Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1910 — TROUBLE IN GETTING START [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TROUBLE IN GETTING START

•heckard, Crack Outfielder of Chicago Cube, Overcame Many Difficulties at Beginning.

BY JAMES SHECKARD.

by Joseph B. Bowles.) Probably no ball player ever had any more trouble getting started as a professional than I did. Partly It wap my own fault and partly the fault of bad luck. In the first place a fellow usually gets his start at home. But I was the prophet without honor in Columbia, Pa., and had to go away from home to convince the fellows on our own town team that I could play the game. , I wrote the manager of a little team telling him how good 1 was and luckily for me he didn’t write home to ask about it, but sent for me. I think I made good there, pitching, catching and playing both in and outfield, but the trouble was the team failed just about the I was making, good and I had to start all over again. The next team I was with I-did not do so well. In fact I could not play much ball, because they wouldn’t play team work the way I had learned it. In fact I have found in my own experience and in the experience of other old players that a map. may be a great ball player with one club and a dub wijjh another. I was with five teams in one season, and the three with which I played the best ball broke up and closed because of financial losses, while. the prosperous one could not see me. I was learning a lot in a little time, for I had the chance to see five different styles of ball playing and to judge for myself Which was best. ,It was then I began to succeed. I jumped into the Eastern league and before I had time to learn much about that organization and its clubs I was grabbed up into the National. I seemed just to be what the Brooklyn team

needed. I had found a team I fitted—but when the war came on with the American league the fit was too tight. I jumped to Baltimore, found I didn't fit at all In that crowd and jumped back. Then Chance made a trade for me and I found a team with which I could play my best. It played my kind of ball and I played its kind of ball. Also I saw as soon as I joined the team that in spite of my long experience I still had a lot to learn. That aroused me and started me again. I found I had slipped back and rather fallen Into a rut, and the Cubs kicked me out of the rut In a few days and never gave mej chance to fall back In. I count my start from the day I came to Chicago—and .am going to date my birthdays from that time—so I* can always be a youngster.

Jimmy Sheckard.