Clipping:A description of baseball cranks
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
 |
| Add a Clipping |
| Date | Saturday, March 22, 1884 |
|---|---|
| Text | “Cranks in base ball? Well, I should say so,” said Charles Mason of the Athletics. “Do you know, every season brings new ones to the surface. Our mail every day contains applications from players in country towns who are impressed with the idea that they possess some unusual ability, principally as pitchers; and to listen to some of the remarkable descriptions of 'curves' and 'shoots' that they claim as original, would make your head swim. Here is an application from a young man up the country who says that he has discovered a new curve that is impossible to hit, and that with it he can strike out the heaviest batsmen as fast as they come up to the plate. He would be a valuable man to secure if there was anything in his claim, but try him and he would be hit out of the 'box' in one inning.” “Do you ever give these applicants a trial?” “Occasionally, when their application is indorsed by some practical player. This trial of new players costs first-class clubs considerable money during a season. Last season, for instance, we heard of a catcher in Massachusetts, and being in need of such a player we sent for hi, giving him two hundred dollars advance. He caught two innings in an exhibition game and proved a monumental failure the same evening he left for home and that was the last we ever heard of him. Good managers, however, do not mind this, as occasionally a fine player is stumbled across.” “What is the percentage of successes?” “Very, very small. In no business or profession does the failures exceed the successes in such a degree as in base ball. I am an old professional, and practical in my views, and when we give a new player a trial I always insist on giving him every chance to show what there is in him. I can generally tell, however, if there is anything in ap layer by the manner in which he goes about his work.” “Have you any experiments on this season's team?” “Only one, a young pitcher, from the West, named Atkinson. I have never seen him play, but he comes to us very well spoken of by professionals, who have seen him. For his sake, as well as our own, I hope he will not be a disappointment. There is one great danger, however, in young players that score a success, and that is what we call having a 'big head,' that is, become too much swelled up over their importance. The best of them will get it, but a manager will in the end pretty effectively cure them of the malady.: “Isn't there often a great deal of fun afforded the old professionals when they test an applicant?” “Not on our grounds. We view it in the light of business. I am aware that some managers allow it, but we never do. Sometimes the funny fellows get the worst of it. This young man Atkinson is an illustration of this. He went down to Indianapolis last Summer and asked Dan O'Leary, who was running the Indianapolis club, to give him a trial as pitcher. Dan laughed at him, but Atkinson persisted. 'All right,' said Dan, 'If you insist I will make a fool of you this afternoon.' Dan took him out to the ground, and having no regular game, got up a scrub nine and made Atkinson pitcher, and put his own team against them. The result was a terrible beating for Dan's team, his men being unable to hit Atkinson, eighteen of them striking out. Dan wanted to sign Atkinson at once, but he refused to play under O'Leary at any salary, and finally signed with us. So you see it don't always do to be too funny. |
| Source | The Philadelphia Evening Item |
| Tags | |
| Warning | |
| Comment | Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Edit with form to add a query |
| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
Comments
<comments voting="Plus" />