Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1910 — HOFMAN WAS LONG ON BENCH [ARTICLE]

HOFMAN WAS LONG ON BENCH

Star Centerfielder of Chicago Nationals Was Many Years In Securing Permanent Job. Artie Hofman, who is one of the greatest mainstays of the Cubs, is Just about rooted in center field these days, excepting When he cuts in on the first base job, vice Frank Chance. You don’t hear any more of long Arthur as a bench warmer or as a utility man—he has to be in the game all the time, and there is an awful howl when he is disabled. And yet it took years for Hofman to gain this regular occupation. He was so classy as an all-’rOuad performer, so clever when placed on any one of the seven 3obs outside the battery, that Chance Wouldn’t work him regularly. Artie

had the distinction of being the best utility man living, but he wanted to be in the game all the Um% and yet Chance wouldn’t put him there. Chance maintained that Rabbit Slagle, with his ability to negotiate bases on balls as well as timely hits, would be the goods for the regular center fielder. But after Slagle passed and Hofman took up the regular work in center it was evident that he ought to have been there long before. He hit harder than Slagle, he made more runs, he covered much more ground with his long strides, and his throwing arm was infinitely better. In short, the Cubs had been keeping a star batsman and magical*fielder in utility roles for years, and never realized that they were neglecting an element of power. Queer how baseball works its ways, isn’t it?