The Washington times., 1920-03-22
By FREDERICK G. LIEB.

They kicked up quite furore up
in Canada when "Gibby" was grad
uated into the majors. They didn't
like it a bit. Montreal was up in
arms-selling their only decent bat
ter for filthy lucre, and spelling
Montreal's chance Of getting out OF
last place! The fact that Gibson
got a chance to rise to the top OF
his profession evidently didn't enter
into the calculations.
We picked up these choice bits OF
diamond gossip, shortly after Gibson
was sold by Montreal to the Pirates
in July, 1905:
"Gibson, the new Pirate catcher, Is
a Canuck and halls from Ontario"
Montreal has let out Kuhns, Dyer
and Ferry, and has sold Gibson to
Pittsburgh. Recently the stockhold-
ers offered to sell their franchise.
Pretty rough road for ball club to
travel"
Montreal fans are wild because the
club has sold its crack catcher to
Pittsburgh. The Montreal Star says
of the deal: "The Montreal baseball
club. owners and players, have thrown
down the Montreal public repeatedly,
but the Gibson deal was the rawest
yet. For a few dollars, our only de-
cent batter was sold to Pittsburgh
and the Birds chances of getting out
of last place were reduced to an i'm
palpable shadow"
1t Was Gibson's Gain.
Anyway what was Montrears loss
was Pittsburgh's gain, also Gibsons.
In place of playing with a chronic
International tailender. he caught on
with one of the Invest teams in the
National League.
George Gibson, the'new Pirate man
ager, first went behind the bat in a
National League game on July ., 1905,
catching Deacon Philippe in a game
In Cincinnati, which the Reds won by
a score of 4 to /.
We read that errors were RESPONSE
BILE for Phillippe's loss and that. Glib
son. the rookie, did fairly we'll" The
lead sent out of Cincinnati that night
as an introduction to Gibson's first
big league box score was as follows:
errors behind Philippe lost the
game for Pittsburgh, the three runs
scored by Cincinnati in the fifth in
ming being the result of three miss
plays. Catcher Gibson, late of Mon
treal, made his debut with Pittsburgh
and did fairly WELL"
Gibson failed to get any hits Off
Bob Ewing in his first trial with
Pittsburgh. and handled eight out of
nine fielding chances. Miller Hug
gins, Fred Odwell and Tommy Cor
coran stole bases on him.
Saw Some Grent Players.
Gibson saw some of the greatest
players in baseball history in action
in his first major league game Hans
Wagner, king of the National League
at that time, however, failed to show
Gibby any of his batting power as he
failed to get hit in four tries. How
ever, he ate up eleven out of a dozen
chances in the field. Cy Seymour,
who beat out Wagner for the Nation
al League batting championship that
year, played center field for the Reds.
other great players in that game
were Tommy Leach, Fred Clarke, who
got in as a pinch hitter. Harry stein
feldt and Jimmy Sebring. Three men
in that Cincinnati lineup already have
passed in to the great beyond-Sey-
mour, Steinfeldt and Sebring.
IL didn't take Gibson long to prove
to the Pirate fans that Montreal had
reason to be disgruntled over his sale
to the majors. There wasn't any
thing about catching that "GiN,y"
couldn't do. The big Canadian thrived
on work and in six seasons in Pitts.
burg he caught over 100 games and
in two other years he was just under