Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1917 — "OLD GEORGE” GIBSON IS SHOWING UP YOUNGSTERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

"OLD GEORGE” GIBSON IS SHOWING UP YOUNGSTERS

Veteran Pittsburgh Backstop Signed by McGraw as Coach, Refuses _ . to Become a "Hasbeen.” T/iey call him Old George Gibson. He Is old as age is judged tn baseball. He is just past thirty-five. When after that more than a decade of service behind the bat the Pittsburgh dub gave him his unconditional release last year, John Joseph McGraw signed him for the Giants. McGraw signed him to act as coach for his younfe pitchers. A big man, standing’ well over six feet; Gibson took-on-weight--as the -years went by in Pittsburgh, and last season was slow and. fat. McGraw figured him as a coach rather than a catcher. Now

it looks as if Gibson will take part In many a game this summer at the Polo Grounds. He is no longer slow and fat. He is just at the weight he carried a few years back when he did so much to win a penpant for the Pirates. Conditions in Pittsburgh doubtless had a lot to do with the falling-off in Gibson’s work in 1915 and 1916. The Pirates were a bad club those years and, without anything in particular to spur him on, the veteran naturally fell Into careless ways. Playing with New York, Gibson sees a chance to be with another pennant winner. He was a great player just a few years back. Naturally he would not relish being merely a coach of pitchers on a club that looms up as one of the greatest machines the game has known. Hence his rejuvenation. The old adage that they never come back in the world of sport holds good over most of the trail. Now and then there crops up an exception, just to prove the soundness of the rule. Such an exception is George Gibson, bld George, catcher of the Giants.

George Gibson.