The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-27
By HONUs WAGNER

Many are called but few are chosen in the great traffic of young ball players from minors to majors, and second and third calls are seldom the rule where the managers 8 first impression of the re- cruit is not a good and lasting one. An army of young and ambitious hustlers is as usual, it will be small grist from the minor league yield, particularly this year with the National league continuing it's policy of a M-player limit.
 Hundreds of recruits in past years have been sent back with visions of major career shattered but there is a record of one rookie" being sent to the majors for punishment. Steve Evans, while playing on a club in West Virginia some nine years ago, was the lucky victim of his employers s wrath. Steve was fun nier than ever in those days, but the German club owner, disgusted with the poor gate and the bad play of his team, could not stand for Steve's humor. One day big, rawbowned rube, with a bulg- ing Aunt Samantha carpet bag, joined the team as pitcher. He was worked that day and hit seven men, walked 10 made three wild pitches, and other wise disturbed the already frantic mind of the owner.
 Put the side outl" yelled the Ger man in one bad inning. "Put it out!"
 Get the fire department to put 1t out, '' yelled Evans.
 "All right, you schmart AleclS," storm ed the owner after the game. T fix you. I send you where you make for it a black eye when you get fresh. You re- port to McGraw in St. Louis and I hope he knocks your schweitzer head off"
 Ma hox ol1, rxyIor, was sent to the majors at time when he sat fretting and grieving for fear of being released from the minor league club he was with. The chap Is Wilbur Cooper. and he had been doing well with Columbus. but could not correct certain faults in fielding his position
 Billy F'riel, then managing Columbus, tried hard to make Cooper throw fre- quently to first. The young left-hander has dandy motion and Friel wanted him to use it oftener. The manager and the pitcher had several tiffs and. to make matters worse, Cooper, a conscientious young fellow, encountered a losing streak. He brooded over his troubles and figured that every first and fifteenth of the month would mark the deposit of walking papers in his pay envelope One day he pitched a game and threw late to first, allowing a Minneapolis runner to steal, but he won his game. In the clubhouse Friel jumped on Cooper angrily, exclaim- Ing:
 COST COOPER HIS JOB
 'T told you I would fire you the next time you did that Now clear out of here for the last time. You are sold to Pittsburg. Report tomorrow after noon.
 know of one lad who has had four toeholds in the major leagues and is waiting for the fifth He has been termed the freshest player in the busi- ness, but I also consider him one of the gamest when it comes to sticking up for himself. He is Walter Rehg, twice with the Pirates and twice with the Red Sox.
 Not even Mike Donlin's wit and ag- gressiveness had any terrors for Rehg. Mike growled one day because one of our batters missed his hit and run sign in Boston. Rehg was sitting on the bench.
 Hang it,' exclaimed Mike, every body in the park. including the crowd, reporters and coppers, saw that sign excepting that boob on base"
 Sure they did.'' butted in Rehg, pointing to painter on a scaffold out in center field. That guys painting the sign now.'
 Rehg is a fine example of my sub ject, Ups and Downs of Rockies '' Four times up in the majors have proved tough for him, and it was his lot to be with the Red Sox in the two off years. 1911 and 1913, when they did not share in any money. But he is the kind that can't be kept down, and wouldn't be surprised to see him up in the big show for his fifth time.
 The process of player getting more than one trial in the majors is often discouraging as 1t goes along, but there have been exceptions. The rule Is particularly so with pitchers How ard Camnitz failed twice, but came hack to a third Pittsburg trial in 1904 and became a great pitcher. Tn speak : ing of a departed recruit. the papers usually say "He left with a string at- tached." but the recruit just about fig ures that nothing but a chain would hold him to another whirl at the big league game Yet there are players and pitchers who do not show in their first years. while others will flash and maintain a good gait, and still others will shine for awhile and then fade away again into the minors.
 PLAYER GAINS KNOWLEDGE
 lot of knowledge of the game should be gained by player in the bush" and the minors. but all the mistakes are not made by bush" play CTS. The best of them pull worries oc- casionally, and my brother, Al, tells enc to prove it. In the early nineties there were some smart ball players in the old Eastern league and the Toronto and New Jersey teams, which finished lowest one year, were really strong teams.
 Al relates that they were playing