in 1897. It was like a
 Donnybrook fair in Louisville and it 1 often was a game of fists and flying
 spikes, riots and patrol wagons and ] other fine bits of side play. 1 Those days youngster, on report
 ing, was not greeted with newspaper 1 headlines of welcome, handshakes from 1 fellow players and a lot of fusisng. | He went through a narrowing initia- l tion I went through the sprouts and 1 soon had every man on the club call- | ing me "the luckiest and most awk-
 ward Dutchman" they ever saw. Fred
 Clarke, during the first month, was
 the loudest in proclaiming that I was
 so lucky my diet must consist of i horseshoes, but he was the first to
 change his opinion and inform the oth- | CTS that he really thought I was a l good ball player.
 I had not learned to admire and l know Fred Clarke as do now. He was
 two-fisted, scrappy young manager, i and one day he made me do lot of wondering We were playing Pittsburg 1 and could not hit Jess Tannehill Twice ! Clarke ordered me to bunt. and each 1 time I hit the ball outside the grounds 1 and over a whisky distillery. We won
 
 what a bawling out Clarke gave me
 that day for not obeying orders.
 TOUGH STOPPING PLACE Louisville was tough stopping | place for umpires in my time there. I | can't think anything worse than um-
 bring a game between the old Cleve-
 land Spiders and the Colonels in Louis yille One day the entire Cleveland 1 club made life so miserable for a poor | chap named Weedon that he nearly went frantic. They stepped on his | feet, mauled him around generally, and | almost caused riot. Late in the game, Cleveland started to get a lot of runs | and Clarke adopted Cleveland's meth 1 ods by harrassing poor Weedon. Fred 1 insisted that it was getting dark and
 ordered that Weedon call the game on | account of darkness. so that the score ! would revert back to the other in I hing.
 Call the game" yelled Clarke, as he | danced with his spikes dangerously
 near Weedon's bunions. After about
 three minutes of this. Weedon threw
 up his hands and yelled:
 "Yes, yes; l call the game on ac- | count of darkness"
 | This caused a real row, and in the
 end a patrol wagon load of Cleveland players was on its way to the police | state Tebeau, Wallace. O'Connor, Childs. Burkett and even old Cy Young, 1 one of the most orderly ball players | that ever lived, were forced to face | the judge next morning.
 The courtroom was crowded and in i corner stood Fred Clarke, snickering at the plight of the Spiders. Tebeau l made a fiery statement to the court and shouted:
 Erred Clarke started all this by