Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1917 — ACQUIRES HABIT OF FINDING SHORTSTOPS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ACQUIRES HABIT OF FINDING SHORTSTOPS

Walter McCredie, m ana ger of the Portland coast league club, is ready to send another shortstop to the major leagues. Charley Hollocher, he declares, is ready and will stick just as surely as some of the others McCredie has turned up. McCredie has accumulated a habit of sending shortstops to the majors. Sprinkled around over both circuits is a smattering of former Beaver short fielders. Roger Peckinpaugh, now captain of the Yankees and gne of the smartest and cleverest- ball players in either league, was McCredie’s first donation of any importance. McCredie dispatched him to Cleveland, but he was dropped there because shortstops were too frequently scattered around the Cleveland park. But he went to New York and immediately made good. Ivan Olson was next. Ivan Isn’t a ■whale of a fielder or a demon with the

stick, but he is recognized as a smart ball player, one of the wise fellows who are Invaluable to a baseball club. Then there came Dave Bancroft, starring every day for the Phillies. It has been said of Bancroft that it was due to him that the Phillies won a pennant in 1905. Of course, everyone admits that Grover Cleveland Alexander had something to do with it, but the Phillies certainly would have looked funny without a shortstop. And Bancroft was the only one of a half-dozen recruits that year w’ho showed anything. ’’’Chuck Ward is this year’s contribution. McCredie calls him hard “ball hawk.” He never has a hard chance. He is one of the easiest-working infielders in the business. McCredie believes he will prove one of the stars of the National league in a very short time. He is making an attempt to fill Hans Wagner’s shoes at Pittsburgh.

SHORT FIELDERS UNEARTHED BY M’CREDIE.