NEW FACES IN THE OLD LEAGUE
BY JOHN B. FOSTER.
Not for some time has there been such a turning over of the leaves of history in the National League as during 1912-13, and because of this there are many new faces peering out of the album. There have also been changes in the minor circuits and one prominent change in the American League.
The death of John T. Brush removed from Base Ball a dean of the National League. Wise in the lore of the game, a man more of the future than of the present, as he always foresaw that which some of his contemporaries were less alert in perceiving, it meant no easy task to be his successor.
Prior to the death of Mr. Brush there was a great deal of curious and some idle speculation as to his ultimate successor in case of decease, or, in the event of his retirement because of bodily weariness. One or two went so far as to say that upon his death Andrew Freedman would return to prominence in Base Ball, because he was the real owner of the New York club. Once and for all the writer would like to put the personal stamp of absolute denial on the repeated statements made by certain individuals in New York and Chicago that Andrew Freedman retained the control of the New York club after John T. Brush was reported to have purchased it.
Mr. Freedman retained nothing of the kind. Not that Mr. Brush objected to him as a partner, but when Mr. Brush purchased the stock he purchased the control outright, although he did request Mr. Freedman to hold a few shares and not give up his personal interest in Base Ball, for Mr. Freedman had a great liking for the game in spite of his stormy career. The assertions that Mr. Freedman was the real owner and Mr. Brush the nominal owner were made with malicious intent, of which the writer has proof, and through a desire, if possible, to combat the popularity and the success of the Giants.
This digression has been made to call attention to the fact that while rumor was plentiful as to the future control of the Giants Mr. Brush was carefully "grooming" a young man—his son-in-law, Mr. H. Hempstead—to take his place.
To a few it was known that Mr. Hempstead was acquiring such experience and information as would be necessary to assume the control of an undertaking which has grown so big as the organization of the Giants in New York. The business details of the club have quadrupled and the cares and anxieties of the man at the head have increased in proportion.
The Giants, as successful as they have been under the control of John T. Brush and John J. McGraw, the men who have been the executive heads in both the business and the playing departments of the game, are as susceptible to reverses as if they were the lowliest club in the organization. It is only by constant and severe application that the club's affairs may be kept at the best pitch.
Mr. Hempstead brings to Base Ball the advantage of youth, a keen business sagacity developed beyond his years, coolness, a disposition that is sunny and not easily ruffled, and a reputation for unvarying fairness and the highest type of business and sport ideals. Quite a list of qualities, but they are there.
If characteristics of that description fail to maintain the high standard of the New York club, then it will be due to the fact that our standards of business deportment have turned topsy-turvy.
William H. Locke is the new president and part owner of the Philadelphia club. He and Mr. Hempstead are the "junior" presidents of the league. There is no necessity for the Editor of the GUIDE to enter into any long and fulsome praise as to William H. Locke.
His career speaks for itself and he speaks for himself. A young man of the finest attributes, he has brought nothing to the mill of Base Ball to grind except that which was the finest and the cleanest grain.
The writer has known Mr. Locke almost, it seems, from boyhood and esteems him for his worth, not only as one who has administered the affairs of Base Ball with skill and intelligence, but as one who wrote of Base Ball with understanding and excellent taste, for it must not be forgotten that Mr. Locke is a newspaper graduate into the ranks of the great sport the affairs of which fill a little corner of the hearts of so many of America's citizens.
Perhaps no young man ever left a newspaper office to become a Base Ball president with more good wishes behind him than William H. Locke. He served his apprenticeship as secretary of the Pittsburgh club and he served it well. He is a high class, delightful young man, every inch of him, and Philadelphia will soon become as proud of him as Pittsburgh is now.
Still another newspaper writer has been claimed from the desk by the National League. He is Herman Nickerson, formerly sporting editor of the Boston Journal, who is now the secretary of the Boston National League club.
"Nick" is known from one end of the National League circuit to the other as one of the most solid and substantial of the writing force, and also as one of the most demure and modest. In addition to his great fund of information on Base Ball topics he is an author, and "The Sword of Bussy," a book which was published during the winter, is even more clever than some of the author's best Base Ball yarns, and that is saying a great deal in behalf of a man wedded to Base Ball.
Another change in the National League was the selection of Frank M. Stevens of New York, as one of the Board of Directors of the New York National League club.
This brings into Base Ball one of New York's cleverest and brightest young business men, one who is forging so rapidly to the front in business circles in the big metropolis that many an older head goes to him for advice. Mr. Stevens knows a lot about Base Ball, which is of even greater importance in the game, and is not afraid to swing any venture that will put with fairness a championship team into the big city. He is a son of Harry M. Stevens, whom everybody knows, rich and poor alike.
In the American League the death of Mr. Thomas D. Noyes, president of the Washington club, a young man who left behind naught but friends, left a vacancy in the organization which was filled by the selection of Mr. Benjamin S. Minor.
The new president of the club has had practical experience in Base Ball and perhaps plenty of it, as almost everybody has had in Washington, but he is a wideawake, progressive and ambitious man, who is of just the type to keep Base Ball going, now that it has struck its gait in the national capital, and the future of the sport looks all the brighter for his connection with it.