Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1911 — PLANK GOING BACK TO FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PLANK GOING BACK TO FARM

Great Athletic Southpaw Says He Will Retire to Country Life at End of 1912 Season. The year 1912 will witness the retirement of Eddie Plank from baseball. At the close of the season two years hence the great southpaw, who has been a bulwark of strength for the Athletics since the American League invaded Philadelphia, will go

back to the farm and the simple life. This is the word of the big lefthander himself. On th,e way to the ground one day recently he and Jack Coombs were talking about the strain on a ball player. Both agreed that each season, with its worry, its strain, its physical Wear and its mental worry, took two years out of the life of every player each season. “Two more years,*’ s’ald Eddie—this year and next— - and back I go to the £arm to Stay there the rest of my life. I shall quit the game in 1912, and all that 1 ask is that I have two more good years.”

Eddie Plank.