“He Runs Bases Like a cow”
John Irwin began 1891, his eighth and final major league season playing for the Boston Reds, managed by his brother Arthur.
After a June game with The Colonels, The Louisville Courier-Journal said the connection was not an accident:
“John Irwin, who is a ball player because his brother is a baseball manager, was in a part of yesterday’s game. He runs bases like a cow and was caught off first yesterday in the easiest manner possible. He foolishly ran out between the bases and then waited until (catcher Jack) Ryan had thrown the ball to get him out. He is very gay and is never happier or more fatal to Boston’s chances then when he is coaching. His dangerous advice got one man out yesterday.”
John Irwin
The paper said when Irwin entered the game, at least one of his teammates, right fielder, Hugh Duffy was not pleased:
“Duffy was seen to remonstrate yesterday, when Irwin took (Paul) Radford’s place. It was like leaving the short field without a man. Irwin would be cheaper to the Boston club were he paid five times as much as he is now, with the proviso that he did not in the field—except to bring a bat.”
Irwin was released by the Boston Reds on July 16, and immediately signed by the Louisville Colonels.
“He Fairly Flew at me”
Roger Connor jumped the New York Giants and signed with the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association in November of 1891. Before he left New York, he sought out Sam Crane, former major leaguer and reporter for The New York Press, to settle a score in “an uptown saloon.”
Connor
Crane told the story in the pages of The Press:
“I know Roger fully believes what he says. I had a short séance with him recently and was unfortunate enough to strike Roger in a very unamiable mood. Talk about the effect of a red flag on a mad bill.”
According to Crane, when Connor approached him in the bar:
“He fairly flew at me and threatened to knock seven kinds of daylight out of me, or any other baseball reporter that ever lived, in as many minutes.”
The New York Herald said Connor had also threatened George Erskine Stackhouse of The New York Tribune and Charles Mathison of The New York Sun.
Crane
Crane continued the story:
“His big form loomed over me and his brawny fist made belligerent hieroglyphics before my face a very vivid recollection came to me of what an effect that same fist on the features of (his former New York teammate) Ed Caskin several years ago. I would bet even money just at that stage of the game that he could lick John L. Sullivan in a punch, and I decided to forego, for some time at least, all further thought of making any arguments with him.”
Crane suggested that those who called him “a gentleman” and congratulated him on staying above the fray and not getting in a fight with Connor were not considering Connor’s point of view:
“Roger laid great stress on the fact that I once said, ‘he hadn’t a heart as big as a pea.’”
Connor was assigned to the Philadelphia Phillies after the American Association folded.
“He Never Gave the Game Enough”
The Detroit News said during the spring of 1912, Hughie Jennings told young players as the Tigers trained in Louisiana that to be successful a player “must breathe baseball, eat baseball, play baseball, and sleep baseball.”
Hugh Jennings
Jennings said four of his players—Ty Cobb, Donie Bush. Sam Crawford, and Del Gainer—“devote their entire time and attention” to baseball.
“The man who is successful is the man who trains himself to his work and keeps his mind on it.”
Jennings then mentioned his only exception to that rule:
“In my career in the game I have known but one really good player who could place baseball second to other things. That man is Bill Dahlen, now manager of the Brooklyn team. Dahlen played the ponies and indulged in other outside affairs. He never practiced. He never gave the game enough when off the field, and he always reached the clubhouse two or three minutes before starting time. Sometimes the game had to wait till Bill took his position at short.”
Jennings, who was Dahlen’s teammate in 1899-1900 in Brooklyn said:
“If Dahlen had devoted his entire time to baseball he would have been the greatest infielder of all time. He could take a grounder on either side of him while in motion and throw without hesitating a moment. He could smash the ball to any part of the lot and bunt perfectly. He was a great baserunner. There was no more brilliant fielder.”
Bill Dahlen
Jennings acknowledged that his former teammate was not the “greatest of all time,” but:
“He should have been.”
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