After winning the first three games of the 1894 season, the Cincinnati Reds dropped six of their next seven. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Harry Weldon said most of the players weren’t “fighters.”
“To be a ‘fighter’ in the sense that this term is applied in baseball does not necessarily mean that you must be a leg breaker, a rib crusher or indulge in billingsgate or profanity to your opponent. It simply means that your mind must be on the game every minute and every second while it is in progress. It means that you must watch every movement and point and be alert for any opening, however small.
“The Reds are as gentlemanly a team as there is in the league, and it is to their credit that they are so; but there is such a thing as carrying the matter too far. There is an old adage about ‘fighting the devil with fire’ that some of our local players would do well to follow. This advice is apparent. There are times when ‘Excuse me please,’ and ‘I beg your pardon,’ won’t do. The men to whom they are addressed don’t know what that sort of language means. In other words, when you are in Rome do as Romans do.”
Weldon said some players were critical of the behavior of Reds third baseman Arlie Latham. Latham was a Weldon favorite; the two had been friends since Weldon served as secretary for St. Browns President Chris Von der Ahe while Latham played there:
Arlie Latham
“There are a few growlers and soreheads who find fault with Latham for talking too much. I cannot sympathize with such criticism. Latham does not coach because he likes it or to be ‘funny’ and ‘work the grand stand,’ as many of his detractors would have people believe it. I once heard one of the soreheads say to Captain (Charlie) Comiskey: ‘Why don’t you make Latham keep still?’
“’Do you want me to put him out of the game?’ replied the Reds’ captain.
“’No, I only want you to make him stop talking.’
“’Well, if I did that, he might as well be out of the game, for he would lose his interest.’
“Every word of this is true. Latham is too much interested to keep still. Hardly a ball is pitched in the game by the Reds’ pitchers that Latham from third base doesn’t have something to say. Scarcely a movement is made at the bat, on the bases or the coaching lines that Latham doesn’t deliver some wordy instructions.
“He is in the game from start to finish. He couldn’t be funny ‘to order’ to save his life. The ludicrous and witty sallies he makes from the coaching lines just bubble out of him. He doesn’t ‘day dream’ or ‘build air castles’ while a play is in progress as some players do.
“His mind is right on the business on hand. He is a fighter all over. There are others on the Cincinnati team who would do well to follow his example. The Pittsburghs and Clevelands are examples of what fighters can do. Every member of those teams was in the game all the way through when they were here. Not a play occurred that they were not on their feet hustling and shouting. The Reds should fall in beside (Latham) from now on and back him up with spirit and noise.
“Nothing pleases a crowd of local enthusiasts more than a scrappy game. If you have got to go down, boys, do it with all your banners flying. Fight it to the last-ditch, and then if you are whipped you’ll know how it occurred.”
Harry Weldon
The Reds never started fighting in 1894, and finished in tenth place with a 55-75 record; it was Comiskey’s final season as a major league manager, and his least successful. The following year he purchased the Sioux City franchise in the Western league, and moved the team to St. Paul.
Latham, who hit .313 in 1894, had his final productive season the following year, hitting .313 for an improved Reds club (66-64) managed by William “Buck” Ewing.
Weldon was sports editor of The Enquirer until he suffered a stroke in February of 1900 at age 45, he died two years later. Ren Mulford Jr., who succeeded Weldon as editor said:
“No more forceful writer on sports topics ever played upon the keys of a typewriter.”
Baseball History Daily 
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