Evening Star Newspaper, February 9, 1930, Page 99

Sam Rice was rated with an $800 price tag. but he has been banging ‘em out for Washingion since 1915. LD LADY BASE BALL is not so dumb; she does a Jot of her shopping in the bargain basement. And sometimes she can pick up just as serviceable stuff down there as she can at the higher prices on the main floor. The big leagues are full of purchases from the bargain basement. Sometimes it's hard to pick them out. A cheap bit of ivory from the Sally League may be playing right next to a $100,000 bonded and labeled bit of certified base ball talent from the Coast League, That's the way it works. That good old South Atlantic League gave the majors a slim young Georgia feller a quar- ter of a century ago. He cost Detroit just $700. It was in 1905 that this lad came from Augusta. He stayed on the same big league team for 21 years. You've already guessed his name—Ty Cobb—and time is too short to €0 into the records that Ty Cobb cracked. It is enough to say that the world’s most colorful ball player came to the big leagues in Ol Lady Base Ball's bargain basket. THREE years ago Bill Rapp, scout for the Cleveland Indians, rode the trains and busses to Oak Ridge Military Academy at Guil- ford, N. C. Big league scouts have gone to stranger places in the search for promising ivory. Ear]l Hunt, president of the academy, and its base ball coach as well, had tipped Bill off to a young southpaw named Smith. Rapp sat with his friend, Hunt. His eyes wandcred over the crowd of cadets warming up. “Who's that right-handed pitcher throwing over there in the corner?” asked Bill, suddenly. ‘Pitcher?” replied Hunt, “he’s a first base- man and outfielder. Young Wesley Ferrell. Has a brother named Rick, a catcher., Wes is & pretty good young player, too.” “Lead me to him,” was Rapp's terse request. In a short time the young giant was con- versing with a real major league scout. “Ever think of playing professional base ball?” ask:d Bill. - «r do think of anything else,” was the ki College players like Ethan Allen are Jree. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 9, 1930. While Many of the Highest- Priced Rookies Have Failed to Do So Well, Some of the Best Base Ball Pla yers Who Ler Stepped Up to the Plate Were Picked Up for Under 31,000, Including Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and a Few Other Celebrities Who Are Well Known. WILLIAM “How would you like to play with Cleveland?™ was Bill's ne@t question. “Just as well as anybody else,” said the big “Here's a contract for you,” said Rapp, go- ing to the point without delay. The youngster paused. “Guess I won't sign for a while yet, Mr. Rapp,” he said. “I may want to come back here for another year of school.” “WELL. then, when you do get ready to sign, will you let me know?” persisted Bill. “I'll do that, Mr. Rapp, and let’s shake on it,” replied young Ferrell. That's how the Cleveland Indians got Wesley Ferrell, the kid who pitched 21 victories and lost only 10 games in 1929, his first season. He was generally regarded as the pitching dis- covery of the 1929 season. Ferrell was as good as his word—almost too good, in fact. He was playing up in New Eng- land when he finally decided to sign with the Indians. The young pitcher wired to Cleve- land, asking that Bill Rapp be sent up to see him. At that time Rapp was delving into the bush leagues down in Dixie. So President Barnard sent Charley Hickman, Hickman took the night train East and found Ferrell. He showed him the telegram and asked if he wanted tp sign right now. “Where’s Rapp?” asked Ferrell. Hickman ex- plained. . “That's too bad,” replied Ferrell. “I promised him I would sign up for him, and I'm sorry, but I can’t do business with you or anybody else.” So Barnard had to send Bill Rapp 2,000 miles " 1o get the lad’s signature on a contract. But it was worth it. For, with advances of about $5,000 and a first year's salary of $3,000, the Indians got one of the finest young slabsters to come to the majors in many years. Speaking of the bargain basement reminds us of an ancient person named Edmund John Miller, who played outfield for Connie Mack last year. Edmund has been in the bargain basement numerous times. Detroit found him there in 1917, with a $600 ticket on him. You can’t lose much ofi a $600 purchase, anyway, so Detroit picked him up. However, Detroit seemed to find a flaw and sent him back. Miller went to Peoria, back to Detroit, then to San Antonio, Atlanta, Little Rock, Washington, and finally Philadelphia. Last year during the world series this bargain ball player turned out to be a very choice pur- chase indeed. As you may remember, the fifth game of the world series was marked by a little batting flurry in the ninth inning on the part of Mr. Mack’s fellows. The winning run was on base and this same Miller person was at bat. Edmund whanged into one of Mr. Pat Malone's hard ones and when the echo of the clout died away, the world series was over. And in all his 14 years as a bargain Bing Miller never brought more than $4,000. WALTER JOHNSON was picked up from the bargain basement. He wandered into Washington one day from Weiser, Idaho, as a free agent and on trial. He had been pitching pretty good semi-pro ball for the Weiser team and thought he’d like to try his hand at the big show. In the 20 years he pitched for Washington he won 414 ball games, while losing 276. Thou- sands of people went to ball games just to see the Big Train shoot those dazzling fast ones past the batters. % Lou Gehrig, who was voted the American League’s most valuable player in 1927, did not BRAUCHER. cost the Yankees one one-hundred-and-twenty- five-thousandeth as much as their right fielder, Mr. Ruth. Lou went directly to the Yankees from Co- lumbia University. And he even threatened the home-run honors of the $125,000 Bambino. JDDI'Y FOXX couldn’t be purchased today for $150,000. But the Athletics got this young man largely on Connie Mack’s faith in Frank Baker's judgment and good will. Back in 1925, Baker, who once smashed homers for Mr. Mack, advised his old boss that he had better pick up young Foxx at once, for in another year he would cost plenty. Mack followed Baker's suggestion and got Foxx for a nominal sum. Foxx has 15 years of big league base ball ahead of him, and Mack is lucky that he had a friend like Baker prying round in the bargain basement. Guy Bush, the only Cub pitcher who was able to beat the Athletics in the last world series, was a $1,200 job from the bargain counter. Bush was born on a farm at Aberdeen, Miss., and used to help around the place until he dis- covered he could throw a base ball. From then on he “wasn’t much good.” He decided to go to Tupelo Military Institute because they had a nice ball team. Guy swept out the barracks and waited on table for three years. In the Spring of 1923 George W. Chapman, master of the school, called Lhim in and gave him $250, with instruc- tions to pay it back out of his base ball earn- ings. Guy got a job with Greenville in the Cotton States League. One day Jack Doyle, Cub scout, was in the stands. Guy pitched both games of a double- header, winning each, 4 to 0. The Cubs bought him for $1,200. GR.OVER ALEXANDER, hero of the Cardi- nals-Yankees -“keep your shirts on” world series, was a bargain picked up in the draft. When he was playing his first year of pro ball at Galesburg in 1909 he was beaned one day while running to second base. After that Aleck said that for a long time he “could see two batters,” and usually pitched to the wrong one. He was to have gone to the St. Louis Browns that year, but when the Browns discovered he was seeing double, they sidetracked him to In- dianapolis. They thought so highly of Alexan- der there that he wasn't even ordered to re- port, and Manager Carr sent him to Syracuse. He was drafted at the close of that year by the Phillies. Since then he has worn no other than a big league uniform, despite an occasional game in the “night league,” and after years with Chicago and St. Louis, Aleck goes back this year to the team he started with—the Phils. Still pitching big league ball, at 43! THERE are two Rices in the big leagues, and they bear no relation to each other ex- cept that both were picked up downstairs on the bargain tounters. The first is Sam, the Washington outfielder. Sam wasted two years pitching for Petersburg in the Virginia League before Washington took him on for $800 in 1915. Sam’s bat has rung merrily ever since then with Washington. The other Rice is Harry, the Detroit out- fielder, an Illinois boy. The St. Louis Browns originally bought Harry from Paris (the Illinois one) in 1922, for just $1,000. In 1928 he was traded to Detroit, and still has an arm that puts fear into American League base runners. Portsmouth, Ohio, got $800 and Cleveland got Sad Sam Jones and one of the smartest pitchers in the big leagues in 1914. Sam won 17 and lost 7 for Washington in 1928. Two young fellows wno promise to come for- ward this season in the National League are Ethan Allen of the Reds and Chuck Klein of the Phils—both bargain ball players. Allen came straight to the Reds from the University of Cincinnati in 1926. His batting average over the first three years was .301. Chuck Klein, who led the National League in home runs last season with 43, was so lightly regarded by Evansville in the Central League & couple of years back that he was sold to Fort Wayne at the close of 2 bad season for $200. Though Chuck has been playing only since 1927, he never has batted under .300, his mark last year being .355. And this chap cost the - Phillies only $5,000. DLY enough, the very man who was rum- ner-up to Klein in the National League for home-run honors, young Melvin Ott of the Giants, who parked 42 homé runs over the garden wall, also is one of those marked-down commodities. Mr. McGraw of th: Giants has come to believe that the best things in life are free, since the 21-year-old Ott, who batted .328 last season, cost him nothing. Ott played ball with the high school team at Gretna, La., and attracted attentior when he was 16. Harry W. Williams, wealthy lumber- man, gave little Mel a job on his semi-pro team and told his friend McGraw he had a mice-s looking prospect. Since 1926 the lowest Ott has batted was .322. It was a Pullman conductor who dug up the bargain that Rogers Hornsby proved to be for the St. Louis Cardinals. He recommended the Texas kid to a Cardinal scout back in 1915, The Cards bought him from Dennison for $500, He established a. new major league batting mark of .423. He won the most valuable player award in 1925 and last year. And only a little more than a year ago the Cubs paid $200,006 and gave five players to the Braves for him It does pay to walk downstairs sometimes and save money! (Copyright, 1930.) Harry Rice cost the Browns a bare $1,000.