Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1912 — TROUBLES OF A STAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TROUBLES OF A STAR

Not Such a Cinch as It Would r Appear on Paper. Why Detroit Tigers, Wild Fighting, Team of American League, Are Pennant Winners Known as “Basket of Crags." ; "Did you ever stop to think why Detroit, the wild fighting team of the American league, three-times pennant winner, |s known among ball play* ers as a ‘basket of crags’? sAys. Edward Lyell Fox, in the Outing magazine. “At the beginning of 1907 they were a genial, happy-go-lucky crew; now they’re testy. At that time Detroit was a team of newly born stars. For some reason they had never forged their way into the thick of the pennant fight, into the strain of mind and body. They were content to ramble along, playing in flashes, hitting some days in a way to break up any game, only to drop back Into the old lackadaisical ways. Then Jennings, their shrewd manager, solved the problem and by his own Inimitable personality brought a fighting spirit to each of them. The result was that for three consecutive years Detroit rushed through the American league, carrying off the pennant in gruelling , races. “They played like madmen, always fighting until the last chance was gone. No point was trivial enough for them to yield without the bitterest opposition. “Then they fell —fell as hard as they had battled four racking seasons In a row —and Philadelphia beat them down. .And by this time the metamorphosis from the free and easy players of 1906 to the red Tigers 0f... 1910 had been completed. Day after day the strain had Increased and set deeper into the stars. .Even the bestnatured of them began ' to find fault with trivial things. “Once big-hearted Sam Crawford 1 flew into a rage at something said by Cobb. 'Delahanty, another star, became provoked at the least Instance. Bush, Moriarty, Jones, Mullin, 1 Donovan were ready to quarrel, rave, even fight without provocation. All of them were stars and paying the price, “ ‘But,’ you may say, ‘these men are paid wonderful salaries for undergoing the strain.’ “Let us see: “Cobb, we are told, draws $9,000 a year from Detroit. Marquard may get $5,000 from New York; Walsh receives

SS,OOO from Chicago; Lajole, $7,000 from Cleveland; Mathewson $7,500 from New York. i “Consider, , too, that the average salary of the major league player is slr 500 And that the usual term ot usefulness in the' American or National is eight years. Three of these years are consumed In becoming a star, a ,low salary accompanying the developing process. Then come, say six years with a star’s salary, and then, toe zenith passed, the slow retrogression with the pay envelope keeping pace. So, as a rule, a star’s average salary for the time he is in major league baseball is about half that which he receives when the sporting pages are carrying his name.

Manager Hugh Jennings.