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6 ©OMAN ■ SKIES' QOOEI*EXMETI EDITED W S FARNSWORTH Z/ 2J V/ Tommy McMillan’s Baseball Life Began at Tech Highlanders’ Small Shortstop Is a Natural Plaver Ry Percy H. Whiting. UT HEN the first Call went out f for baseball candidates in the spring of 1904 at the Georgia Institute of Technology, there wse the usual response. A hundred or more young men turned out—and one little boy The boy was a clean out little shaver, in short pants, about the size of a half-grown bat hot When Coach Heisman looked them over he saw rhe makings of a fine team —and he also noted the kid 'T hope he doesn't get in the way and get hurt I’ll have to eliminate Mm at the first cut,” was Coach Heisman’s comment. Then followed a lot of indoor w>rk For days the candidates worked a* beat they could In the mtrictn! apace of the gymnasium, doing swcb small thing* tn the btaaebsui line as the scant room afforOefi. Wban the time for the first cut came Coach Heisman wielded the pruning knife with recklee« aban don. •* usual. But when be came to the name of the kid he didn't use it. I«um f II sea that boy work in the open,” wae hie comment. Another cut came. And then th* final cane When the first game was played the smallest man <tn the squad was at short Mop He bail shown such a positive genius for baseball that he had stuck through. The name of the boy was Tommy McMillan. • • • NT OW. Tommy McMillan was un doubtedly the very littlest boy who ever got on a real varsity team in the South. He won his place because he could bat fairly well, because he could field excel lently, and moat particularly be cause he had a baseball mind ‘McMillan has.” aaya Coach Heisman, who perhaps knows him better than any other man. "that rare faculty of knowing where a ball is going to be hit. He seems to give the matter no thought. No doubt he divines the thing by I lie working of his subconscious mind Given a batter he knows and given some hint of what is to be pitched to him and he can come nearer to telling where it Is going to be hit than any living man who lias ever <<>me under my observation" It Is this faculty that has given McMillan positions on three big league teams and that has made him. with the sole and glowingly brtlliyu exception of Willie Keeler, ball player of his ’ > Jjpmes Who ever graced a diamond • • • 'J' HE faculty of knowing where a ball was going to be hit was McMillan's most troublesome weak ness at first. When he figured out that the sphere was going to be hit between first and second he didn't hesitate at all to run over back of the pitcher and take ft away from the second baseman And this peculiarly Irritated the second baseman—who was, the year McMillan broke in. that eg cellent performer Fred Richardson It took all of Richardson's patience and all of Coach Heisman's author ity to confine McMillan's activities to a territory about twice as large as any other shortstop in the Southern college world covered. And to this day he can come as near to playing the entire infield unassisted as anybody you ever saw. • • • JUST how diminutive M< Millan was in his first year is hard to realize. Coach Heisman estimates tfcat at the time he was probably five feet, five inches tall and that he weighed perhaps 110 to 115 pounds. How younfc he was is best illus trated by a story told by one of his team mates that year. The Tech team was off on a trip, it doesn't matter particularly where: and after a game the boys went out for an evening at a girls' college. Tommy was the first man home ami he was particularly glum "What's the mattei "" he was asged on his return "Aw. those gills make me tired," said Tommy He was pressed sot partlculai s "Why, confound it." .-(id Tom my. "one of 'em wanted to kiss me." Whereupon he went indignantly to bed • • • npOMMY required a world of • coaching nd he got it. Final ly by agreeing io let him play two oi thit*< extra inning> after the game was over, all by himself. they got him confined inside h normal territoiy And aft u that he began tn electrify the college world with his performances J remember his first appearam e In Nashville, u here I wa> then writing sports foi the lamented Nashville r>ail\ Npws. Tommy w the heio of a brilliant series with Vundmbih. His small sizt and Ins w -n.« rful work luaut liim paiti* j- Ik. larly conspicuous, but one play he made stands out above all the rest. A ball was hit toward left field. It was a liner and normally a sure hit Tommy turned with the crack of the bat. ran without looking at the hall to left field, stole one glance at the rapidly approachng leather, and with his back toward the home plate hi- jumped an in credible distance into the air and speared the ball. It may not sound spectacular, but Coach Heisman calls it the greatest fielding play he ever saw on a college diamond, and I'm well content to agree with him in the verd let. • • • A VOI.HME could be filled with a narration of Tommy's wonder ful stunts. Once In a game at * lemson. with Tech leading in the last of the ninth, two out. two men on bases and the score 5 to .3 In Tech's favor, a nasty fly was hit back of shortstop. McMillan start ed back after it and just as he was slowing down and settling himself for the catch he stumbled and fell. There was no time to get up. no time to do anything but throw himself full length and stretch out his hands. This he did, and. lying flat on the ground on bis back and with his fiands be yond his head at full length, he caught the ball, retired the side and saved the game Probably no incident of his col lege career showed better his in nate baseball instinct than one which happened when the Tech team was playing at Spartanburg with the Wofford college team Tech had a grand team that year with Lafitte and Day as twirl era—and it won 23 out of 2fi games. The Jackets had just made a clean run of 12 straight wins and en tered the thirteenth game with some superstitious misgivings, it was a blustery day. with a gusty young hurricane blowing into the faces of the fielders. The diamond was skinned and sandy and to com plicate matters the ground keeper had used overmuch lime on the lines With the score 3 to 1 in Tech's favor in the eighth Inning and with men on second and third bases, the times were tense, The batter hit the first ball pitched a mighty wallop towaril McMillan. And as he did so the worst gust of the day swept a cou ple of cartloads of dirt, sand and lime down across the field and right toward McMillan. The murky blanket reached the clever little in fielder before the ball did The situation looked hopeless No man could see through the curtain of lime and dirt. Yet suddenly, out of the middle of the miniature whirlwind, the ball shot, straight into the first baseman's hands, thi runner was out and the side retired. As McMillan came back to the bench he was pawing at his eyes and almost blind. "'3 ell, how In the Dickens did you see that ball .” Coach Heisman ! asked. "Aw, I didn't see it." replied McMillan lightly f just knew where it was coming and put my hands out and It jumped in." Well, how did you manage to throw it to first you couldn't see, could you ' Coach Heisman per sisted. "See naw." said McMillan Hut don t you suppose I know where first is?" \V HKN finished his <ol »V | eife course hp decided on baseball ns his profession. Ami Bernie McCgy grabbed him and took him to the Baton Rouge dull, where in- played his first profes sional season in 190(>. batting .187 ami fielding .872—n0 very brilliant performance. The next year, at Jacksonville, under the leadership of the eruptive Dominick Mulla ney and playing then on the same Cracker, he came nearer to his club with Vedder Sitton, a present normal gait, batting 236 and lead ing the shortstops of me league with an average of .931 The year 1908 was McMillans i>i in the South. Though his re. ords were not ns good as the pre vious year (batting ,2c.. fielding 818> Pat Donovan looked him o\er carefully w bile his Brookly n tt am l l g in th« South amt in the fall lie grabbed him M. Millan continued his s.-ns.i tional ti.dditig In the National league and showed a mark of Mil in 105 games with Brooklyn. His hatting average, how.we . was but .212. The following yeai 1910, McMil lans batting slumped and Brook lyn asked waivers on him Cin cinnati aimed him His batting mark for that -eason was only 183. but tin- fielding was .921 anil he ranked with such men as Sweeney, of Boston. Fletcher. of New lot k Downey, of Cincinnati, ami Zimmerman, of Chicago That yen- it decided to nd him to the Eastern league But Brook > n wanted him for the Roch ester team, while ('lark Griffith. ‘ then with Cincinnati wanted to send him to tin rescue of Bill Smith at Buffalo After a big wrangle, in which Ebbets was fined foi sending him to Rochester with out getting waives. Tommy fin shod oat '.' ' - son in t-. Nation- l.ast Ml.' Ebbets n.mig,,- m sw i M< M. ~n to Rochester in time for I’TIE ATLXXTA GEOKG FAN *NP NEWS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1912 ntrr to p'ay 24 games at shortstop. In Eastern league company Tommy fielded .91(1 and batted .279. This y. al McMillan got a gland start with Rochester. So brilliant was his work that Harry Wolver ton bought him a couple of weeks ago and h<- has joined the High landers. When he left the Intel national league he was batting .301) and was far and away the best s’hortstop in the organization. What M Millan will be able to accomplish in the American league is uncertain. If anything inter feres with his su(-os's, it will be his alarming lack of size. Barring that, he has everything that goes to make a ball player. , s -. . - iw" Z / m F r I '-Wix ‘- \ w . ‘ z Ji- ■ w t -r A A ■ .3 / < // >- / A- • / g&be. z ' ' IHv / h " V SPEARING A HIGH LINER Here is another one of Percy 11. Whitings sparkling stories on Georgia box s who <rre mak ing good in baseball. Mr. Whiting witnessed McMillan in ateion while Little Tommy played with the Tech team, and in tin* storv describes immv sensational pla v s the wee one made while a member nf the Yellow .la.-kels RIOT WHEN MONTE ATTELL FOULS BENNIE CHAVIZ , I'RINIDAD. |(t , , , <. Ia x fz. (»f I i i'i 11:.i. \v;< >a\\ a r<t« . ;Lu (H i c»sion uvti Monti* \ttvll. of San I'ran cisuo, on a (onl. m ihv twelfth round ot I a giitrllirg fight !»■’< I‘pli\(i\ of the toll! laused wild excite- I nteni SjHH t at ors crowded into the ring , and the platform . nllapsed. hut j.o <.ne I was Injured HOUSTON CLUB LANDS TEXAS LEAGUE PENNANT Las ’ \ Sei Hu T- xas : son < • ■ . , ' , with lb aston it: first j’ace. San Kntoni. j S ''', , ,n ,' i 'Villi'; Ourlh. H 'ti'.t. n gained the had . arlx in lime and retained ms’ r ; ntii thr •rd i \itstiv fit;!s!.e< fifth, c.alxoi.n sixth Fort Worth stvynth anti Beaumont last Here's Tom McMillan In a Yankee Uniform 7 , J / Here's How Crackers Are Hitting the Ball Right Up to Date These avurages include vosterday s dou | hie li’ll with Memphis 1 Players— G. AB. R. H. AV. Price, p i i o i ,-,00 ’ Harbison, ss . . . 71 24R LS 70 2.52 I Alperman. Lb.. ’•;■*. 403 4-.. L 7!» i Bailed If 120 435 79 I Agh-r. 11 . ... 61 JO3 34 54 H'allahan. cf ..84 IIS 30 Sj ::.’8 ! Graham. <■ 60 185 17 15 .243 I MeElve*‘n. 3b . . . 130 470 52 111 ,2-’t‘> ! Becker, p 15 35 2 7 .2 0 | Reynolds <• . . 22 68 II 14 .2'6 ( W olfe, utility .. .. 16 42 5 7 .167 ; Brady, p. ... 22 d • 2 11 ,15!« | Sil ton. p. . 37 ’Li 11 jo j 1 -lobt son. p 7 14 o 1 071 iWahlotf, p. .. 10 25 0 1 CIO I he Big Race Here is the up-to-the-minute dope on hew the "Big Five” hatters of the American league ar e hitting: player— a i a. ' 467 19? 41|“ SPEAKER . 491 155 .397 JACKSON 475 175 .368 COLLINS 442 147 .333 LAJOIE 342 11' .325 Tris Speaker lost five points yester day when he isiled to get a single safe I | swat against the New Yo k pitchers in I six times at bat. On the other hand.: Ty Cobb gained a point by grabbing ' two hits in four times up. Jackson was i up six times and garnered two safeties.! Collins grabbed one hit in an even doz ;cn chances. Lajoie hit .500 for the day. j He was up six times and made three i hits. 1 Waldorf and Price Force Turtles Twice to Defeat No, ’Tis No Falsehood! Crackers Did Win Two MIRACLES are popularly supposed to have gone out of fashion. < Jceasionally "' hear of psvehic phenomena, but This shows Wee Tommy slamming out a long hit to center. McMillan has been hitting well since joining the New York team, and is leading off for the Hilltop crew. j FODDER FOR FANS —— ■' * —• ■ > VVI a credit Birmingham is entitl < , th:.- \».tr gut * mostly to tHe pitchers. They wi.n the garner *u the ‘ lull-Baren I set ies that stalled off Mike Finn’s rush | ami riir.ehed' the rag. I No warder the Pelicans are nowhere. ■ Cteorgo t: he is their leading batter J One reason why the proposed round ; th.t'-w tld trip of the Giants is flickering ; is because M Gr.iw wanted all the players ; i who were to go tt. put up a big deposit to ; I gUi'r.mtee Hg- financial suce ess of the as ; I fi'-ir. ’This listers like a dirge to H ball J Player. (’\.\h:ga!i was rung in the -ih.er dav '|< n an amateur Ham at Bryn Mawr. It was claying in ota- . f these sass\ sociotx leagues and when the r*al truth leaked 1 I out there was much uawsty talk. limmv (’ullnhan is talking of taking 1 s to H( j Springs t<al., not Ark.. > tor training next spring. They haw sal plmr w.iit r there ami it is said to in gr» at I for wha t ails \on « * • Thi vTe having a m w wing .o! t . | I the \: lit* cton hotel at lit iL* special accomim.i alion of tin ' oung i pitchers John McGraw is rourcing up sawn is sort of trying to corner the • market. 'lT.<■ !■<",>.» 1 that Connie Mack would I give >•10.000 tor another pit< her as good ; | as Bender seems incredibh ■ Pennants f ollow new ball parks ’ . big league hui.cii In the big lragm <I. . k it the I ted Sex this - ar. Pirato m g ; . the Athletics the >ear Shibe park was: • ij’pned. ’file Giants landed the ve ar Brush stadium was renovated ‘| n the Southern. Atlanta wen a rag mightv soon after IMneo DeLeon was opened Bir mingham grabbe i one .tftei the new Rick i "as -or. a Blbl lhe Pelicans. ‘>r<!igrt one t< th?ir new park I 5i id i Lei s have a new ball park • We <. n net . one, b it might yhange’ they are rare and often not well authenticated. This being trye. it behooves the Society of Psychical Research to look into the fact that the Atlan ta team, lowliest of Southern league tail-enders. grabbed both ’ our luck. ♦ • ♦ brom I ynn. Mass . comes the storv that 1 a “ n-\• . r-old boy batted a fly hall w ith sm'h lore* that it knocked over a tele graj’h j-ole Either they have mightv weak po’cs or mighty strong liars up Lynn-way. » ♦ * Mike Simon, the I’ittsbnrg catcher, has . tnaue only two errors this year. , Hans Wagner has denied (lie report that ho is io i. tire after this year. "I'm too oid to learn any other business. " said Hans, v, Feu questioned, "and vet thev sav I m not too oltl to play baseball " * * * (‘lark. Griffith's chase of the Red s ( ,X this y ar reminds one .(hat it isn't his Ih st fruitless, attempt to overhaul the The famous pennant that !' >! O a -ir.glo wild pitch- the t'a !”"!(■■ ''UH ' f hi! U (Tesbro's found a I imilleril lesimg place al (he Red Sox |mrk CAROLINA LEAGUE RAG IS WON BY ANDERSON CHARLOTTE. 2S F s< pt. 3 -The p arolitia association dosed its fifth suc ' '' tson y( sterday with Anderson i witining the pennant. Winston-Salem ind ( l.arlotte elm., followed in order. ' And. > soi.'e | ereentage was .ili'iu; Win snt-S.ilem's .-,73. and Charlotte's, •' , ' l Roth ('harlotte and Winston-Sa - . lent won morning and afternoon games ! 1,111 Anderson and Greensboro re- I . spei tively. I ' Andetsor team has been in the | i'ad since May 25. but clinched the pen- | mint only .i fev days ago by defeating pie. :sive'v \v nston and charlotte in the | critical s. ries. Tin rar, between Win. ston tnd Ch otte for st eond place has been on for a month. games of a double-header here yes terday afternoon from Bernhards furtles. The scores wore 3 to 1 and 4 to 1. It can be demonstrated beyond any question that this thing actu ally happened. Not less than 5.000 fans saw it transpire—and mar veled. The crowd which celebrated a torrid Labor day by jou-neying to Ponce DeLeon was one of the smallest holiday crowds that At lanta ever saw. The fans figured that there was no use in going out to the ball park to be miserable. They could get that anywhere— and at a lower price. Those that did come out were treated to as tine an exhibition of baseball as one would rare to seo. Crackers Played Like Champs. It wasnt any especial disgrace for the Turtles to los They were up against pennant baseball. The ( nickers w ere w eakened by the ab sence front the game of th< ir stead, iest hitter. Whitey Alperm,in. They used on the slab In the first game Rudolph Waldorf, who hasn't von a game since base hits were in vented. and in the second a new i inner. Price. Both pitches worked like de mons. Each allowed a scant four hits and it took c.erythlng in the i urt lf shop to send one runnt r across In eneli g.nne. In the first contest Bernhard slipped in his Angular and fre -1 cntly effective southjiaw. Doe Norton. I’he doctor couldn’t hive /I (bored more industriously if he had been operating on a million aire patient. Somehow all his pre scriptions failed. H> wasn't regu larly lambasted. Bui what hap pened to him was enough. Fcrsuson Was Dead Easy. !u the second garni Ferguson took tie hurling assignment and | it proved a tough one. The Crack ers biffed him vig, rously. and. w hat was worse, his support was pttne -lured. (tight op" titc reel things began to break badlv for the hurler. With two tueaed away. Harbison sin s|,*i. I hen lie stole second. Gra ham struck out and the ball got Ir- Seabough, just as one of Gra ham's tlii'd strikes had sneaked ay from Tonneman in the pre cis game. Harbison went to third <m the passed ball. Where upon Seabough picked up the pel let and hurled it over Bales' head. Harbison started in on this punk peg. hut Crandall fielded the wild throw neatly and threw to the plate. I’he ball was in Seabough's hands and he would have had Har bison by a mile if he had held it. But he didn't. And the Cracker shortstop tallied. If it had been within the rules to give a player t o errors on a play which allowed ■ i lumit'r io advßTicp on? bas?, Spa bough \Vould have got them. In tile next inning came a play u i)i( h mane Pitcher Perguson enn sidor himself a badly abused man. After he had allowed McElveen. Reynolds and Callahan to single, scoring McElveen, and after Wolfe liad fanned. Price, who was pitch ing for the Crackers, slipped hook down between Bales and the thi d .-ack. At least, that's where I mpiro Dan Pfenninger said it went. Reynolds and Callahan tal lied and the game was lost. (>f course, Ferguson protested like a major and swore-and-be-cussed if it was a fair ball. But Pfenninger. having no other alternative, stuck by his decision. This decision took the heart out of the Turtles and while they worked well enough de ft nsively they could only get through with one run. An Indian No Longer. Much of the Crackers’ success in the second game was due to the useful hurling of Pitcher Price. Ihis man has been barnstorming this season with the Nebraska In dians, of which tribo he is not a bona tide member, being an Irish man by Inheritance and an Ameri can by birth. As an Indian, he workert-tinder the name of Schcgg. but having returned to civilization, he has resumed his own cog. Hp has had a bit of league experience in the South Michigan league. Ho hurled cleverly against Memphis, and if he can continue the speed he showed, will be heard from, even if he is hooked up with a rather slow organization. BATTLING NELSON WINS FROM STEVE KETCHEL ST. IOSEPH. MO., Sept 3.—Battling X'clsun beat Steve Ketchel, of Chicag> in fifteen rounds here Nelson displays flashes of the old-time form that ma< him famous. He worked both hands free ly to Ket< hel's body, and in return to" many blows in the face. Ketchel vxa floored in the eleventh round, but cam up gainelj . Ketchel had the better of tw rounds and Nelson of six. The other were even BASEBALL WEDNESDAY ATLANTA vs. MEMPHIS Ponce DeLeon Park Game called 3:30.