A Ballplayers Hands
Joe Ardner played second base in the National League for the Cleveland Blues in 1884 and the Cleveland Spiders in 1890; he played another 12 years in the minors. In 1888 he was with the Kansas City Blues in Western League and provided the following explanation of the care and maintenance of an infielder’s hands:
“A ballplayer’s hands should not be hard, they should be soft. When my hands are in perfect condition they are almost as soft as a lady’s. Hard hands on a ballplayer will crack and get sore, but when the skin is pliable and tough there is little danger of the hands bruising, cracking or puffing. Some folks imagine a ballplayer’s hands to be as hard as a board, but they are wrong.”
Joe Ardner
They have realized that the Umpire is Almost Human
National League President Harry Clay Pulliam was very pleased with how civilized his league had become by 1908. In an interview with The Chicago Tribune he said:
“The game is getting cleaner all the time. Why, I’ve only suspended about half a dozen men this year, to about forty last year, and I want to say that the players are trying harder to keep the game clean…They have realized that the umpires are almost human. It’s business with the player now, and they’re banking instead of boozing…It’s a grand game, clean, wholesome, and it’s the spirit of contest that gives it its virility. Civic pride is another vital adjunct to it. Every town likes to have its own team a winner. Sort of local pride or another form of patriotism, I call it.”
Harry Pulliam–National League President
Soo League Night Games
The Copper Country Soo League was recognized as a league for the first time by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues in 1905; its last season in operation. The four-team league located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was made up of mining towns along the Soo Line Railroad: the Calumet Aristocrats, the Sault Ste. Marie Soos, the Hancock Infants and the Lake Linden Lakers.
Nearly no records or roster information survives, other than that three future Major Leaguers played in the league: Donie Bush and Fred Luderus played for Sault Ste. Marie and Pat Paige played for Calumet.
In an effort to boost sagging attendance in June, the league first attempted to merge with the Northern League, and when that effort failed announced a scheduling change.
The Duluth News-Tribune said:
“An innovation…will be introduced by managers of the clubs comprising the Copper Country Soo League. Owing to the peculiar conditions which exist in some of the cities, it has been decided to play some of the games after supper as an experiment as it is believed the attendance will be larger.”
The Chicago Tribune‘s Hugh Fullerton said:
“(I)n the copper country baseball depends on miners for support…the plan proved quite a success…The miners would come out of their shift at 6 o’clock, the games were called at 6:30 and finished about 8:30 at twilight. There were few games called by darkness.”
While the move helped three of the teams at the gate, the Sault Ste. Marie Soos failed to draw fans and disbanded late in August.
Calumet won the championship, and along with Hancock and Lake Linden merged with the Northern league to form the Northern-Copper Country League–Calumet won the league’s first championship in 1906, playing a schedule of day games.
Future Phillies star Fred Luderus was a 19-year-old rookie with the Sault Ste. Marie Soos
Baseball History Daily 