Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 237, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1910 — STORY OF “TOPSY” HARTSEL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORY OF “TOPSY” HARTSEL

Veteran Outfielder of Philadelphia Athletics Was Handicaped at —- Start Because of Size. By "Topsy” Hartsxl. It took me a long time to get started right in baseball, but only a minute to start. The greatest handicap I bad Vhen I was trying to get started was my size. You see down at Polk, 0., they thought I was a great player and we had an old player there who taught me to play the game. I began playing before I was ten years old, and was on the high school and town teams when I was fifteen. I was five feet four Inches tall and weighed then about 125 pounds. I played around with the teams in our section of the country, and was determined to become a professional player. We had few chances to learn much, and when I finally got a job with the Burlington, la., club in 1897, I must have been as green a “busher” as there was. I was fast, but in that league they seemed to think 1 was too small to play, and I went to Montgomery, then to Salem, Ohio, and finally reached Grand Rapids, Mich. It was there I really started. The Grand Rapids team then was a sort of farm for big league clubs and a bunch of experienced and really good players were there. I learned rapidly then, and began to see where I was shy.—l found I had been making mistakes and mispla!ying the game in many ways and still thinking I was doing it right because no one ever had told me how I should do. Louisville took me from Grand Rapids, then Indian;, apolis got me, and finally I landed with the Chicago National league team. I think I played better ball there than I ever did. Besides I had learned a whole lot about batting and had a good opportunity to study pitchers It was at Chicago that I had my best hitting year, and my best base running, seasons, and I attribute all my success there to the study of the opposing pitchers. A base runner especially ought to be familiar with every trick and move of every op-

posing pitcher. I found that oat when I went into the American league in 1902 with the Athletics. Many of the pitchers were new to me and I made many breaks in base running before I learned their styles and their tricks. I had to begin all over again to study them, and it did me more good than before, because of the experience in the National league. Experience and close study of-the game and the men who play it are necessary to success, and if there is any lesson in my experience in getting started that may be of value to new men it is that any man no matter how goqp, must think and study all the time. The starting is easy, for players are in demand—but the finish is quick unless the player is willing to work and learn.

(“Topsy”) Hartsel.