The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-10
B A s E B ALL.

Ed Barrow, manager of the cham pion Red Sox, is willing to hand over Pitcher Ernie Shore and Second Base man Jack Barry to the Yankees in ex- change for Frank Baker, Al Waters, Derrill Pratt and an outf1eIder
 Before Manager Huggins left New York for Cincinnati two weeks ago he talked trade with Barrow, but could not see Edwards proposition. As a matter of fact three of the players mentioned may not play ball next sea- son.
 Baker has announced his retire ment. Barry is being dischargeA from the navy with a case of water on the knee, and Shore, who is about to receive an ensign's commission, plans to put in a year at sea.
 One major league ball player who enlisted In the Naval Reserve force and who was in training at the Great Lakes station when peace came al- ready has been discharged from the service, and six others are waiting more or less patiently for their re- leases. The fortunate individual is Bernie Roland of the Tigers. The others are Ben Dyer and George Cum ningham, also of the Tigers; Urban Red" Faber of the White Sox, Joe Leonard and Lieut.. Johnny Lavan, both of the Senators, and Fred Thomas of the Red Sox. These play CTS quickly offered their services to Uncle Sam when the nation entered 2 the hut that is n l more fighting to be done, they are ] prepare for next season. Lavan has 1 declared his intention of retiring from 1 the game, but may be induced to 1 change his mind.
 If, as 1t has been reported, Grover | Cleveland Alexander is marching into 1 Germany, he is not the only major l league player in the ranks of the { American soldiers crossing the Rhine. It is known that within the last month i or so Aleck's comrades in arms in- ! cIuded four other players who have 1 known the glamour of big league play-C1arence Mitchell and Chuck Ward of the Robins, Otis Lambeth of 1 the Cleveland club and Moves of the l Athletics. The men were all in the 1 same battery of field artillery, and it is assumed that they are still together. Hank Gowdy's outfit is a unit of the Rainbow Division, so Hank, too, prob ably is headed for Berlin.
 ] The announcement from Lebanon, | Pa, that Derrill Pratt is about to re-
 tire from baseball is not taken serious
 lyly at the office of the New York American League club. "This is the
 season in which the boys always re-
 tire" remarked Harry Sparrow, secre-
 tary and business manager of the
 club. But did you ever notice that <the retirement is usually over when
 the team has been a few days in the
 training camp, if not before? The
 retiring list should be much heavier than usual this spring, as practically
 every major league contract has eX-
 pired and the days of readjustment
 are making the ball player nervous
 Old Opportunity may be ringing ] Pratt's doorbell now, but 1t seems tc
 me that the same doorbell has beer
 rung considerably in the past. He
 has had good contracts in the past
 drew 8 good sized bonus when tht Tanks finished in the first division
 this year besides what he got from the worlds series, and I guess Derril will be on the job again next s~ring If he is sincere 1t simply means tha Huggins will have to do some more
 trading or buying, that's all"