The Washington times., 1921-12-14

ana VINO can OlaIho tuo othAosoD'
Answer. a la Bert Williams, mo
buddy"
The New York Giants have started
something by paying $4,000 for an
unknown minor league first baseman,
Jimmy O'Connell, Of the San Fran
cisco club. No one can say where
this madness will end. However, 80
long ~ the New York club can con-
tinue TO win pennants and get into
world series, everything sits pretty In
the metropolis. The troubles Of those
on the outskirts OF baseball civiliza-
tion mean nothing to the Giants nor
the Giants followers.
The Detroit Tigers are alleged to
have paid $4,000 for two untrted
pitchers, Pfllette and johnson, OF the
Portland club in the Pacific Coast
League. Neither may be worth q
thin dime in effectiveness. but the
Tigers could not have taken peek
at them for less money.
The point of this Ia that players
already In the majors, especially with
clubs well up in the standings, are
doing a heap Of thinking this winter.
How Matters Shape Up.
who has been toiling with a club
down around the middle Of the stand
ing. He is called q star In his home
papers. Perhaps he II. Perhaps he'd
be Just as much Of q star with the
New York club. II is his baseball
fortune, that's all, which keeps him
from being with either Of the pen
nant winning ball teams. He has been
receiving say. $500.
This winter, II he can read and get
anything out of what he does read.
he learns of the big prices being paid.
possibly by his own club, for minor
league players. He reads Of this or
that player demanding $4,000" on q
three-year contract. Possibly he
learns how one Heinie Groh succeed
ed In landing a berth with the New
York Giants by becoming . trouble
maker to the Cincinnati Reds.
Is that player to be blamed for be-
ing dissatisfied when his 1922 contract
calls for salary Of $500 or $1,000?
Does his boss convince that player Of
anything when he speels about the
"high cost OF hotels and railroad
fares?" Can that player be blamed
for trying to kick himself off his club
in the hopes Of landing with winner?
Examples FAce Him.
Two glaring examples face this
dissatisfied player in recent American
League happenings. Babe Ruth tore
pp q contract which he had wormed
out of Harry III. Frazee and demanded
a new one for three years. Ruth
thought himself clever when he got
the first one. He knew he was clever
when his second demand sent him to
New York, giving him q chance to
shine in the glory Of the greatest
hero-worshiping city in the world.
Carl Mays Is the second glarine
example. Finding 1t was possible.
this player simply quit the Boston
Red Sox. He refused to play again
sold, knowing that the Yankees would
buy him. 1t was done. Mays follow
ed his little pal, Ruth, to the New
York Yankees and a world series.
And consider the case Of this same
Heinie Groh. When the Reds re-
fused his salary demand, believing
II exorbitant, he declined to report.
Instead he howled to be sold or
traded to the Giants and he would
have been. too, but that Judge
Landis stepped in and insisted that
he play out the 1921 season with
the Reds.
Now Heinie Groh is member Of
the New York Giants. He IL with a
" forced the Cincinnati club to trade
him.
Public Is the Goat.
In all such cases the public Is
the goat even more 90 than the
clubcwner Cincinnati fans fairly
worshiped Heinie Groh. They pre-
sented him with q motor car. He
could have anything within reason.
He was the town hero. But that
ell meant little or nothing to Groh.
He went through with his howl and
today finds him due to play third
has. for John McGraw's New York
Giants That's what he wanted In
the first rlace.
Coming hack To the star on the