The Washington times., 1930-03-22
MACK
DISCUSS
PLANS
BY BABE RUTH

BY BABE RUTH
ST PETERSBURG, Fla, March
22.-The Athletics were scheduled
to play in st. Petersburg the
other day and rain spoiled the
game. So lot Of them, including
Connie Mack, came over to our
hotel for a few hours and we all
got to punching the bag the way
players will. I was especially
interested in something Connie
said.
Babe" he told me, "you can
talk all you please, this is
young players year. If we win
the pennant it will be because
some young fellows came along
to help us. If you fellows win it
will be because some Of your
rockies came through with a
bang. If a dark horse cops, its
the one that gets the most from
young ball players"
hadn't thought much about
the race from that angle but I
can see where Connie is right.
Take the AS for instance. Connie
has about the same old team to
shove in there again this year
but some Of those old fellows
have begun to slip. Some Of the
pitchers are weaker and there's
a bad spot at second base and
short.
If Connie is to win the
pennant he'll have to get
great reserve work from Me
Nair and Williams, his two
young infielderS and he'll
have to get some pitching out
Of young Mahaffey.
Wen have at least two men
playing regularly this season in
Cooke and Chapman. And If the
Yankees are in the pennant
race we'll have to have help too
from some kid pitcher who right
now isn't known beyond his
home town. I don't know who it
will be. There are four or five
pretty good looking pitchers in
our camp right now and 1t
might be one Of them. But one
thing you can bet on. II the
Yankees win next fan, you'll be
hearing q lot Of nice things said
about some young fellow who
right now has never seen his
name in a big league paper.
Go right on down the line. The
Tigers are counting a lot on
Funk and Rogell and Hogsett; the
White Sox are depending a lot
on Jolley; the Browns look for
great things for young Rick
Ferrell and the Indians are count
ing much on Ferrell and q couple
Of kid infielderS. Connie was
right. It's a young ball players
year-and the team that wins, all
other things being equal. will be
the team that has the best luck
with it's young fellows.
It's a funny thing about rookie
players. Somehow they seem to
me to be much younger than they
were when I broke in. Maybe
it's because I'm much older N.Y.
Self-but as I look back on it all
the rockies in my days were
grown up hard boiled men who
had been knocking around in the
minor leagues for a number Of
seasons before they ever got q
big league chance. Nowadays,
the rookie classes are made up Of
kids from college and schools,
kids from right off the sandlots
and the country diamonds. FIT.
teen years ago the average age Of
young ball players, up for a big
league tryout, was % or % years.
Today the average age is about
20 or 81 years and I guess there
isn't single big league team in
the country but has from one to
a half dozen kids under 20 years
old.
In the old days managers
used to figure that no kid
could play big league ball un-
less he was at Aeast 22 or %,
and they wouldn't give
younger player a,tumble. To-
day they don't pay so much
attention to age. In the last
two years I imagine there
have been more players under
20 break into the league box
scores than there was in
Is years Of baseball before
that.
And it's a good thing for the
team and for the player. I never
did believe much in the old idea
of developing kids in the minors.
I believe the system is to bring
the kids into the big leagues
young, teach them the tricks of
the business, and then turn them
back to the minors for a couple
Of years to practice the things
they've been taught.
But I'm getting away from
what I started to write about.
That is that this looks like a
young players year. And the
Yankees and the Athletics or ary-
one Of the other veteran teams
will be in for trouble If some club
comes along with three or four
good young players to fill In the
weak holes Of last wear