Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, September 04, 1912, EXTRA 2, Image 10

Atlanta Georgian., September 04, 1912, EXTRA 2, Image 10

About Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 1912)

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Newspaper Page TextGZOaGIM SIFCW OWB * MIW EDITED 9 FARNSWORTH ° Tommy McMillan’s Baseball Life'Began at Tech +•4- +•+ 4*4 >*4 +e+ Highlanders’ Small Shortstop Is a Natural Player By Perry 11. Whiting, •t a THEN the first < ail want out X/V* for baseball candidates ,In the spring of 1904 at ‘the <;■ .rgia Institute of Technology, there was the usual response. A hundred or more young men turned out—-and one little boy. The boy was a clean cut little shaver, In short pants, about the size of a half-grown bat boy. Whan Coach Heisman looked them over he saw the makings of a fine team- —and he also noted the Kid. "1 hope be doeen't get th the way •nd hurt, ril hare to eltmlnata \fcira at the toert out/’ was Coach Xtetamwr/* comment. Then foDoored C M of Indoor Wt.flfk. For <lay» the oandldatas *R>\fited m beet they could In the ras.doted epeoe of the gymneetum, 4utn.'.T •«**> email things In the burst'rf! X&* •• the scant room What the ©me tar the ftrat cut ano* a'.*a Bateman wteMed the MqiDtng lurtfie wtth mckteae aban- MRt M til ttet Put wtmn he came *• the «teA» th* kid he didn't mH V*** Cat Troy wurtt tn Op*n/*’ Wiw hte comment. Attktbe* <jul\ten»*. And then the ' -AM «X tn« the ftM game ww« played • O» *maUs*t man on the eqnad ww at Ahoefatop. He had ritwnra auoh • fgstOee gwrrttis tor bs weball tlmt be had BttsrJt thmugti The name of the bey a is* Tommy KkiMinan. • • • XjT*, Ttniuuy MHMtne n wne vm- * ' doubtedty the very 1 Ittlest boy who ewer got on a re 11 varsity team tn the Routh Un won hte pta-o* because be could t>a< fairly well, because he couM fi< lid excel lently, and most portion larly be cause he had a baneball n|ilnd. "McMillan has," say It Cvaoh Heisman, who perhaps ktrows him better than any other rrtan. “tl«at Hire faculty of knowing whore a ball is gothg to be hit. fie seems to give the matter no thought. No doubt he divines the thing by the working of bls subconscious mind. Given a batter he knows tu»d given -ome hint of what is to be pitched to him and he can come nearer to telling where it is going ,t» be hit than any living man who has over come undef my observation." It is this faculty that has gtven McMillan poeltkms on three big league teams and that has made him, with the sole and glowingly brilliant exnepdon of WTJlte Kester, the gswstest ball player of his Inches who ever graced a diamond, see 'T'HB fkralty of knowing where a ball was g>«ng to be rnt was MMfflDarrtr most troubtuauim weeks b*M M firrt When ho figured out «ba* the sjthere was gntng to be hit batWMn first and eeosnd he didn’t heel tat a at all to ran <rvw back at the pftribsr acd taka It away h®» Che aaeend baaerrwo. And <M» pemxfhwty irrttwtvd the •tott&tf basoniisi who we*, the gtete McMillan took* tn, that gx arflm.t pelfm liter Fred Rlrhmrditcn. ft took an of Richardson's patience tead. an of Owti Hetomante author ity to confine McMillan'* ovtivtTlee to A territory about twice as large M any other ebortstop tn the R&rrtberm oettege world covered. And tn this day he can come as near to playing the entire infield unawslsteii as anybody you ever saw. • • • rTXST how dfmtnuttw McMMlan J was in hte thrst year is hard to PMtllza. Coach Heisman eetlmate* tk“C at the time he was probably five feet, five Inches tail and that he wvdghed perhaps 110 to 115 pounds. How young he was ts best illus trated by a story told by one of* Ms team mates that year. The Tech team was oft 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 and fie was particularly glum. •‘What’s the matter'.”' he was asked on his return. "Aw. those girls make me tired,” said Tommy. He aas pressed for particulars ‘Why, confound it.” said Tom my. "one of ’em wanted to kiss me.” • ’Whereupon he went indignantly to bed. • • • 'T’OMMI* required a 'world of coaching—and he got it. I’inal h by agreeing to let him play two <>r three igtrii innings after the game was over, all by himself, they got him confined inside a normal territory And after that h< began t‘> electrify the • olh-m world with his performances 1 remember his first appro ran. e in Nashville, where 1 wa- then uondeiful sM-rk in.f.i him paiU’U- 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 ball to left field, stole one glance at the rapidly approachng leather, and with his back toward the home plate he jumped an in credible distance into the air and speared the ball. It may not sound spectacular, but Ooach Het a man calls It the greatest fielding play he ever saw on a ooilege diamond, and I'm well content to agree with him In the verdict. • • • A VOI4TMBJ could be filled with a ■‘i narration of Tommy's wonder ful stunts. Once in a game at Clemson, with Tech leading In the last erf the ninth, two out, two men on banes and the score 5 to 8 in Tech’s favor, a nasty fly wae hit badk of shortstop. McMillan start ed back after it and juet as he was slowing down and settling htmself for the catch he stumbled and fell. There was no time to get up, no tiros to do anything but throw himself full length and stretch out his hands. This he did, and, lying fiat on the ground on hte back and with his hands be yond his head at full length, he caught the ball, retired the side and «awd the game Probably no incident of hte col lege career showed betber his In nate baseball instinct than one which happened when the Tech team was playing at Spartanburg with ths Wofford college team. Tech had a grand team that year —with and Day as twlrt ens -and it won M out of 2S game* The Jackets had just made a clean run of 12 straight wins and en tered th* thirteenth game with *>me superstitious misgivings. It was a bluirterry day. with a gusty young hurricane blowing Into th* sanes erf th* fielders. The diamond war skinned and sandy and to com plicate matters the gwound keeper had used overmuch lime on th* line*. With the score 8 to 1 in Tech’S favor hi th* eighth inning and with men on second and thtn! th* times were tense The batter hit the first ball pitched a mighty wallop toward 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. Th* murky blanket reached th* olever little in fielder before the ball did. Th* gltuatlon looked hopeiese No man could see through th* curtain of lime and dirt. Yet suddenly, out of the middle of the miniature whirlwind, the batl shot, straight Into the first baseman’s hands, the runner wa* out and th* side retired. As McMillan came back to the bench lie was pawing at hte eyes and almost blind. "Well, how in th* Dickens did you see that ball?” Coach Heisman Mked. 'Aw, I didn't see It,” replied McMillan lightly. "I just knew where it wan coming and put my hands out and it jumped in.” “Well, how did you manage to throw it to first—you couldn’t wee, could you?" Coach Heisman per sisted. "See—naw.” said McMillan. "But don’t you suppose I know where first Is?" • • • iTtrHEN McMillan finished his col lege course he decided on baseball as his profession. And Bernie McCay grabbed him and took him to the Baton Rouge club, where he played hte first profes sional season In 1906, batting IST and fielding .BT2—no 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 .256 and lead ing the shortstops of the league with an average of .934. The year 1008 was McMillans test in tiie South. Though his rec ords were not a* good as the pre vious year (batting .217. fielding 918) Vat Donovan looked him over carefully white his Brooklyn team was training in th* South and In the fall he grabbed him. McMillan continued hls sensa tional fielding •in the National league and showed a mark of 914 In 105 games with Brooklyn. His b itting average, however, was but .212. The following year, 1910, McMil lan’s batting slumped and Brook lyn asked waivers on him. Cin cinnati claimed him. His batting mark for that season was onlv IS3. but his fielding was .921; and he ranked with such men as Sweenej, of Boston. I’htcher, of Nh'W York. Downey, of Cincinnati, ami Zimmerman, of Chicago. That year it was decided to send mm to the Eastern league. But Brooklyn wanted him for the Roch ester team while Clark Griffith, then with Cincinnati, wanted to send him to the r. e. ue of Bill Smith at Buffalo. After a big wrangle, in which Ebb. is was fined so: sending him to Ro. te -ter with out petting w.i.vers. Tommy fin . i op th< -•■ ison in th* Nation - .McMillan to Rochester in time for THE -\TL-\XTA GEOKGM.N AND NEWS, Tl ESDAY, SEPTEMBEK 3. 1912. him to play 24 games at shortstop. In Eastern league company Tommy fielded .901 and batted .279, This year McMillan got a grand start with Rochester. So brilliant was his work that Harry Wolver ton bought him a couple of weeks ago and he has joined the High landers. When he left the Inter national league he was batting .300 and was far and away the best shortstop in the organization. What McMillan will be able to accomplish In the American league te uncertain. If anything inter feres with his success, it will be hte alarming lack of size. Barring that, he has everything that goes to make a ball player. _— . .< :a-xn. ■• * A '' .UBk \ A vOFz// / VMHF \ \ ..>9 //// /// Hl \ i c \ > IL /#/ // I -w IKi / I jHft JW 1 1 z j / ■®F\ w 1 WIBFM jWFMtwnm •JI L X * f ' I t L \ & I'Z*, / K f ■ •I ■-rjfc > - i. ■ BHk' / z ‘ ™ -" ' • - ■y W-J ' /A z ’U //■■ iiiiflFTnr • ! ‘ "7 / c ' / / * '/ i / u 9./- uSr ■ //, ’ .: - wESF Jißlk / ■ iSKs / wAMHr// SPEARING A HIGH LINER. Here is another one of Percy 11. Whiting s sparkling stories on Georgia hoys who are mak ing good in baseball. Mr. Whiting witnessed McMillan in ateion while Little Ttmnny played with the Tech team, and in this story describes many sensational plats the wee one made while a member of the Yellow Jackets. RIOT WHEN MONTE ATTELL FOULS BENNIE CHAVIZ TRINIDAD. (’OLD . Sent, 3. Bennie Chaviz. of Trinidad, was awarded the de cision over Monte Vltel;. of San Fran dsco. on a foul, in the twelfth round of a gruelling tight here. Delivorj of the foul caused wild excite ment Spectators crowded into the ring and the platform collapsed, but no one was injured. HOUSTON CLUB LANDS TEXAS LEAGUE PENNANT I' ALLAS. TEX . Sept 3- The T. xas league of ended yesterday, with Houston in first place. San Antonio Fecund. Waco third <md I‘alias fourth. Houston gained the lead early in June nt. retained first position until the end. Aiislit; f.’nsrt d fifth. sixth. Fort Wurth titventh and Beaumont last. Here's Tom McMillan In a Yankee Uniform Here's How Crackers Are Hitting the Ball Right Up to Date These averages include yostetilay's dou ble bill Mi.lt Memphis: Players— G. AB. R H. AV. Price, p. 12 0 1 .509 Harbison ss . . 71 24S 2S 70 .282 Alperman. 2b.. 123 463 61 129 .279 Ballev. if 125 435 79 120 .276 Agler. lb(it 203 34 54 .266 Call ihan, efß-t 318 30 82 .258 Graham, e 60 185 17 45 .243 McF.lvei ri. 3b .. .130 470 52 111 .23C. Becker, p 15 35 2 7.200 Reynolds, <•22 68 11 14 .206 Wolfe, utility .. .. 16 42 5 7 I'l7 Brady, p 22 69 2 11 .159 Sitton, p 27 64 11 10 .156 Johnson, p 7 14 0 I 071 Waldorf, p. .. 10 25 0 1 040 The Big Race Here is the up-to-the-minute dope on hew the "Big Five” batters of the American league are hitting: PLAYER— A. B, H. Ayer. COBB . 467 1182 1.411 SPEAKER 491 195 .397 JACKSON 475 175 f .368 COLLINS 442 147 .333 LAJOIE 342 111 Tris Speaker lost five points yester day when he failed to get i single safe swat against the New Yo'<. pitchers in six times at bat. On the other hand. Ty Cobb gained a point by grabbing two hits in four times up. Jackson was up six times and garnered two safeties. Collins grabbed one hit in an even doz en chances. Lajoie hit .500 for the day. He was up six times and made three hits. Waldorf and Price Force Turtles Twice to Defeat •s’*4- 4*4 4*4 4*4 4*4 4*4 No, ’Tis No Falsehood! Crackers Did Win Two A T IRACLES are popularly IVI supposed to have gone out of fastiion. Occasionally we hear of psychic phenomena, but This shows Wee Tomrjy slamming; out a long bit to center. McMillan has been hitting veil since joining the New York team, and is lending off for the Hilltop crew. ; FODDER FOR FANS What credit Birmingham Is entitled to this year goes mostly to the pitchers. Thex won the games in the Gull-Baron series that stalled off Mike Finn’s rush and clinched the rag. ♦ • • No wonder the Pelicans are nowhere. George Rohe is their leading batter. • * • One reason why the proposed round the-world trip of the Giants is flickering is because McGraw wanted all the players who were to go to put up a big d- posit to guarantee the financial success of the af fair. This listens like a dirge to a ball player. • • ♦ <’y Morgan was rung in the other day mt an amateur team at Bryn Mawr. It was playing in one of these sassv sociotv leagues an<t when the real truth leaked out there was much nawsty talk ♦ * ♦ Jimmy Callahan is talking of taking his team to Hol Springs (Cal., not Ark..l for training r.ext sp-ing. They have sul phur water there and it is said to be great for what ails you. * * • They're having a new wing added to the Arlington hotel, at Marlin, Tex., for the special accommodation of the young pit -hers John M.Craw is rounding up. •lawn is sort of trying to corner the market. • • • The' report that Connie Mack would gixe f 10.000 for another pitcher as good a-- Bender seems incredible. 'Tennants follow new ball parks" is a big league hunch. In the big leagues lock at the Herl Sox this year. Pirates in 1909, the Athletics the year Shibe park was opened. 'lla- Giants landed the year the Brush stadium was renovated, in the S.> ithern A ' :.:a v.on a rag tnightv soon' after I’c.nce Del.e r. was open'd Bir mingham grabbed one after the new Rick wood was opened, and the Pelicans brought ore to their new park ♦ • • Moral let's have a new ball park. \\ c don t need one, but it might change they are rare and often not well authenticated. This being true, 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. yroni Lynn, comes the story that a ten-year-old boy batted a fly ball with s jwh force that it knocked over a tele graph pole. Either they have mighty weak poles or mighty strong liars up Lynn-way. <- • « Mike .'•’in on. the Pittsburg catcher, has made only two errors this year. i* » ♦ Hans V\ .igner has denied the report that he is <> retire after this year. ‘T’m too old to letarn any other business," said Ilans, when questioned, "and yet thev sa\ I’m not too old to plat baseball " • • * Clarke Griffith’s chase of the Red Sox this year reminds one that it Isn't his first fruitless attempt to overhaul the Bostonians. The famous pennant that Griff lost by a single wild pitch—the fa mous hurl of Jack Chesbro's—found a perntanent resting place at the Red Sox park. CAROLINA LEAGUE RAG IS WON BY ANDERSON CHARLOTTE, N. C„ Sept. 3—The Carolina association closed its fifth suc cessive season yesterday with Anderson winning the pennant. Winston-Salem and Charlotte club.; followed in order. Anderson’s percentage was .600; Win ston-Salem's. .573, and charlotte's, .570. Both Charlotte and Winston-Sa iem won morning and afternoon games from Anderson and Greensboro, re* ♦Hjectively. The Anderson team has been in the lead since May 25. but clinched the pen nant only a few days ago by defeating decisively Winston and Charlotte in the critical series. The race between Win ston and Charlotte for second place has been on for a month. games of a double-header here yes terday afternoon from Bernhard's Turtles. Th# scores were 3 to 1 and 4 to 1. It can b* 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 journeying 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 fine an exhibition of baseball as one would care to see. Crackers Played Like Champs. It wasn’t any especial disgrace for the Turtles to lose. They were up against pennant baseball. The Crackers were weakened by the ab sence from the game of their stead iest hitter. Whitey Aloerman. They used on the slab in the first game Rudolph Waldorf, who hasn't won a game since base hits were in vented, and in the second a new comer. Price. Both pitchers worked like de mons. Each allowed a scant four hits and it took everything in the Turtle shop to send one runner across in each game. Tn the first contest Bernhard slipped in hte angular and fre quently effective southpaw. Doc Newton. The doctor couldn't have labored more industriously if he had been operating on a million aire patient. Somehow all his pre script ions failed. He wasn’t regu hi'ly lambasted. But what hap pened to him was enough. Ferguson Was Dead Easy. In the second game Ferguson took the hurling assignment and it proved a tough one. The Crack- I ers biffed him vigorously, ami, what was worse, his slipport was punc tured. .Right off the reel things began to breaj< badly for the hurler. With Iwo tucked away, Harbison sin gled. Then he stole second. Gra ham struck out and the ball got by Seabough, just as one of Gra ham’s third s’.ilkes had sneaked . uy from Tonneman in the piv . >us game. Harbison went to third on the passed ball. Where upon Senhough picked up the pel l‘t ami hulled it over Bales’ head. Harbison started in on this punk peg. but Crandall fielded the wild throw imatly and threw to the plate. T,e ball was in Seabough's hands and he wo.ild have had Har bison by a mile if he had held It. Rut be didn’t. And the Cracker shortstop tallied. If it had been within the rules to give a player tv o errors on a play which allowed a runner to advance one base. Sea bough would have got them. In the next inning came a play wh.'ch made Pitcher Ferguson con sider himself a badly abused man. After he had allowed McElveen, Reynolds and Callahan to single, sroiing McElveen, and after Wolfe had fanned, Price, who was pitch ing for the Crackers, slipped a hook down between Bales and th» third sack. At least, that’s where Umpire Dan Pfenninger said it went. Reynolds and Callahan tal lied and the game was lost. Os 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 fensively they could only get through with one run. An Indian No Longer. Much of the Crackers' succes’ in the second game was due to the useful hurling of Pitcher Price. This man has been barnstorming this season with the Nebraska In dians, of which tribe he is not a bona fide member, being an Irish man by inheritance and an Ameri can by birth. As an Indian, he worked under the name of Schegs but having returned to civilization, he has resumed his own cog. He has had a bit of league experience in the South Michigan league. He hurled cleverly against Memphis, and if he can continue the spie d he showed, will be heard from, even if he is hooked up with a rather slow organization. BATTLING NELSON WINS FROM STEVE KETCHEL ST. JOSEPH, MO., Sept. B.—Battl.oT Nelson beat Steve Ketchel, of Chi' aF in fifteen rounds here. Nelson display 1 flashes of the old-time form that i 1 him famous. He worked both hands W’ ly to Ketchel’s body, and in return w pl ' many blows in the face. Ketchel floored in the eleventh round, but <a: •' up gamely. Ketchel had the better oft«” rounds and Nelson Os six. The were even. baseballl WEDNESDAY ATLANTA vs. MEMPHIS Ponce DeLeon Perk Game called 3:30.