The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-23
Bears Get Four
 Baseball Stars At Chicago Meet

MOBILE, Ala Dec. 22.-(Special Leased Wire.)-According to statistics compiled by the Southwestern and Winacker of the Mobile baseball club purchased four of the best players in the league when he bought Pat Kelly, Rex Adkins, Gordon McGuire and Arthur Pratt President Weinackel closed the deals for the above players at the meeting of the baseball moguls at Chicago. These are the first deals announced by MT. Weinacker in his drive to rebuild the Bears of 1924. with the exception of the prom otion i of Emil Huhn as manager, to replace l Bert Niehoff.
 Kelly. who was purchased by the officials of the club from Sapulpa, | Okla, of the Southwestern league, led the second basemen in that league m the past season. The new player will take the place of Niehoff at the key | stone position Besides being the best second baseman in the league, Kelly i also swung a bat that made big league scouts set up and take notice. l In 105 games, he batted at an aver age of .314, including 14 home runs.
 triples and 1T doubles. Only IS boobies were made by Kelly in 59S | handling sos assists.
 Rex Adkins, a southpaw hurler, was purchased from the Rockford team of the Three-Eye league. Ad-
 kins, a youngster had his first year | in professional ball last year. lead ing all the pitchers in the league by winning IT and losing only games. He pitched at an average of .77S, par ticipating in 22 games, making 30 assists and no errors, giving him fielding percentage of 1000. Adkins probably will fill up the gap left open when Lefty" Fuhr was sold to the Boston team by the Mobile club. The Bear twirler in 1S0 innings gave up only 16S hits, while 57 runs were scored off him. He made 63 batters strike out, allowed 33 bases on balls, hit four by pitched balls and went through the season without any wild pitches chalked against him.
 Mcclure From Rockford.
 outfieider Gordon Mcclure was purchased from the Rockford team of the Three-Eye league also. Mcclure played with the Sioux Falls of the Dakota league in 1921 and established batting average of 1923, but in 1922 he was sent to the Rockford team hung up batting average of .246, but during the past year with the same club he found his batting eye and boosted his average from .246 to .359. During the past year he par tfcipated in 140 games, went to bat 49S times, scored S9 runs and rapped out 179 hits Included in his bingles were 2S doubles triples and home nuns. making him have an average of 250 total bases. He laid down 50 sacrifice hits and stole 27 bases, show ing that he possesses power of speed. His fielding average was .9SS. In the games he played in, he made 406 putouts, II assists and errors.
 Mcclure bats and throws right handed.
 Another outfielder purchased by played with the Mitchell team in the Dakota league in 1922. and rang up batting average of .301, but was later transferred to the Rockford team in the Three Eye league last year. During the past season he boosted his batting average up 10 .326. In 140 games he went to bat 4S5 times scored 75 runs and rapped out 158 hits; home runs. IF triples and 33 doubles were included in his hits giving him a total bases of 220. He laid down 15 sacrifice hits and stole 19 bases. His fielding average shows that in the humber of games played he made 206 putouts. handled il assists and made s boobies, giving him a percentage of .964.
 The above purchases were an- nounced shortly after the meeting at Chicago. More details are expected to be announced later in which more ball players will come to the Bears to take /the place of those traded or sold