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36 SPLENDID TRIBUTE TO MANAGER M'ALEER Clever New York Writer Tells of the Early Days of Washington's Leader. By John B. Foster. Exactly twenty-one years ago the com ing Mwy .1 train rolled into the Baltimore and Ohio station in Washington from Philadelphia, bearing; a club of young ball player who wen- upsetting all tradi tion in the National Lffigue beeaiise they refuted to be downtrodden. It had come to be a part of the dogma of the oldest base ball organization tliat beginners should be losers. Here was Cleveland, mostly made up of . young I Mood, which not only refilled to sub scribe to the doctrine, but looked a? if it might race with al! of It? venerable co temporaries to the end of the season. I Eav that the club arrived on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and if memory serves correctly that is right. It doesn't matter much whether it was the Baltimore and Ohio or the Pennsyl vania. for it is certain that the club did arrive, and that with it was the now new man ger of the Washington club?James K. McAleer?making his first trip through tiie east as a member of a major league, organization. j This season he goes back to Washing-! ton as the manager of the American] i-eague team in the Capital city. 1 can; say with personal assurance that on the ; first visit of the new Washington man-! ager to the city of Washington he had ' no more idea that he would Home day be i t:>e manager of the Washington club than he had tliat he would some day be i e mayor of Youngstown. Ohio. It's the 1 rlvate opinion of more than one th.it he might have been the mayor of, Youngs town. Ohio, had he settled down and shown any willingness to accept the posi tion, but the call of the diamond has proved too much for him. Perhaps he ia better off for it. * * * * * MeAleer had been in the National League a little more than a month when he paid his first visit to Washington. The ? levelands were scheduled to play there May 28, 20 and 30?two games the last day?on their first visit In 1KS!>. They had made only ordinary progress in April. So far as that Is concerned they played but seven games in that month, of which they won three and los. four. With the beginning of M y they began to pick up. Strangely enough for a first-year team they showed that they I could win games on the road. Young i folks don't know what a difference ex-j isted twenty years ago as to the faith i t.iat was had in a first-year team on the road, compared to that which exists' at present. All through the month of May the ?"'levelands consistently won more games than they lost, and when they arrived in Washington, in the very last days of the spring nak-ndar. tney had acquired fame, and they were barely eight weeks old as a base ball organization, spring training and all. Out of the group of player*-, who were curiously watched by the pickaninnies nlio weie clustered around the' station and by the base baii fans, who were wont' 10 gather in those days at the railroad I terminal whenever a new base ball club ! made its appearance in the city, there stepped a slender youngster with drawn j face, browned the color of a seasoned butternut, and with a long stride in which ; he, white apparently moving lazily, *oi \ over more ground than most of his corn- j panions. I He carried In one hand an individual f bat bag?it was fashionable then for each plaver to take care of his pet bats? and in the other a trave.ing bag, which he threw Into the baggage wagon with a careless air. The ha; i>ag was not trusted to the tender guardianship of any hotel baggage custodian. This was MeAleer. Even then his fame had preceded him, and many a question was asked as to the identky of the man who had been upsetting all the east by the wonderful catches which he had been making in center field for the Cleveland club. * The players went to the WHlard, if mem ory serves right, and found there another curious assemblage seeking to become ac quainted with the infants of the big .tagtH. They aiso found Waiter Jlewitt, then t.ie owner of the Washington club, who had some curiosity as to how Cleveland would draw in Washington. MeAleer's first trip to Washington, ex cept for the games which were plu.ved by the Cleveland club o;t the old Capitol grounds was parties.arlv d?p voted to sightseeing. H- visited the Capitol, the] Treasury buildtt e. ai.d some other* po.nts I of public interest. a-- time permitted. He was great'o impressed by what he ; ww. Standing one evening in front of i.e hotel, he looked down Pennsylvania avenue and remarked: "After all, yon oon't snow- w.iat a big government ihis ia I until you come here." At the time tir?t M-iAleer was making! his conimi ncemeii*v as an outfielder and ' naugurating a career which has Induced mor*- tha i one to hold that lie was the greatest outfielder of his time?personally, 1 do not believe that his equal ever has ;>layed as a judge of tlv hits and ability lo cover ground to catch almost impossi ble chances? Washington was represented >y two of the sterling outfielders of that tUne, and if the t< am ever had ken able to settle o.n a good right !i< Ider. would not have suffered with any of them so far at the '"gardens" were concerned. So when Aleer made his iv*t appear ni e in Washington there wa^ a great ? leal of locsl Curiosity as to. th.e ability ' of this vo.ing stranger who daiejaq'chal- ! lenge such n-.en as Walter WHmot and 1 Hoy. the mute, to a comparison on the I i om? field. Or. the occasion of the Cleve land Club's first visit Shock was playing rignt field for Washington. Shock, Beecher and Carney a'ternated in the po sition for Was+iington during the year and Carney was by far the best of the three * * * * * Washington "fai.s" had come to believe thai Wihnot was one of the wonders of the diamond. They had <julte as much faith iti Iloy, and the deaf and dumb athlete was a model In his way, and woo Id have been a greater player than he was hut for his physical infirmity. He always feared collision in running for h il> ball, and p'ayers who were associated with him were compelled to be very care ful that he understood thoroughly their signals and that they understood his ? hi'e working with him in a game. On the first afternoon on which the Cleveland? played in Washington MeAleer appeared on the field, a gaunt, well train ed. lenn ar.d leathery -looking athlete, wno seemed to be all legs and arms. One can never forget the terse descrip tion accorded to htm by a coal-biaok cos of the bleachers. He watched MeAleer intent'y for awhile and then he turned to his companion and In a loud voice, which ? ouTd be heard for many feet away, he observed: "So dst am McAleeah. l*o' ?aa wd man, he looks like a closepln an' ? tns like ?ie dehbil." \nd now- MeAleer come* back to Wash i; gton, i.ij* fame established at. the great outfielder of hl? day. and another fame ? ttablished a.- ? manager who, if he has >:ot won championships, h*? n*dle*l two ? out of tlx pit ?f :-po:'Jencj* arid inMt... them fat tots one the most // ?//j m 7// ? i " NOW IS WINTER OF OVfl DISCONTENT# MADE GLORIOUS _ SUMMER F7 / <7/ i / in & //! i\* // ,// (#5 -7v ! I y% I JK ? CaCJAvik,' > /%*>*> \\ ss' A I^MNTER, IfeTS X&EATl Ool"!E on,you Kip! JiiOOME ON 3 b' y- ll '7, t l/ l successful major leagues in the history of base ball. * # ? * * McAleer Aid not leave St. I-ouis because he was driven out by the owner of the club to which he was attached. Quite the frintrary. the owner would have p eferred that ho remain, but McAleer bel eved that; ho had stood the target of criticism about! as long as wa? essential in one city, and as he always has been a. young man of very Independent frame of mind, decided that he would pass out. While meditating upon the advisability of ilropp'ng out of base ball altogether, for he has passed the stage where base ball is wholly essential as a means or livelihood, he was tendered the manage ment of the Washington club, and ac cepted it. and I know that lie is slad that he did accept it, because there has been a fascination to him about the lite of Washington which has existed from the da vs twenty vears ago when he was a v s itor at the National Capital as the great coming youngster of the age." That's what Tom Loftus, his Cleve land manager, called him in jest and lived to see it become sober earnest under his own jurisdiction. At one time, when he 'was younger, Alecr was something of a fatalist. He bel"eved that if a thing were to be. it would be. and steps to avert it were ef forts thrown away. In his later years he has modified that view in some respe.ts. While there may cling to him something o' the old Scotch doctrine of foreordina ton, ho has softened bis earlier phi losophy bv aorcptiiifr thf% thfor\ twat aj human be ng by his own acts may to some extent qualify that ?which had been ^ originally outlined for hint. It may interest some base ''all fans , to know that contemporary to McAleer. , when he bc;imo a member of the Na tional Lejguo. were Ryan of L hicagoho garty of Philadelphia, the only player who surpassed him in fielding average, though not in abil'ty: Hanlon. tl^n of Pittsburg. "Dicky" Johnstone of Boston and Geo ge Gore of New York. Not one of them is left actively in a major league except the Washington manager. * * * * * Cleveland was the first club to induce McAleer to try his hand as a manager, and hi Cleveland he made his great repu tation as a ball player. In Cleveland he was si: cessful. not in winning a cham-, p onship. but 111 putting the Cleveland club on its feet in the American League and in paving the way for the great suc cess which the team lias had in its last five vears?such success that the < leve !an<l management feels warranted to ex pand a laig" sum of money to provide Cleveland with a permanent base ball P He did not v.i.i a championship for St. r.o'iis. but he took hold of the Si. Louis .lub ami brought it out of the doldrums and leaves it a financial success in that it? management ha^ improved the prop ertv to ;;ii extent that it is now one of tho" .,v places of t:i:- American League. W*? ?! = ?.ttt "fans" will find In .James f: M-\:.'er one of tb- fairest, most Mi? -ai.i t workers who ever have beer. at the h<* id of a club that ? it>. T ah. >ui ? ??f i', *?'?r 1?<* has nut cnan^'1 on-- iota sine"1 be played oall out m Ch v. land twenty years i>go. Tiifir new manager wi:l not hardly .us nl iveis as <'*anti'lon did. His methodft ar." wholl\ different. CantUlon \va- in clined to bo impatient and t-> argue the jK.int with a plavor w.Vu tre latter was least in the mood for nrgmnent. * * * * M ? Vlee** debates his points with tailing bill nlaver.' when their mistakes have' h'ifl time to cool. Then he reasons with thorn llo is a good coach of ouitiel.Vei s. Whv shouldn't he b<? He is one of the few men who are now able to tell .|ui< k ly whether an outfielder is of natural P No man ever pi awl oall in the outfield who could run so accurately to the P1'1' where .1 Ify ball would be finely to fall i<- McAleer. His divination was so won derful that some thought it akin to sec 0Onelg;ilVerno.^ Oevelar.d was playing against \>w Vork on the 1'oio Grounds. 1 iavis, 1 think, was batting against ? h-ve Utnd. At that time Davis was with New V011 M? \b-' r was in center lie-id for Cleveland. Th- bat crashed agahist the ball. and. without a second loo*. McAlcer started for the extreme corner of runt field, away over toward the ropes which surrounded the grounds. , "ljook at him: What s no doing Shouted Nick Kngle. in amazement. Is he trying to run off the tield Tie spectators had missed the ball. Thev were too intent on watching Davis trying to circle the bases. McAleer rat. I to the. ropes. Within two feet of them he suddenly turned around and threw up his hands. The ball settled in his gloves. Davis was awav out by second base. He was run ning full speed. He stopped when he heard the groans of the crowd. He look ed back and saw McAleer returnlg the bpll toward the infield. Then lie walked to the bench with a dejected air As the Cleveland players came in for their turn at bat Davis smiled in spite ot the fact that a home run had been taken away from him. He called out to McAleer. ?'There's only one boy in the country who could do that to me.' "Sorry, old pal. but I had to. replied McAleer simply. He and Davis were once partners in the outfield for Cleve i land. * * * * * .\b A Icej doesn't do a great deal of 1 finessing on the bench. When a pitchci ; is going right he Ids him alono. Some i managers seem to think that they must give orders, whether the pitcher is win 1 niug or losing. Not so McAleer. lio is a manager who makes changes l<iuickl*. Sometime* he makes them un the spur of the moment. Occasionally one would be inclined to believe that he made them because he had a "hunch." As a rule ho allows a pitcher to go pretty far before he will relieve him, unless the pitcher happens to be onr- of those reg ular bad actors who could only be ex ported to have a "tantrum" i!' lie were started fairly well. Above all, McAleer is Invariably lair with his players. They'll all l< 11 you that no matter where he has been. More than that all of the players with whom >ie was associated when he was a "big leaguer'" will tell you that "Jim" is out; of the finest fellows who ever stood on a iall field. Washington folks will find it out ISefore he loaves the city. i.: * $ * I've dug up the score o? the first game in which ho appeared in Washington, and the batting order. Listen. ?? Wash ington fans. Cleveland won by r> to 3. The pitchers were Kearson and "Darby"' O'Brien. Remember Fearson, with liis slow curves and good command, and O'Brien, long since dead, who was the wonder of the Cleveland team for tlwf brief time that he was a star in the Na tional League? Here's the way the batting order read: rieiplast'l. j when he played his first game in Wnsh i ington?the coming center fielder of the world. FROM AN UMPIRE'S VIEWPOINT Washington. Wilmot. if. Hoy. of. Wise. <s. Mvpp*. 2b. ShO?"k. rf. f.lvwv. 55. Ma<-k. Morrill, lb. Fearson. v Umpire. "Wnlly" Feissen'ien. Attendance. -.'>00. Does that bring back old days? "Con nie" Mark behind the bat for Wsahing ton and John Morrill at first base? "Sam" Wise playing shortstop and George Myers at second, and look at Cleveland?all of them gone now, except McAleer. He started in young. I don't mind say ing that he was only eighteen years old Strieker, "h. i M<\V Wr. ' t - M'-Kfun. Twit. h-M. :r. Kaatz. 1 i Uarlford. 'i < ::h. ? /immer. ??. <Vlirieu. p Fettsen'ien. Attendance How Johnstone Quieted an Excited Thespian. XEW YORK, January S.?James E. Johnstone's reply to the new president of the National League to the effect that he had had practically no trouble with base ball players last season is charac teristic. Johnstone was a storm tenter in this city for more than one season. Through it all he was imperturbable. This particular umpire, however, is an athlete and thoroughly able to care for himself. Single handed If has thrashed a quar tet sent out to "do him up." and the public hasn't heard of it to thi<* day. Johnstone's judgment on balls and strikes is often questioned by unbiased judges, who sit bark of The plate, but his pluck; never. Once a ccrtain actor shook his fist at Johnstone (from an-upper grand stand* and cried: "You call yourself ail umpire, do >ou? Why did I ever come here to see you?" Johnstone turned quickly. "I paid #2 to see you," he said, "and made no criti cism of the show. What did you pay to see me7" That ended the argument. A tale going the rounds has it that Mil ' ler Huggins drew from Garry Herr ! mann last > ear and that "Dick" Kgan, who covered second for Miller, received I SI.$00. Thf- same authority has Lobert drawing S-i.L'OO and Kwing $4,500. Xo wonder Griff plans to let some of his j spavs go. JAMES McALEER. COLLEGE PLAYERS Old Professionals Are Nowa days Bewildered by the Rug gedness and Nerve of the Rah Rahs. By W. A. Phelon. In tlie mind of many base* hall fans there .still lingers a fixed and ineradicable brMef that the colleee ball player added to a professional club is an oddity and a conspicuous proposition. If they read of a college man signing with a big league team, they expect to see a wild eyed youth with long, floating hair, a little cap set upon the extreme back of his dome and a bunch of educated language bristl ng with phrases too ab strusely complicated for any one outside ! of college to understand. I This was correct, perhaps?long ago. | Not nowadays. Nix. Play that one with j a copper. The collegian who joins a '? big league ball dub in the present gen ! eration isn't that kind of a darling. It is said that Fred Tenney was the first collegian who made boiii the pro fessional players and the fans c m;.iv hend what an up-to-date varsity man was really like. He did It with "a ven geance, too. and the inimitable Dad Clarke was the goat. Tenney and Clarke. Tenney had just joined the Boston team, and Clarke was about to pitch a game against Selee's performers. Dad had heard of Tenney's signing, and de cided that he would scare the tender mamma's hoy right off the lot. He hunted for Tenney. approached him dur ing practice, and remarked, with a ter rible growl and savage glare: "Say. you college lobster, you cheap imitation, you four-flushing rah-rah. you Willit boy from the oiog.v class, what husintss have you got around here mixing up with men?" Tenney turned a fb-rce-eved figure with black straggling hair waving over a pair , of vicious eyes. Sizing Clarke up for a ; minute, he began by squirting a torrent ! of tobacco juice all over Dad's shoes. ' Then turned loose a tiood of explosives ? that curled Clarke up, leaving h m in a dazed and helpl?*ss mass. When Dad came to he cried to Fred Knowies: "Say, that guy never went to no college. That tough gazai>o never even went to night school." The collegian who breaks into the hig ? leagues is usually from the smaller col ! leges, the jerkwater places where the [students mix manual labor with their i trigonometry. Men who can afford the pace of Yale, Princeton or Harvard as a rule are too well off to need a base ball contract, and. on graduating. _step right into business at their fathers' oi i flees. There have been some em.nent ?Yale and Harvard men in the big leagues, but not many. The students from the little colleges, rugged young fellows of tremendous physique, take as naturally to a ball player's life a/* ducks to water. In a year or two they become amalgamated with the great mass of players. In five years it is impossible to distinguish the collegian by any sign of speech or man ner, and the only way many ot them are ever identified as varsity men is when some old classmate chances to en counter them. The big leagues contain many collegians whose very schools arc forgotten by all saw the men them selves, and no list of big league college men ever printed has been correct for this strange reason. Many Good Ones. Roy Thomas of Boston went to the University of Pennsylvania: Coffey at tended Fordham; Beaumont is from B? loit College; S'hean is from a college now apparently forgotten, and some of the other Beans are probably university men. Of the Brook lyns, McMillan went to some southern college. Marshall to a medical school, McElveen to some uni versity in the south. Scanlon to a medi cal college, and Wilhelni. almost twenty years ago. was the crack pitcher of an Ohio school. Overall of the Cubs was a foot ball star at a California university: Keulbach pitched for Vermont and Notre Dame. Chance went to some California college, and Hotmail. Kane and Stanley got pret-| ty well aloni? in the educational line. Huggins of the Reds went to law school. Dubuc to Notre Dame, and per haps some more of Griffith's men are from the little colleges. Tenney of the Giants came fiojn Brown. Murray from Notre Dame, and McCor | mick studied engineering at Pennsyl vania; lX-\ lin studied at Georgatow n: ! I'.ridwcll went to a jerkwater college in j Ohio; Sliafer was in a southern school J when he got base ball fever;, the great lAlathcwsun is from Buckncll; Meters, thp bj~ Injun, went to Dartmouth. Big college bunch with tho Giants, and if any of tlicm are less tough and hardy than the non-collegians where was it ever demonstrated? Grant of th*? Quakers Is from Har vard, Doolin was at Pennsylvania, Mat tel 1 is from a Catholic college. Sparks is j fmm a school in Alabama. The champion Pirates, on the fare, of the returns, spent shy of college men, but it i's quite probable that somp of them vero rah-rahs and have forgotten to an nounce the fact. Storks of the Cardinals is from Brown, riachnian is a pitcher from Case Tech (right name Bartont, Beebe is from the University of Illinois. lleftmuller of the Athletics is from a California school, Collins went to eiti:er nolv Cross or Fordham?maybe it was Columbia?somewhere, anyway; Davis is from Girard College. Philadel phia; Barry is a Holy Cross man. Plank hails from Gettysburg College, Coon\bs from one of the eastern schools, Bender, the Indian, from Carlisle. American Leaguers. St.ihl of the Boston Red fox Is from Illinois University; Hooper got a civil engineering degree upon the c^ast. lfahn of the White Sox went to some tiny school in Ohio or Tennessee. Reilly s h Yale man; White is from George town. Fa 1 ken berg of Cleveland is from the University of Illinois. That school had quite a ball nine once. It turned Into the ? hi? leagues, all In a bunch. Jake Stalil. , Fred Falkenberg. Carl l?undgren and Jinnny Cook. Cook didn't last, but is | still a good minor l^atHi^r. I^undgren quit only 'ast summer, while Stahi and j Faikenberg are still effective. Nothing is known of the educational j attainments of the Tigers, but it is likely I that several of them wont to inland col i leges. Oh, yes; Davy Jones is from the I little college at Dixon, 111. Uittle is also | known as to where the Highlanders went i to school. Stephens of Lho Browns is from a small Texas college, and Harry Howell is supposed to have been a collegian long, Ions ago. Harry Gessler of the Washington? Is a graduated doctor, and a few more of the Senators may be concealing their col ; 'egiate attainments even as they do their i base bail abilities. Simply can't keep George Van Ha'tren ? out of the game. He was the first mn ; pire signed by President Graham of the Paiitic Coast Legue for next season. BAT VEIiy POORLY Pitchers Are Gaining Such Power That Few Youngsters Seem Able to Hit a Little Bit. > i 4 Tae minor leaeue batting records. whict. are rapidly emerging from the desk? ..f the various minor league presidents. mik? a dismal front in the most intrrffitiiiit department of the name-- the battlnsl Judging from the tabs so far presented. ? the minors were even weaker against ! their ond quality pitchers than the big fellows against the stars of the curv ing game. Such being the ease, what hope is there that these minors will !>e anv addlt 011 to the ranks of ih* majors? If a. man can't hit over .1175 against minor league pitching, what will he do when h* i facet"! the Rrowns, Mathewsons and Voungs? Moreover, most of the mfnor leaguers w ho eat any ire in the flgun * are old-timers, major league discards, men who have been tried and found 1 wanting. The outlook for fresh batting material is therefore of the gloomiest kind. A* the veterans of the two big leagues ?ie fading away and the pitchers gaining the upper hand against the majority of them what if the apparent future? \Venk liatt.ng lists all round, for the older men are setting weaker and the new recruits are lightweights all along the line. Pitching- Supremacy. The whole trouble is. and has been for t many years, that the pitchers master ! their art more quickly and more thor oughly than the batters get the kna-k i of th**lr own duties. The pitchers are also by far the cleverer when it comes I to overcoming obstacles raised by the rule makers. It seems Impossible to put any handicap on a pitcher and keep him down, but when you put any handicap on a batsman he < urls up and his average curls simultaneously. The present batting averages would be ! still more skinny if they were averaged i according to the old-time scoring rules. I Nowadays, a batter gets a time off his i batting record for every sacrifice bunt i and sacrifice fly?and even w?th these boosts they can't create .MOO-point hit ters. In the old days the scorers were | also far more severe on errors than at , the present time. They used to count an error whenever anything got by a fielder, ; no matter how severe the chance. That meant that a hit was one horrible bift or unholy smite, and not a little chance ; that some tnflelder fussed and footled | over. i T'nder the old-time scoring rules some ?of our most eminent hitsmlths wouldn't ; have achieved a rccord of .?.'20, and that ? no jolly, either. The Real Sluggers. ! Cobb and Wagner are real hitters ?>C ithe old-time brand, but there aren't many of them surviving. When Cobb, Wag ner, Crawford. Lejoie. Doyle of the ? Giants and a few others crash against the ball, it goes forth to assuage its i bruises, but it isn't so with most of our diamond heroes. Their averages are | patched-up makeshifts, and In the old days they wouldn't have been one-two I seventeen. t It is said, of course, that the old bat iters didn't have any foul-strike rule to I hurt them. No, but they had pitchers i just as husky as those of today, drlv jing in the ball from a shorter distan-e, and not tied to the slab. ?l>ut free t^ I move around a large outlined box. Fur thermore, a caught foul tip was an out. 1 And yet, thus handicapped and with i scorers who gave errors where we now give hits, these old Imjvs could kick t?m eternal corrugations out of that old leather. What's the reason for the dif ference of today? Joseph D. O'Brien, the deposed presl t dent of the American Association, is going to open a college for the tutelage of green base ball presidents. He has A1 Tearney. new head of the Three-! league, enrolled f??r a course. Might be a good idea lor Joe to adopt the cor i respondenee system. A Good Tailor-made Suit BLUES, for $ 1 BLACKS, ? ? I <J= PRICES CUT TO THE BONE. You Can Afford the Handsomest Kind of a Suit at the Rock-bottom Prices in Our January Reduction Sale. $25 SUITS Now $16.50 $30 SUITS Now $20.00 Fine Imported and Domestic Worsteds. Get What You Want and Have It Made to Suit You. Oil WTC Great Pants Sale Is l I O Going On. All Sorts, Worth $5 to $10, "ind* and Cvolor* ?"!e Made to Order, ?"e Pnce' You G|4 Th,s Chance Once a Season $3.50 K: 00 " Miss" TROUSERS Cut From the Original Piece dv pj AA in ^$6.50 to $8.00 Trouserings, Made to Morton C. Stout & Co., Tailors ::::::: 910 F St. N.W. C. E. Foster, Manager.