The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05
BASEBALL PLAYERS TURN ID TRAPS FOR WINTER AMUSEMENT Trapshooting Has Many Converts in Stars of the
 National Game SHOOTING KEEPS
 EYE IN GOOD TRIM Chief Bender Best ShOt-Former Ath- letic Breaks Average of 92 Out
 of Every 1O0-Hunting
 Also Popular

 Did you ever give any thought as to the number of baseball players who are
 holding down positions in the American and National leagues who are experts ir the handling. of a gun-just as pro- ficient in the handling of shooting piece at the traps or in the field as they are picking up the hottest hit balls on the diamond.
 Trapshooting has many converts in baseball. Great ball players turn to the trap and field for recreation and pleasure when the baseball season is over. Base bali is strictly business with them. Anything that is business is work. Trap shooting brushes away the cobwebs. and relieves the tension. T
 "Joe'' Jackson, one of the greatest bat
 ters in baseball can't get away from the ball yard quick, enough for him to try his skill at the traps and in the field. After baseball" said the Chicago out fielder, "give me a shotgun In the fields or at the traps am able to find as much enjoyment as in hitting out line drives" It is the same with many other baseball players. .
 ."Ty'' Cobb, greatest of ball players, spends the greater part of his time in the off-season hunting in Georgia fields and banging away at the clay birds. Tyrus is highly proficient in the art of shooting-nearly as good in this line as
 he is on the baseball diamond. WAGNER STRONG FOR TRAP John Henry Wagner, otherwise known as ''Honus,'' would rather shoot than play baseball, and Eddie Collins, Jack
 Dunn, Wilbert Robinson and Eddie Plank form a party that goes into the fields every fall and usually bring back a lot of game. They are all excellent shots at the traps, too. Robert Shawkey, one of the pitchers of the New York Americans, is a member of the Glen Willow team of the Phila- delphia Trapshooters' league, and he can aim with the gun equally as well as he
 can hurl from the pitching mound. On Washington's birthday Shawkey Joe ! Bush, one of the Athletic hurlers, and l "Chief' Bender now with the Phillies, engaged in a three-cornered match before the Beidleman club traps in Camden, N. i J., and Bender smashed 90 targets to S6 | for Bush and 84 for Shawlxey.
 | Frank Baker, the home run king,
 now with the New York Americans, pre- fers hunting to baseball. His desire to remain on the farm and hunt kept him hout. of baseball in 1915. If Baker can get the range on the right field bleachers in
 the Polo grounds the same as he gets I on the clay targets there will be many
 pitchers who will regret that Connie Mack allowed the Trappe farmer to 1 change his place of residence.
 ALEXANDER GOOD SHOT Grover Cleveland Alexander, premier | pitcher of the National league in 1915. was the best trapshot in that organiza- l ton until Chief" Bender cast his lot i with the PhilIies.
 l With Catcher Killifer and Infielder l Dugey, Alexander enjoyed the early win ter hunting in the vicinity of Pittsburg, | Tex
 Manager Pat Moran of the Phillies 1 likes the shooting game 80 much that he was in the woods after bear one week after the worlds series money was di- vided. His trip was fruitless and he fired at the clay birds the rest of the winter Moran had nothing on Manager Carrigan of the Boston club, for getting back to nature. Carrigan spends his winter vacation hunting in the Maine woods. Nearly every player on the Bos- ton club Is an expert shot Speaker Gregg, Wagner, Leonard, Shotten Mays Haley and McNally comprised two par l ties who spent sometime in the woous after the close of the 1915 season. They ! like the trapshooting game just as much | as hunting in the field.
 To show the increased interest that baseball players take in trapshooting' one needs but recall the tour last fall 1 of "Chief' Bender. "Christy'' Mathew 1 son, old Doc" Crandall and Harry Davis They shot in IT cities in 15 states in 20 days each time performing against the best the home city could produce This was the first time that h0 Io vrar. nvyA T shooters and it was highly successful. Bender Is possibly the best target
 breaker among the ball players. He averaged S2 breaks in every 100 tar 1 gets.
 CRANDALL BEAT MATTY 1 Mathewson and Crandall were novices
 at "the sport alluring," yet Crandall
 compiled an average of 88. Mathewson
 averaged 71 and Davis 6s. Bender turned 1 in 99 breaks in 100 targets at Syra-
 cuse, N. Y., getting the last s5 in sue
 cession. The Chief would rather break "1O0 straight" than collect all the money in the world.
 l Nothing has ever been done in the
 way of promotion that has accomplished
 so much for any sport as this tour of
 the ball players did for trapshooting.
 as result. many who heretofore paid no
 attention to "the sport alluring" en-
 rolled in the ever-increasiig fold
 l Mathewson says that trapshooting
 keeps his eye and mentality in more
 satisfactory condition during the off
 season than any other line of recrea- I tion.
 Harry c. Hoffman of Philadelphia.
 manager of the Peroia. H.. Three-I league club, agrees with Mathewson.
 Hoffman is a former live bird champion
 of Pennsylvania, sure shot in the field
 and next to Bender as a target break
 CT in the ball players ranks.
 "GRAVY" CRAVATH GOOD l Charles Clifford Cravath, fence buster
 extraordinary, spent great deal of his time during the winter months before
 the traps and hunting in the field. Oth-
 CTS who did like him were Eddie Mur- phy. Jack Lapp and Ed Walsh of the
 Chicago Americans; Walter Johnson and
 the Milan brothers Of Washington;
 Roger Bresnahan, former manager of the Cubs; Louis Malone of the Ath- tletics. Chief Meyers of the Giants. Lefty" George. formerly of Cleveland;
 Jack" Daubert Nap" Fucker and
 John Coombs of Brooklyn: Fred Clarke, the former Pittsburg manager; Ger