Baseball Veteran Stands Grind Best

1920

HAVE EDGE ON THE YOUNGSTER IN LONG SERIES.

Reports From Major Leagues Show Old-timers Playing Steadily in Every Game.

Reports on continuous service by major league players in the past season bring out the interesting fact that the veterans best stood the daily grind. In the National League four players took part in every game with their clubs. They were Jake Daubert, whose legs were supposed to be so bad a couple of years ago that he would have to quit; George Cutshaw, Pittsburgh's seasoned second sacker; Fred Luderus, who is anything but a youth, and Rogers Hornsby, who has outgrown his kid days. It is a coincidence that all four are infielders.

The American League has just twice as many players who were in every game their clubs engaged in. The league champion White Sox, the Cleveland Indians and the Yankees had two apiece, and the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox one each.

Eddie Collins and Buck Weaver are the Sox who took part in the club's 140 games; Larry Gardner and Bill Wambsganss are the Indians, and Frank Baker and Duffy Lewis are the Yankees. Heilman and Scott are the other two.

It is noteworthy that seven of the eight players are infielders, making eleven out of the twelve in the two leagues.

Several of them have been in the big leagues from ten to fifteen years. Eddie Collins broke in in 1906. He was a shortstop and third baseman then. In 1909 he became Connie Mack's regular second baseman.

Since then he has run up a great record for steady play. Seven out of the nine seasons in which 154 games have been played he has been in 150 or more contests.

In 1915 he was in 155 games, and in 1917 156. In 1909-10-11-12 Collins had the greatest number of put-outs among second basemen, and in 1909 and 1910 the greatest number of assists. In 1909-10-11 he accepted the greatest number of chances.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 10.