The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-12

regard to baseball.
 Almost unanimously 1t was predict ed that camp life with its wholesale adoption of sports to maintain the morale of the Yankee soldiers would produce a new crop of diamond stars after the we. and wu1d greatly inn
 prove the physical condition and the | temperament of the established stars l who were drafted or enlisted in the various branches of war service
 There was every reason for these expectations. It was the writer's good fortune to spend the better part of the winter, when the United states was getting ready to fight, visiting various cantonments in the South, and everywhere the rockies were playing baseball In one Texas camp there were nearly 500 bah games played in one weel.
 Naturally one would expect that sort of thing to develop a lot of la ten- talent, and bright pictures were painted of the crop of heroes who would discard the khaki for the kniclSerbockers of the baseball field. Where is that crop?
 Right now scouts of 16 major league cluf5 are securing the nation looking for ball players with even an outside chance of making good in the game. The general verdict Is some paraphrasc of the saving There ain't no sech animal"
 The woods and the tall grass seem to De simply barren of the usual crop or budding diamond performers
 Not only that. but the World va- did not improve the men who went from baseball into various branches of the service. There may be a few tsolated exceptions. but in general the well known players who partook of the war did not benefit.
 it needs only such shining examples as Grover Cleveland Alexander of the Cubs. Red Faber of the White Sox Ed klepfer of the Indians and Epr,a. RlEey of the Philiss to point ont the force of the statement There are others who went to the war. and lost
 much of their baseball punch, but the foregoing are sufficiently promin- ent 10 offset the few instarces m which the service improved the ball players who had made good before tne war.
 As for the youngsters developed by camp sporting activities, there are few of them. The White Sox have one in Jack Sullivan, the left handed splitter, who got a training trip only to be discarded and then taken back when some of the veterans of Kid Gleason's staff fell down
 It has been claimed that lack of baseball practice is the chief cause of the deterioration of athletes who served their country. With them the
 baseball they played while in the service was negligible compared with
 the other work they did. But lack of
 practice did not affect Cicotte or Will Hams of the White Sox, nor was 1t re- sponsible for the major league demise of Benz and Reb Russell of the same team.
 The real reason nobody seems to know, but there is the fact that camp
 or naval training put serious crimp in the pitching staffs of both the | Cubs and White Sox through inabili- ' ty of Alexander and Faber to come | across with their old-time effective | ness It may be that the hard work | of drilling sapped the vitality and | strength of the athletes who partook ! of it, thereby shortening their dia- | mond careers measurably. It may be | that exposure led to something akin | to rheumatism, yet not the real | thing.
 Take tro case of Alexander While | in France he was seldom dry to | clothing, and at one time had hardly | a dry stitch of clothing on his ana | tony for 14 days This exposure in his case did not lead to anything ser l ious. Never did he have a cold or | threat of pneumonia Never since re- | turning has he felt a twings or rneu-
 matisrn, although he frankly admits | he expected to encounter that dis ! case after what he went through. In no way does Alexander tho | Great attribute tho 1ameness that has | kept him from pitching more than a | few games in over a month to any | of his overseas experiences, but per | haps it will develop later on what
 he went through over there Is re- sponsible for the depreciation of one | of the supposedly greatest assets of | the Chicago Cubs