Evening star., 1921-11-25

~ hiii ia Tue american League is Di
next best is Kelly of New York.
Kelly is a right-hand first baseman.
and If he played game that dazzled
the buffer of the jewel setter he
could not quite hope to surpass a
ieft-hand first baseman, all things
being equal otherwise. And, by the
way, that is one position on an
athletic team where tire left-hand
player is naturally superior. Few
give southpaws credit for much of
anything in athletics. seldom pause
man is the old master of that job
when he is thoroughly expert
Except Kelly in the National
League there is nothing bespangled.
Holke of Boston. once made threat
to rise to heights. but the threat
was like a delayed pass in foot ball.
Dearth of Champion Players.
Everybody knows that there is "a
great dearth of champion players
Few, however, have stopped to- think
what a famine there is of first base
men, and without them it is out of
the question to have a really great
infield. The first baseman is as i'm
portant to the receiving end of the
machine as the catcher is important
to the pitcher.
All last summer scouts were poking
their heads into the underbush of
the bush leagues looking for first
basemen. Every time a man would
mention the word first baseman in
front of a scout he would halt in
his tracks and point like a hunting
dog. With all the research and at
tention paid to digging up something
good not a first baseman was dis
covered who distinctly promises to
kipdle any confiagration on the dia-
mond of big team by reason of his
extraordinary speed.
A first baseman of the skill of Fretl
Tenney would be worth so much
money to the ST. Louis Nationals or
the New York Americans. or even
Pittsburgh. and Pittsburgh has one
of the best fielding first basemen
playing base ball, that the owners of
any one of those teams might be
willing to pay a record price to get
such nugget.
Peak Reached In Sales.
Conservative owners in the major
leagues feel that the peak has been
ball players. They think that a re-
action has set in which will be felt
more in the west than in the east.
There Is more genuine base ball to-
day in the middle west than in one
or two cities of the east. Continued
repugnant to the western idea of
sport. The first big sale that ever
took place in base ball was resented
bitterly in the west and sentiment
was created then which has lasted for
all time in the national sport. The
. man who first paid a large sum of
money for the transfer of a ball
player lives in New. England. II did
1t for two purposes" he said, in re
cent conversation. "One was because
/ knew I was getting a good ball
player and the other for the reason
that I had watched the course of P.
T. Barnum with a great deal of in
terest from the time that l was a boy
and I made up my mind that he knew
more about advertising than any
man in public life. They didn't call
it advertising in those days. 1t was
referred to as getting notices In the
newspapers.
"Barnum always was doing something
that got his name talked about. l fig-
ured that hiring a big ball player, after
first getting the other club to sell, would
get the ball player talked about and the
club, too 1t worked out that way, but
unfortunately for me it got the club
about that the public nearly talked them
out of business. You see I'd forgotten
all about the element of sporting pride
that is also called local pride. | found
that hiring a ball player wasn't like
hiring an actor. I'd really taken away
something for which the other city had
fondness and they didn't hesitate to
let me know it. Then to protect our
club 1 went out and bought another
player for the same price. l figured
that if could double the home crowds
i could afford to lose on the crowds on
the road. We made some money, but
I've wondered sometimes IL it wouldn't
have been better if had kept my hands
of in the first place"
ti3 Copyright. 1921