Duffy on board . . .

TEACHING ENLISTED MEN FINE POINTS

OF NATIONAL GAME AT MARE ISLAND

The photograph shows “Duffy” Lewis, greatest of world’s series heroes of the Boston Red Sox, in his uniform as a yeoman in the United States navy teaching the enlisted men the liner points of the national game.

The commandant at Mare Island is a great booster and a program of sports is planned for the holiday season, among them a baseball game at Recreation park. Lewis has his heart set on winning this game.

Chicago Eagle, May 18, 1918.

No sympathy . . .

BAN JOHNSON OPPOSES PLAYERS’ PLAN

FOR ESCAPING DUTY UNDER DRAFT LAW

By Louis A. Boucher.

Ban Johnson has absolutely no sympathy for the big leaguer is search of a “bombproof” job and doesn’t hesitate long in saying so. He says that they “should be yanked into the army by the coat collar.”

Furthermore, those big leaguers who have hopped into shipyards, thinking to play ball and escape military service, are in for further enlightenment. It is now announced that they cannot escape military duty merely by entering the employment of a shipbuilding company or a munitions plant.

“The American League has lost more than seventy players in the draft and through enlistment,” says Ban Johnson, “and expects to lose more, but it does not approve of players trying to evade military service. Some of them have apparently been badly advised.

“The American League does not desire to impugn the motives of the players who have gone into this work. Some of them are patriotic. But if there are any of them in class 1-A, I hope Provost Marshal General Crowder yanks them from the shipyards and steel works by the coat collar, and places them in cantonments to prepare for future events on the western front.” ... 

Washington Times, May 17, 1918.

One gone, one not . . .

Durning Joins the Navy.

Dick Durning, southpaw, left the Superbas yesterday afternoon to report to the Naval Reserves in Boston today. He said he had not expected the call to arms until the middle of June. . . .

Fred Toney is pitching for the Reds because the jury which tried him on a charge of attempting to evade the draft disagreed. There were two sides to Toney’s case. That is made clear by talking to people here familiar with all the facts, as most of the Cincinnati fans seem to be, and his trials and tribulations with the Government authorities have not been held against him.

Brooklyn Eagle, May 13, 1918.

Buffs win big . . .

UPTON “BUFFALO” NINE WINS.

—

In their first baseball game, played at Harrison, N. J., yesterday, the 367th Infantry, of Camp Upton, the negro regiment known as the “Buffalos,” defeated the nine from the Army Medical Supply Department by a score of 18 to 1. Treadwell, for the winners, fanned fifteen batsmen.

New York Herald, May 12, 1918.

Ace signs up . . .

Earl Hamilton, on Eve of Joining Navy, Halts Giants …

—

GIANTS’ STRING OF VICTORIES BROKEN

—

Hamilton, in Final Game Prior to

Joining Colors, Beats Champions, 4 to 2.

Special Despatch to The Sun.

PITTSBURG, May 10. — The Giants in their runaway race for the pennant of the National League were checked here today by the Pirates, who won a close and exciting contest by a score of 4 to 2.  It was the second defeat of the leaders in the race since the season began, and it was the second time the New Yorkers have been halted in their flight after registering nine successive victories.

It was Larry Cheney of Brooklyn who inflicted the first defeat on the Giants, and it was Earl Hamilton, whose return to top pitching form has been the sensation of the league, who recorded the second defeat against the Polo Grounds experts.

Hamilton, who held the Giants to four scattered hits, won his sixth successive game of the season and has scored six of the ten victories credited to the Pittsburg team.

The game this afternoon was the last one Hamilton will pitch in any league until the conclusion of the war, for the great hurler has enlisted in the navy and will leave to-morrow for the Mare Island Navy Yard at San Francisco to report for duty.

Says Farewell to Mates.

Therefore, the gratification of the fans over the fine work of the pitcher was tempered by the knowledge that he was lost to the team at a time when he was doing wonders on the mound and keeping the Pirates well up in the race. At the close of the game Hamilton said farewell to his teammates and retired from the club. …

New York Sun, May 11, 1918.

Honor for Honus . . .

Live Tips and Topics

By “Sportsman”

Honus Wagner got into a Pittsburg [sic] baseball uniform Saturday but not to play baseball. He was in the big Pittsburg parade to boost the Liberty Loan, and he received an ovation all along the route. The people will not soon forget this great idol of the fans.

Boston Globe, May 10, 1918.

Private Alexander . . .

STILL ONE OF THE BIG GUNS

ALEXANDER IN SOLDIER UNIFORM

Grover Alexander was received with all the honors and acclaim when he enrolled as a draftee at Camp Funston that his fame entitled him to and there was as much competition by the various military division [sic] to secure him as if he had been a new type of machine gun or the latest invention in long range cannon. The artillery was successful in landing him, it seems, not because Alex himself had any particular choice, but the artillery at Funston happened to have the best ball team in camp and an addition like the One and Only Alex was calculated to make it even more famous. Grover was assigned to the 342d Field Artillery, which already had the pick of soldier athletes, and it is announced he probably will be assigned to clerical work to save his strength for athletics. Though there has been some criticism of the favors shown ball players in military service, it is not likely any one will raise a protest at this concession made Alexander, for the stigma of “slacker” can not be applied to him. He went to the Army camp ready to take his chances. That he should land in a favored position was inevitable and consistent with the principle that the government believes for the best interest of the military service, the principle laid down by General Wood when he said: “Men must be taught to play before they can fight efficiently.” Here is the first picture of Alexander in his new uniform, unpacking his kit and apparently happy. He’s violating “training rules” by smoking a cigaret [sic], a thing by the way that soldier boys long since discovered isn’t as evil as some good people tried to make out.

Sporting News, May 9, 1918.

Six ship out . . .

BASEBALL STARS

IN NAVY RECEIVE

SEA DUTY ORDER

—

Maranville and Five Others at

Charlestown Yard Instructed to

Report at Enrolling Office.

—

HAD ARRANGED MANY GAMES

IN THE EAST.

—

[SPECIAL TO THE EVENING TELEGRAM.]

BOSTON, Mass., Wednesday—Walter Maranville, formerly crack shortstop of the Boston National League Club, and five other players in service at the Charlestown Navy Yard, were ordered to-day to report immediately to the enrolling office for further orders, which means they probably will be assigned to duty at sea. With McNally, Pennock, Witt, Callahan and Gainor, major league players, Maranville formed a navy yard team which already had arranged a number of games with army and navy organizations in the East.

Heretofore the men had been under the jurisdiction of the commandant of the Navy Yard, but the orders to-day put them under Rear Admiral Spencer S. Wood, in charge of naval operations in this district.

New York Telegram, May 8, 1918.

Needling the pitcher . . .

SOLDIERS SCORE 8

RUNS ON DODGERS

—

Camp Upton Players Shell

Plitt in Seventh—Robins

Win, 15 to 8.

—

Special Despatch to The Sun.

CAMP UPTON, May 6.—Instead of putting in an afternoon at the Harrison Ball Park near Newark in a game with the Philadelphia Nationals to-day, Uncle Wllbert Robinson’s Dodgers made a trip to this camp for the purpose of inspecting the future home of several of their members who expect to be called in the next draft and incidentally to show the soldier boys how big leaguers play ball.

About 7,000 khaki clad boys watched the exhibition, in which the Dodgers had as their opponents the 152d Depot Brigade. The National Leaguers won by a score of 15 to 8.

Uncle Robbie selected Plitt, who expects to be notified to report to camp in the next draft contingent, to pitch against the soldiers, while Carlson, former Federal leaguer, took the mound for the Brigade nine.

Brooklyn took an early lead, the score at the end of the seventh inning being 15 to 0 in favor of the Dodgers. In the seventh the soldier players and spectators started “kidding” Plitt about the needle and other terrors that he would have to face when he joins Uncle Sam’s ranks, and this seemed to upset him to such an extent that he was batted all over the field. His loss of control, coupled with a comedy of errors, enabled the soldiers to score eight runs in that frame. . . .

New York Sun, May 6, 1918.

A-1 baseball . . .

BASEBALL FAN

SHOULD ENLIST;

PLENTY OF SPORT

—

Two or Three Hundred Teams

In Every Cantonment in

United States.

—

THE WORK IMPROVES HITTING

—

By Sol Metzger.

The baseball fan, the rabid, dyed-in-the-wool variety should make rapid tracks to the nearest recruiting office of Uncle Sam and join the army. He is losing a golden opportunity watching the home team play its home games. Were he in service in a big camp he would such a fill of baseball as he never hopes to witness this side of the Happy Hunting Grounds for there are more nines playing in a large camp today than in all the leagues combined.

The average cantonment of 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers boats [sic] of two, three or four hundred nines, most of them organized and competing in league races of one variety or another, the results of the various games being a matter of as keen interest to the various organizations in each particular league as was ever a World Series to the supporters of the two contending clubs. If some baseball statistician would get busy in an army camp today and keep figures on the number of games played per month, the results would look like the grand total of a Liberty Loan subscription.

Last fall Camp Sherman had over one hundred football teams that played over five hundred games. Now, when you compare football to baseball, that is the number of games possible per month in either sport, you begin to stack up against some interesting dope. I would wager that in one camp, where I am writing this article that today no less than fifty baseball games were played. I would also wager that in addition over two thousand soldiers who did not play in those games got a pile of fun out of playing catch or batting the ball around.

The amazing thing about the games played is that the players are top-notchers at the game. Division teams have batting orders that would make an A-l big league pitcher tremble at the sight of, more than he would at a neat little notice from a certain gentleman back home to the effect that he was in an entirely new kind of draft which also labelled him A-l.

These batting orders can bat, too. An artillery lieutenant told me a story about that part of it. Another artillery regiment sent him a challenge yesterday to play today. His candidates had been too busy with army work to have had any practice but he got a nine together and staged the game.

“Did we lick them?” the lieutenant repeated my question. “You bet we did—33-8. I had an old leaguer on first and he banged out four homers four times up.”

“Whatta you giving me?” I said.

“Well you don’t have to believe it but these fellows are in better shape for batting than ever before. Their range work, their regular life and their fine condition have all combined to make batting easy meat for them. They can see straight and clear and they have the wallop with them.

“And you you [sic] know?” he wound up by saying, “I didn’t think our regiment would have much of a team. But watch them from now on.”

The big problem in baseball in the army is equipment. Next to that is the ground to play on. Friends back home can help a whole lot in sending Bill a glove or a bat or several good balls. True, the civilian organizations are doing a big job in getting equipment and the various organizations are going into the thing themselves but the whole combined leaves the men short of what is absolutely necessary if they are to have all the sport possible “over here” and “over there.” Come across, Mr. Fan, and help the boys who are making it possible for you to enjoy the ball games back home with a little donation of baseball material. They have a mighty grim job ahead and it pays to keep them happy while they are on this big and important job.

The odd sight in army baseball is the foreign born enlisted man learning the game. When he attempts to catch a ball he looks like a man with what the doctors call tracoma neurosis, whatever that may be. Anyhow, he makes certain that his body is not in line with the course of the ball; hence he does some rather quick side-stepping and takes the throw with arms extended to one side, very much like a first baseman has to take a wild throw to one side or the other of the initial bag. The biggest joke of all to the native born American is to see this naturalized type handle a grounder. His scheme of stopping one at the start is to stamp it down. Eventually—but not at first numerically speaking— he gets the swing of things and likes it.

Waterloo (IA) Times-Tribune, May 5, 1918.