Out of the lineup . . .

BASEBALL STARS

DUE TO REMAIN IN

ARMY LONG TIME

—

The war department has smitten the big league another blow, though not one which will prove serious excepting on the percentage columns of three or four clubs. It has been announced at Washington that the Eighty-ninth division can not be demobilized till late in June—and in the Eighty-ninth are Grover Alexander of the Cubs, Chuck Ward and Clarence Mitchell of the Brooklyns, Wynn Noyes of the Athletics, Otis Lambeth of the Clevelands and about 10 other major leaguers!

If Alexander can not report to the Cubs till July 1 that team will have to fight tooth and nail to keep near the top. If Ward and Mitchell are kept away from Brooklyn, Robinson’s men will have a hard time to make good at the .500 mark. Lambeth is a big factor with Cleveland. Noyes was greatly desired by Connie Mack.

Pittsburgh Press, March 4, 1919.

Poem of peace . . .

WHO SAYS IT?

Slogging through the mud of France,


   Camping in the rain;

Hiking in a frozen trance


   Down some German plain;

“Fall in!”—hear the sergeant yell,


   Far from home and clover;

Tell me, who the bally hell


   Said the war “was over?”


Chow for breakfast—slum for noon—


   Who says men are free


While the bugler’s foolish tune


   Pipes the reveille?


“Right dress!”—hear the sergeant buzz


   From Mainz across to Dover;


Tell me who the hell it wuz


   Said the war “was over?”


Cleaning up a mass of wire,


   Stained with clotted blood


Where the big trucks bog and mire


   In the winter mud;


Full of filth and fleas and fuzz—


   Cannoneer and drover,


Tell me who the fat-head wuz


   Said the war “was over?”


— Grantland Rice.

Colville (Wash.) Examiner, March 1, 1919.

Caddy comes home . . .

CADORE, DODGER HERO,

RETURNS FROM FRANCE

Lieutenant Leon Cadore, star pitcher of the Brooklyn Nationals, returned recently from France after having been in some of the heaviest its fighting there. Cadore is the first big league player who actually saw service in the trenches to return here. Cadore, who was with the Three Hundred and Sixty-ninth Infantry, which was cited for bravery on the battlefield, tells of a close call he had with a hand grenade. “Several times I thought it was all over with me. One day, while resting in a trench, a hand grenade dropped at my feet. But luckily it failed to explode.”

Corning (NY) Leader, February 27, 1919.

Hank and Johnny . . .

THE LAWMAKERS WILL

LISTEN TO HANK GOWDY

—

ALBANY, Feb. 23.—Sergeant Henry Gowdy, favorably known as “Lank Hank” of the A. E. F., and Johnny Evers, Knights of Columbus, both former members of the Boston Braves, are to head a contingent of baseball heroes recently back from France, who will appear before the codes committees of the Senate and Assembly on March 5 in support of the Walker-Malone bill permitting baseball games on Sunday. Capt. Christy Mathewson and other stars also are expected to be here on that day.

“The biggest men in the game will be on hand to ask for Sunday baseball,” said Assemblyman Malone today.

“The demand for it is so widespread this year that I cannot see how the Legislature can ignore their appeals.”

Governor Smith will approve the measure if it comes to him.

Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard, February 23, 1919.

'Big Six' home . . .

“FRENCH POOR

BALL PLAYERS”

SAYS MATTY

—

RETURNED MANAGER OF THE

CINCINNATI REDS ARRIVES

IN LEWISBURG FRIDAY.

—

CAPTAIN IN GAS DIVISION

WITH FAMOUS 28TH

—

Does Not Believe that International Baseball

Will Come for a Long Time, Even

Though League of Nations is a Fact.

—

Captain Christy Mathewson ex-’02, of the gas and flame division of the United States Army arrived in Lewisburg Friday night, having just returned from France where he has been in active service for the past five months. Captain Mathewson arrived in New York last Monday coming from the other side on the Rotterdam. Captain Mathewson although in France for several months did not get into any real fighting, but saw considerable of the battlefields. Three days before the armistice was signed he was ordered to join the 28th, “The Iron Division,” and he reached them as they were in the front line trenches on the day that the war was over.

In speaking of experiences encountered while in France “Christy” said that he probably saw more of the war than a great many officers who were actually in the fighting, as they were confined to one sector while he as a gas officer covered a great amount of territory. “Conditions at the close of the war were very favorable, with very little complaining on the part of the men as to food and clothing,” he states. He ran across one group of men who were on guard who did not have sufficient food, but said that the matter was quickly and effectively remedied.

“Most of the gas was used by the artillery and the shells containing it were thrown from artillery guns,” he said. An especially effective gas said Capt. Mathewson, “is one that places of concealment of enemy guns. [sic] In that case it would burn thru houses, fences or brush coverings of the guns.”

When asked if he was going back into baseball, Matty replied that he had not formulated any plans as to the future yet, but Philadelphia papers stated this past week that the former “Big Six” idiols [sic] of the New York fans would consider an offer from McGraw of the New York Giants as coach, even though Hal Chase, who was acquitted of the charges made against him last summer is going to play first base with the Giants this season.

Captain Mathewson received his discharge papers from the United States Army last Friday and is free to go south to the training camps should he get a position as coach.

“For a long time said Matty, [sic] international baseball will not come, even though the League of Nations is a success.” He said that the Frenchmen will never make good ball players as they are afraid of the ball. “Their infield work is not very good,” explained the former leader of the Reds “and they don’t seem to be able to bat well. One thing, however that they do well is running. I do not think that in all France a capable catcher is to be found. Every time a Frenchman gets behind the bat he wants to retreat about ten paces, erect a barb-wire entanglement, dig himself a dugout and crawl into it. They are all afraid of being hit by the ball. One day I saw two Americans playing catch in the street, there was plenty of room for the Frenchmen to pass behind the man with the catcher’s mit, [sic] but not one of them would go by. After a while the men had to stop playing for traffic on the street was blocked.”

While in college Christy was more known as a football player than a baseball player, although he played baseball during the years that he was here. Professor Thomas, registrar of the University an old Bucknell athlete, in talking recently said that he never saw a man who could kick a football with more accuracy and for so great a distance as Mathewson. He also was one of the best drop kickers that the University ever had.

While in training camp at Chaumont, Captain Mathewson was in the company with Major Branch Rickey, of the Cardinals, and Captain Ty Cobb. He played in a few games and even tried out his arm. He appears to be in excellent physical condition.

Captain Mathewson is a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at Bucknell.

Bucknell alumni newspaper, circa February 1919.

More than half . . .

Host of Big Leaguers

In Uncle Sam's Service ...

—

By Shortstop.

Professional baseball had to stand for some pretty hard knocks during the war, some of it deserved, but much more of it undeserved. Statistics issued by both the National and American leagues during the winter showed that when the armistice was signed more than half of the major league players were in the armed service of the republic and the rest were engaged in essential employment.

It is questionable if any other business could have shown as high a percentage of men in the army and navy as baseball. It is true, however, that many of these men did not get into the war until the last few months: also that the great majority of soldiers in the army were drafted men. In view of the fact that Gen. March recently issued statistics showing that two-thirds of the men in the army at the end of hostilities were drafted men, this was not an unusual condition.

Had baseball been able to point to more players like Hank Gowdy, who jumped into the fray from the drop of the hat, it would have made baseball's total in the war stand out more conspicuously, and would have neutralized the stigma placed on the game by a handful of players who joined shipyards last spring to avoid military service. Yet subsequent statistics show that even these shipyard jumpers, who did not have legitimate claims of exemption, all were mustered into service.

As for players with families ... who left their teams last summer to join shipyards or steel plants, they merely forestalled the “work or fight” order. ...

New York Sun, February 9, 1919.

Okay for Joe . . .

Major Kolnitz

Former Player

Defends Jackson

—

Claims White Sox Baseball

Star Entitled to Exemption

—

UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED

ARMY MAN CONTENDS

—

CHICAGO, February 6.—Major Alfred H. von Kolnitz, former White Sox infielder, who volunteered and rose to a higher rank in the United States army than any other baseball player, writes from Camp Gordon, Georgia, shedding a flood of light on the Joe Jackson controversy. Although a volunteer Major Kolnitz takes exception to the arguments of those panning players for going into the shipyards or other essential employment.

It is the contention of this officer, who was among the popular ball players of the big leagues that Jackson has been unjustly assailed. Just because Joe is a star player he is a shining target for character assaulting machine gunners, thinks this army officer.

“You will no doubt be surprised to hear from me” wrote Major von Kolnitz to George S. Robbins a local baseball man, “and I will admit that, for the past year and a half most of my correspondence has been of the official type, but I was so interested in one of your recent articles that I determined to drop you a line. I refer to the part of your article that had to do with Joe Jackson.

Tells Of Joe's Affairs.

“It is a pleasure to read an article by a man who is evidently not afraid to speak his mind and I certainly agree with you in your stand. I have known Joe for a long time. Just how long I can’t say, but it was long before he was ever known in major league baseball. I know his circumstances and I know the struggle he has had to attain the place he now occupies in baseball. I am aware of the dependence upon him of his mother, her two minor children and his wife.

“During the draft period, I will venture, there were thousands of men walking the streets in civilian clothes with exemption papers in their pockets with far less claims than Joe. I know that Joe lost practically all of his savings a few years ago in an unlucky investment. He is dependent upon his salary for the support of his family.

“It has always been a puzzle to me why Joe was picked out of the hundreds of shipyard workers and persecuted. You know and I know the main reason. He was a star in his profession and the small mindedness of some people makes them delight in blaming any one high up when they can criticise.

“The term ‘patriotic American’ embraces a multitude of occupations. Because a man chose to do his bit in a shipyard makes him not one whit less patriotic than the doughboy who swings the bayonet. We needed the shipyards workers as much as we needed ‘Doe boys.’ With the whole country plastered with posters with every newspaper voicing the cry for more men to build ships where was there any question of evading a patriotic duty far as Joe was concerned?

Would Have Been Exempted.

“I have been in a camp where there were at least 12,000 draftees coming in monthly. I am fairly familiar with the personnel of our National army forces, and within the limit of my observation there have been no men drafted who had the family claims that Joe did. I have seen men [discharged] after having been drafted if they proved valid dependency claims and the dependency was never any greater than a mother or wife and children.

“As a 100 per cent American Joe has always stood four square in my opinion and my only motive in writing this is to give the impression of a man in the service who knows Joe Jackson probably better than any other man.”

Major von Kolnitz says he expects to remain in the army indefinitely, but while there will keep close tab on the pennant race in the American and National leagues.

New Castle (PA) News, February 6, 1919.

'Big Serb' writes . . .

MILJUS IS YEARNING

FOR NATIONAL GAME

By Thomas S. Rice.

. . . John went into the Army last summer, and, like Chuck Ward, Clarence Mitchell and Grover Cleveland Alexander, he got astonishingly quick action in the matter of going abroad. He hadn't learned the difference between a major general and a sergeant major before he was bound for France. Seemed like Gen. Pershing just had to have those ball players if he was going to help win the war, and he had his way about it, as he usually does. It is to be hoped that he will not feel that they are absolutely necessary for the winning of peace, which winning seems to be causing considerable difficulty.

—

LETTER FROM JOHN MILJUS.

John Miljus is brought to mind by the arrival of a letter he wrote to Secretary Charles H. Ebbets Jr. of the Brooklyn National League Club, of which John is a sun-burned slave. Maybe he is a frost-bitten slave by this time, if the soldiers on the other side are having the experience this winter they had last. John is now a corporal. His letter is short and painfully lacking in details, but here it is:

Headquarters Co., 320th Inf., A. E. F., France.

Dear Mr. Ebbets—Just to drop you a few lines to let you know that I am in good health. Am glad this bloody war is over because I have seen enough of it. Haven’t any idea how long we will be kept here.

Hoping you are in the best of health and best wishes to the Messrs. McKeevers, I am, Sincerely yours, CORP. JOHN MILJUS.

—

MILJUS PITCHED A NO-HIT GAME.

Less has been heard of Miljus than about the other Brooklyn players who went abroad. About the only item of consequence from him was the pleasing news that he had pitched a no-hit game, last summer for his regimental team against some other team. . . .

Brooklyn Eagle, February 4, 1919.