Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1910 — JUMP STARTED “ART" HOFMAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JUMP STARTED “ART" HOFMAN

Started In Baseball to Reach Seme Other Profitable Business— George Huff Found Him. By ARTHUR HOFMAN. I always played ball for the pleasure of it until I sqw that there was a chance for me to get Into fast company and make a better salary than I could as a bank clerk. Also I decided early In my career that baseball was the best means for me to reach some other profitable business. I started playing ball with my brothers and the neighbor boys around St Louis and joined a semi-professional team before I was sixteen. Tbat led me to a Job In a bank, which maintained a baseball team. I noticed that 1 received more attention and was more thought of because I was a good ball player and decided to become a better one. I bad no idea of devoting all my time to the game. 1 played' Saturdays, Sundays and holidays and worked In the bank the rest of tbs time. I got Into the Trolley league and played good ball, but never had an Idea of becoming a big leaguer. I was getting $lO a game for play* Ing, with a proviso that. If weather did not permit the game to be played, I got nothing. One day we were playing in East St Louis and the river rose suddenly and swamped the ground. I wanted the $lO and claimed the weather did not prevent the game because the sun was shining. The .management kicked and I jumped. It whs that Jump which made me in baseball. I went to Alton and there was discovered. Pittsburg got me, but they put me on the bench and I never

was a good bench player. Pittsburg never gave me a chance but sent me back to the minors and finally George Huff found me and brought me to Chicago. ’There I had a lot of trouble until Selee left the team. That shows how lucky a player may be. If Salee had stayed with the team I probably never would have been heard from. He did not think 1 could play ball and wanted to let me go. Chance, however, had confidence to me and I think Chance’s confidence did more to make me a ball player than anything else. I felt that he was risking his own reputation on me and wanted to make good for him as well as for myself. It is that confidence, one to another, that has helped make the Cubs a great ball club. A young player Just starting to the business should think first whether he fits into a team and is to sympathy with It, and seek a berth with some club he likes and feels will like him. • ‘

“Art" Hofman.