More random quotes and observations that follow no theme or thread:
Cap Anson told The Chicago Daily News in 1904:
“I consider (Charles) Radbourn and John Clarkson the greatest pitchers I ever saw. Buck Ewing was just about the best catcher that ever wore a mask. He could catch, throw, bat and run and had a good head.”

Cap Anson
After Frank Baker hit home runs off Christy Mathewson and Rube Marquard in the 1911 World Series, he told The Philadelphia American:
“There seems to be much speculation as to what sort of balls were thrown me when I made my home runs…Well, I hit them and I know what they were. Matty threw me an inshoot, but what would have been an outshoot to a right handed batter, while the Rube threw a fast one between my shoulder and waist.
“Connie Mack told me when I went to the bat that I would not get a fast one, and he was right I set myself and looked them over against Mathewson and when he tossed me that curve and I saw her starting to break, I busted her, that’s all.”

Frank Baker
Thirty-four year old Bill Bernhard told The Cleveland News about seeing 38-year-old Cy Young in Hot Springs, Arkansas in spring of 1905:
“There is no use talking, there is only one Cy Young. When the rest of us pitchers report in the spring, we act as if those alleged deceiving arms of ours were made of glass and humor them accordingly. But not so with old Cy. The very first day that Cy reached Hot Springs, a week or so ago, he cut loose as if he had been pitching all winter. Great Scott, but he had speed to burn and the next day and the next it was just the same. And curve them? Well, you ought to have seen the old boy.”

Cy Young
In 1915, The Chicago Daily News noted that Charles Comiskey “isn’t given to boosting players very often,” but that Catcher Ray Schalk was an exception:
“Schalk shows more life than any other player I have ever seen. He is level headed and his thinking and natural ability stamp him as one of the greatest catchers in the world today, and he can claim equal distinction with the great and only Buck Ewing, considered in his day the peer of all backstops.

Ray Schalk
Dave Landreth was a baseball promoter from Bristol, Pennsylvania who had a brief foray into professional baseball when he served as director of the Baltimore Terrapins in the Federal League. He told a story to The Bristol Courier about Lew Richie—Richie was born in nearby Ambler, Pennsylvania, and pitched for Landreth in semi-pro leagues before making is pro debut in 1906 at age 22:
“Landreth hired Richie to pitch the morning game of a holiday twin bill for the county championship, and after winning and fanning 18 men, all for five dollars, Richie came back in the afternoon and insisted on hurling that game , too, for nothing.
“Somebody ‘kidded’ him about winning the morning game on a fluke, and Lew wanted to show them—and he did, winning that game as well.”

Lew Richie
Tim Donahue had a reputation for being tough during his eight seasons in the major leagues. The catcher told The Chicago Evening Post he had only encountered one man who made him back him down:
“I was never put down and out but once. It was when I was playing semi-professional ball too, and was quite a young lad. There was a big fellow named Sullivan on the other side and I tried to block him at the plate. He swung on my jaw and I thought a load of bricks had dropped on my head. I finally came to, but I didn’t block Sullivan any more. That’s the only time I would ever clear out.”
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