Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 189, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1919 — LAST OF OLD GUARD IS ABOUT THROUGH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LAST OF OLD GUARD IS ABOUT THROUGH

“Cotton Top” Turner Not Playina - This Seasoii. Terry Was Considered Fixture OH Cleveland Team for Fifteen Years —Has Had Brilliant Career With the Indians. Another familiar old face has passed from the big league. Or should we say an old familiar shock of cotton hued hair? For we refer to old Terry “Cotton Top” Turner, Who for 15 years was a fixture on the Cleveland.. Amerlcan league team. No more famous crop of hair was worn in the big leagues than the crop that adorned Terry as he dug them up in deep short or raced up the* third base line to gobble up slow-hit grounders. Turner, who has been given his unconditional release, really is the last of the old guard to go. The last few years have seen the passage of the entire group of stars who shone so brilliantly in the late ’9o’s and the early years of the present- century— Lajoie, Wallace, Leach, Crawford, Plank, Evers, Bender, end now Turner. It is true that Turner was a considerably younger man than the other men referred to. Turner is only thir-ty-seven. Lajoie had been playing big league ball seven years, before Terry won a regular berth with the old Cleveland Naps in 1904. But in the average fan’s mind Turner is associated with these older fellows, and fans got to such a stage that last year they were calling Terry “Old Grandpop.” It seemed as though Turner had been with the Cleveland team for a century. As a matter of fact, Terry originally started his big league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1901. But the Pirates were champions in those days, and Turner, then only nineteen,, had little chance to break into the game. Turner, at the time, was a first

baseman, as he played first base for Greenville in the Interstate league In 1900. In 1902 the Pirates released the littie fellow to Columbus in the American association. He played there two years and won fame as a third baseman. Cleveland needed no third basemen, as Bill Bradley, then in his prime, was guarding third base for the team. However, a place was found for Terry at short between the famous stars, Bradley and Lajoie, and it wasn’t long before Terry’s fielding was on a par with that of this illustrious pair. Turner played shortstop for Cleveland until 1910 when he was shifted over to third base, where he continued to play fine ball. In recent years Turner has not been considered a Cleveland regular, yet he got in 74 games last year and hit .249.

Terry Turner.