New Britain herald., 1930-09-16

 member having seen Connie Mack in a baseball uniform, working behind the plate, are the gray-headed vet erans who can also reCite the great ness of Pop Anson and Dan Brou- thers, King Kelly and Old Hoss Rad bourne.
 Fame as a manager has almost obscured Mack's playing days and the fact that he was catcher of first rate major league calibre.
 He finished his active duty in Mil waukce, where he was player-mana- ger of the club representing the Wis consin city in the Western league and for one year, 1900, in the newly formed American league, before go ing to Philadelphia in 1901.
 From the day he put the new Ath- letics on the field in the junior major league Mack never again donned q uniform, nor has he ever directed his team from anywhere but one end of the bench.
 Back in East Brookfeld, his home town, Mack became the catcher of the local amateur team because he was game and willing. Moreover, the backstop, then as now, was the pivotal point for strategy and de- fense. Mack, then as now, was quick to size up situations, quick to act. The quality of quiet leadership seem- ed born in him.
 East Brookield's nine was the first championship team Mack had anything to do with. It won the "pennant' in the amateur leagues of mill towns in Central Massa chusetts.
 Fifty years later it was a source of pride to the old master to recount that the silver bat, temblematic of the victory, still rested in the town fire house.
 The fame of East Brookfelds S team grew. Likewise it's chestiness The boys who hung around the fire house of an evening were told so often they were good that they be- gan to believe it themselves.
 By 1883, when Mack was 21 and able to vote the next year for Grover Cleveland. the East Brookfeld club was bold enough to challenge Wor- cester, then just taken into the Ma tional league fold, for an exhibition contest
 The big leaguers won, of course, but the shoetown boys satisfied them selves they could mix in this kind of company. Accordingly the more ambitious spirits sought to attract the famous Chicago Colts, Pop An- sons champions, 10 the little Massa- chusetts town for another exhibition The Chicagoans demanded sub stantial guarantee-something like $250. It looked a trifle dubious, but hometown pride rose to the emergen- cy. The money was raised, the Colts came and dazzled.
 T recall that event quite wildly" said Mack years later Tt was a holiday for us all The big leaguers swaggered about, and we were all much impressed and very serious. For four or five innings of the game we held our own, surpassing our selve. Then, of course, we found the competition becoming a little too good for us.
 T always think that game had a good deal to do with my entering professional baseball. Some of the Chicago players were generous enough to compliment me on my work behind the bat. They even sug- | gested l take up the game and leave the factory. Several said they would put in a word for me. and they may have done so, for it was that same year, 1884, that I received an offer of 800 a month to play with the Meriden club in Connecticut
 "Never before had the idea enter cd my head that such money could be had for doing the thing I liked most. I would have accepted for mHch less than that"
 It was an important decision for tho youthful McGillicuddy. His father had died earlier, and 1 Connie was needed to help support the family, but the financial oppor. tunities in baseball seemed so fal | superior to those of an ordinar, shoeworker that it did not take long for the family council to decide what was most advantageous Tho trade lost a good cobbler, but baseball gained a master mind.
 After finishing the 1884 scasor with Meriden, Mack went to tho
 "rtford team in 1885 and p,ickll attracted the attention of major league scouts by his clever back.