Evening star., 1959-11-19
WIN, LOSE OR
DRAW ;, FRANCE, ,rAup
The One Who Makes the Plays

ON THE WHITE SOX' final invasion of Grffith Sta
dium Early Wynn and couple of old newspaper
were shooting the breeze on the sidelnes.
Gus one began, drawing old friendship by calling
him by the name the ball players who do you think
Will win the most valuable? Excluding yourself Of course
The big pitcher, part Indian and all competitor,
srinned easily You know I'm not going to win he said
Pitchers aren't ball players, guess. But the winner
he waved in the general direction of the ined-w be
that guy Of ours who makes all the plays"
Wynn, who did win the Cy Young award for being the
best of all pitchers didn't specify which of his feowsox
would win Luis Aparicio the little shortSop made "an
Of the plays But did Nellie Fox the second baseman
They almost had to 12 in the American League which
they did.
FOX, WHO BEAT OUT his teammate was the subject
In Cal Grihs Office the other day visitor saying
that he remembered sitting in the Office when it
occupied by the late Clark Grth and hearing Connie
Mack on the telephone caution his good and venerable
friend in Washington against Fox who up for sale
by the old Phiadelphia Athletics.
That's possible" Cal conceded, "but telephone
veration would have been antclimactc Mr. Mack did tell
Unk not to buy Fox only he did it the first time-the
important tme-in person 1t right here in this ofce
do you remember those daily pinochle games? Unk
and frankie Baxter and Herbert Guggenheim and Mike
Martin and Ed Eynon-al gone now-would begin in the
morning, take break for lunch and play in the afternoon
You'd have thought the World Series at stake.
WELL anyway, Mr.. Mack dropped by the office this
day in 1s4s and Unk was sitting out hand and they
began to talk baseball heard Mr. Griffith ask about Fox
And heard Mr. Mack say:
"Clark, your money. He's small and not very
fast and he won't hit You must have infeders in your
farm system who'll do better" 49,.
JACOB NELSON FOX who started his pro career with
Jamestown of the Pony League in 1914 spent in the
military service and kicked around at Lancaster and
Lincoln, belonged to the AS of Connie Macks regime.
Connie put his name on the waiver list in 49,
II mention this not to disparage Unk and Mr. Mack,
hut shOu fW0 of
playerscoud make mistake feel better about all
the mistakes make Cal said
"The waiver price at the time $500. Can you
imagine buying second baseman like Nellie Fox for
81 500? But Mr.. Mack, like Unk, wasn't in baseball as
sidene. The game was their living.
"They had to watch their dollars, and Mr. Mack
thought he'd save his old friend little money and he
touted Unk of Fox Now the guyCal threw up his hands
els of the market If you needed second baseman very
badly, what would you pay for Fox today? hundred
thousand? Two hundred thousands" - ~
"THE 1RoN1C PART" said George Marshall, who was
listening that your foster father great champion
Of little ball players Most of his stars were small men,
e used to talk about his 1912 team that jumped from
seventh to second" Cal agreed, dreamiy unk always
called it my little team"
But even his stars since that time mainly were phys-
cally small too" Marshall persisted "You take Bucky
Harris and Joe Judge and Muddy Ruel and Sam Rice
shucks they didn't weigh much"
"I know" Cal replied II know that if Unk could do
1t over again he'd have claimed Fox waivers for $780,
and we'd have second base problem today But that's
how it goes"
ON OCTOBER 1S, 1949, Connie Mack traded Nellie Fox
to the White Sox for Joe Upton, catcher who wasn't
much his BEST and who recently barred for life in
the minor leagues. Fox, the little guy that even great
Judges like Mack and Griffith couldn't became star
Getting Fox Upton the greatest deal I've ever
made" Frank Lane has said. Since Lane probably has
made more barterS than anybody in baseball history it's
an impressive statement
ssfar rtpd IN 6re in hitting
and doing all the things crack second haseman is ex
pected to do. Then he began to hirt with 300pluS
average for career which spans nearly 3
He's amazing little guy chock full Of the qualities
that make for winning club Nellie won't hit you that
home very often-heS eed of only 27 times in his life
but he makes the big double play and likely not he'll
lead his league in times at bat and hits. l..
"Hes the best in the business and how could use
hm!" Cal Grifith laments. "But just said that's
how it goes" .... .-..' p s
u