Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1914 — WORK OF BASEBALL SCOUTS [ARTICLE]

WORK OF BASEBALL SCOUTS

Interesting Feature of Wonderful De-' velopment of Game as Commercial and Sporting Institution.

Few people realize the amount of hard work which is put in on behalf of big league baseball clubs for the purpose of locating and developing new talent. Every year the big clubs have baseball scouts scouring the country, some of whose journeyings take them a mileage sufficient to encircle the globe every year. They travel from Maine to California and back again, ofttimes, the slightest report of a good thing being followed up with the utmost possible speed; These scouts generally are old time players and they have a appreciation of what is necessary to make a big league player; and yet, at that, they are frequently fooled. Indeed, the getting of a phenomenon is largely a matter of luck after all. Some of the keenest scouts in the country have turned down some of the most wonderful players, while scouts of mediocre ability have turned up world renowned baseball artists.

The system appears to be necessary. Baseball clubs keep scouts going on the same theory that nations maintain and. equip a standing army. They do it because the other fellow does and so scouting has come to be as much a part of baseball equipment as anything else. Whether it paye or not is another question. It certainly is an interesting feature of the wonderful devlopment of baseball as a commercial as well as a sporting institution.