The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-08-13
BASEBALL men
SEE DECLINE IN
old STANDARDS
Hickey Turns to
Schools for Talent
By FRANK BUCK" ONEILL

BY FHANh BUN " NEAAA
A group of youngsters as
sembled at the home plate yester
day afternoon and with proper
ceremony and decorum presented
a fitting travelling bag to Jimmy
DeShong. They were students ir
baseball school in Harrisburg
Pa, the home tow NOT DeShong
It was a pleasant ceremony, and
the bag will serve DeShong nicely
in his future travels along the
baseball trail, whether his UNIFORM
be that of the Griffs or some
other team.
Those kids represented some
thing more than an obscure base
ball school in an outlying city
They were symbol of the future,
a sign of a change which, un'
noticed at this time, is working in
exorably toward metamorphoSiS
in methods of developing and Sc
lecting ball players OF coming
decades.
The baseball school will one day
relegate the scout to the realm of
forgotten things of the game. It
has him well on the way now, even
if baseball men are inclined to
scott at the idea. Let them scott !!
Baseball men ridiculed the chain
store idea back in 1928. They
called it "Rickey's Folly" and
spoke feelingly of the headaches
the master of the Cardinals would
suffer. They laugh no more at the
baseball chain.
Hickey, forethinker in all things
pertaining to baseball, already is
turning to the school for his young
players. That's it; get 'em young,
teach those who can assimilate
baseball, and cast the laggartS
adrift. The Cards conduct school
in the spring in Springfield, Mo.
They're going to conduct another
school, a bigger and better school
in the summer. Getting the jump
on competition will give Hickey
the advantage that his chain gave
him in the first place.
KEEN COMPETITION
Club owners who laughed at
Hickey is seasons ago are his keen
est competitors now. The faru
idea-farm in this sense is a syno-
nym of chain-has spread.
Consider the American Associa.
ton, for instance. The Yankees
own Kansas City, the Cardinals
own Columbus, Detroit has work
ing agreement with another club,
and so it goes until Indianapolis
is the only member of the aSso-
citation where scout may go and
look at ball players of promise with
a fair chance of buying their
contract.
In the Pacific Coast League the
Yankees are in Oakland, the Cards
in Sacramento, the Cubs in Los
Angeles. So it goes with most of
the clubs owned, controlled, or un-
der working agreement with the
majors.
ELIMINATE COST
This same condition prevails in
leagues c. lower classification, and
it readily can be seen that the
field for scouting is narrowing
with each successive season. Elimi-
mating the cost of scouts is in
conSonance with the modern trend
in economics. Every manager of
every team, owned by, or affiliated
with a major league club in any
way whatever, is a scout for the
parent organization.
There will be master scouts, like
Joe Devine, of the Yankees, who
spends his summers touring The
reaches of the Pacific Coast
League, with at least two trips per
season to Chicago, to report to
Joe Mccarthy, Yankee manager.
SWEEPS SERIES
The Gr1ffS bowled over the Ath-
letics in the fourth and final
game Of the series yesterday after
noon, sweeping the series in more
or less commanding style. The
full quota of pitchers was used in
the course of the game. Jimmy
DeShong opened and was trailing
by two runs when he retired to
make way for Cecil Travis, who
batted in DeShong'S place.