Evening star., 1916-12-24
SCOUTS FOR BIG LEAGUE
BASE BALL TEAMS
PLAY GREAT PART IN
DEVELOPMENT OF GAME
Continued from First Page.)

be hitting we'll over 800 and fielding
with an almost perfect percentage
These facts were given to a scout by
the officials of certain American
league club, with the advice that he
go to the coast and look him over
The scout laughed and answered.: T
don't want to take pleasure trip to
spend the clubs money when 1 do
That fellow. Mohler. is thirty five
years old, is slow. and consequently
can't run bases. and he is also unable
ing average because he is too slow to
get after the balls on which errors
are generally made. He is a pretty
fair hitter. but that lets him out"
club officials looked nightly surprised
but said nothing.
1t Is the object of the scout always
to keep his work in the background.
and so successful is he usually that
he goes into minor league town.
looks over a player and either departs
without having had his presence known
or else the first anybody flnds out
about him is when he approaches the
MANAGEMENT of the club and opens
player upon whom he has passed ap-
proval. Real major league scouts are
SO averse to saying anything about
their work that they refuse to talk
ball except to their most intimate
friends.
1t is not to be supposed that the
scout wanders around aimless1y during
Nor is it to be thought for an instant
that the only work he has to do is to
comb the minor circuits for new ma
terial. though that does constitute
ma jor portion of 1t. The scout accepts
orders direct from the manager. and
every one of his movements is the
result of a well defined system and
purpose.
1t is not an easy task which con-
fronts the discoverer Of new talent at
the beginning of a season. He must
travel thousands and Thousands of
miles. must of necessity put up with
hundreds of hardships. any of which
would cause the majority Of ball play
ers to become grouchy and dissatisfied.
From the beginning to the end Of the
season he realizes that to make good
on his job there must not be single
moment of unceasinR vigilance. lest
he lose the right to the services of
coming star.
When the club prepares for the an
nual spring migration to Its training
camp in the south. orders go out to
the scout to be ready to make the
trip. that he may be on hand during
the arduous weeks of practice. The
manager realizes the value Of the
opinion Of the ran who selects his
PLAYERS from the minors. and he always
gets 1t before finally nassine on the
worth Of a questionable unit OF the
nine which later is to start erueling
mpaigr.
In man~ cases II is the scouts opin-
ION which ia regarded az fnal when
there 10 d""ht as to "hether or NOT a
-.lover should he let go. 1t is Just such
ouas+inre ~.hirh the scout must decide.
and WHICH urah" his position pre-
p, -iors Owe SUPPOSE. for instance.
.he-a is = FIGHT on hetw""n two niayers
.o- a certair nns,tior Neither of them
has shnr-r decided superiority. and yet
tho decie'on hos to be wade as to
which will he kent to fill the place
during the regular sea son. IT is
da-perous decision. froueht with many
noesih,,;ti.s fo- the man noatn" It.
,,d the scou. is the one upon whom, the
burden pene-al'v 10 thrown. when
.,ere ia the r,nesihilitv that II Will he
ro-,d ,aro-e the SEASON is two months
old that tho nan let out would have
,,oda a yaet r,nnrcvAmn~+ IN tho cow
,osi,ior o. +ra to'n,. ard y mistake
-r-as ,,,cda ~ En"-i"~ . r'"a Fer "laN"r.
y ,ra~ rocat'-- b. u'rH""~.ncd thnt the
ora --ho ,-,oda the ee'nct'nr is not in
'o~ norme,dation from the club Of
~c'Is
Three years aFo there was short
stop at Charlottesville with the Ma
tionals named GaRnier. He was doing
about everything in practice that could
be expected of a brilliant player. Gag
nier did not hesitate to tell everybody
that he was going to hold down that
lob all season, that he would beat NC
Bride out of the place and show the
other shortstops in the American
League how the position should be
filed And he was showing up in
way that seemed to indicate he would
make good the statements However.
when Griffith asked the opinion of one
of the clubs scouts, this reply was
given:
II would not even take Gaenier back
to washington He 10 flash and will
not hold up. If he plays for awhile in
the practice games there as he is doing
here he will do lot of harm to the
club by causing the fans to demand
that he be retained in McBride's place.
and Mcbride is a thousand to one bet
ter man."
AS it happened. there was consider
able howl from some sporting writ
ers when Gagnier was summarily sent
to Class A club, but it turned out
that he was not even able to make
good in that class of ball However,
suppose Gagnier had been picked up
by another big league team and be-
come the star which had been Indicated
in his practice-what would that
scouts job have been worth?
It is fine tribute to the knowledge