From 1906 until his death in 1911, Cleveland Naps pitcher Addie Joss moonlighted as a sportswriter for The Toledo News-Bee and The Cleveland Press.
Joss at the typewriter
Shortly before departing for the Naps’ camp in Macon, Georgia in 1908, Joss gave readers an insider’s view of spring training:
“About the first thing players do when they receive orders to report at a certain place, is to dig up paraphernalia. Shoes and gloves are saturated in oil or Vaseline to soften the leather and prepare them for the work in sight.”
After his “two or three days…flying southward” on a train, and one day “getting settled,” he said:
“If the weather permits (a player) witnesses his first practice.
“Usually, the first hour or two is spent in tossing the ball around to get limbered up. Then the manager calls upon one of the twirlers, usually a youngster, to toss up a few slow ones.
“Half an hour’s batting and the men assume their positions on the field. “
Joss
After a half hour of fielding practice:
“(T)he men hike back to the hotel. This routine is observed for the first few days, or until arms and legs become accustomed to the unusual exercise. “
Joss said veteran players usually “take it easy” for the first week unless he needs to shed a few pounds:
“If a man is overweight he will rid himself of superfluous flesh by various means. Some run around the park each morning and afternoon. Others chase flies until they seem ready to drop from exhaustion.“
Joss said there was no better “means to get into shape” than fielding ground balls:
“It not only loosens and toughens the muscles but gives the individual fielding practice.
“A stranger to this sort of training will be surprised at the good accomplished. It brings every muscle into play and puts a man into splendid condition in a couple of weeks.”
Attempts were made, he said, to find new ways to keep players interested:
“Last spring, one trainer introduced an association football into camp, and the players found the diversion beneficial. It produced generous perspiration and took the stiffness out of sore bodies. “
Next, a few “hotly contested” intersquad games between “regulars and colts,” are played, followed by:
“(T)hree games a week…played by the big league club with the organization from the town in which they are training. This produces the teamwork so necessary.”
Off the field, Joss said it was critical that the team had a good “rubber:”
“An important factor is the trainer, and the team possessing a good handler finds the work much easier. After 15 minutes in the hands of an expert rubber, a player whose arms and legs were so lame they could scarcely be lifted leaves the room feeling fine and fit.”
Finally, Joss, who was known as a well-mannered, family man—Ed Walsh, who pitched against him the day Joss threw his perfect game beating the Chicago White Sox 1 to 0 in 1908, told The Chicago Inter Ocean after his death that he was “One of the best men I ever met on or off the ball field–” assured readers that no one was misbehaving during the spring:
Walsh and “One of the best men” he ever met
“The players have little time to themselves off the field, and are usually so tired when night comes that they are willing to sit around the hotel until bedtime.”
Baseball History Daily 
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