Damon Runyon
Salt Lake Tribune/January 31, 1916
Donovan’s Club is Complete
Wild William Donovan, manager of the Yankees, was walking around the Hotel McAlpin yesterday with a copy of a Newark newspaper in his hand. He took a great delight in showing his friends a very interesting table of statistics, designed to prove that Frank Gilhooley of the Yanks has accomplished more in his five years of professional baseball than the more widely advertised Benny Kauff.
Some of William’s friends have been expressing doubt as to the ability of Gilhooley to make good in the big league on account of his two previous failures to stick. Everybody who ever saw the young man play in the International League is willing to bet on his remaining with the Yanks this time. The fact that Joseph Lanniu, owner of the Boston Red Sox, who controlled the Buffalo club with which Gilhooley pastimed last season, did not capture the player for Boston is pointed out by those who are doubtful of Frank, but then, perhaps, Lanniu feels that his outfield is all right as it is.
With Adrian, Erie, Montreal and Buffalo in various leagues the past five seasons, Gilhooley has made more hits, scored more runs, stolen more bases, made more sacrifice hits, and had more putouts and more assists than Kauff. He has made two more errors than Kauff in the past five years, but has had 171 more putouts and 32 more assists than Benjamin. It would appear that Frank made a mistake in not doing some of his playing with the Federal League because then he would have acquired more advertising.
Donovan’s Yanks
Gilhooley, Magee and probably High will make up the 1916 outfield of the Yankees with Pipp on first, Gedeon second, Peckingpaugh short, and Maisel third. The Yankees are sure to have a fight for Gedeon in the baseball courts, but almost equally sure to retain him.
He rapidly developed at Salk Lake last year. While it seems unfair for Griff to lose the man, it is one of the fortunes of the baseball war that hit the Yankee as hard as it did any other club.
Gedeon, if he fulfils his promise, is the luckiest acquisition the Yanks have made, not even barring Lee Magee. It is doubtful if Boone will hit up to major league standard, and second base was one of the weakest spots on the New York club. Donovan may retain Boone as an infield utility man, though he has a better hitter for that role in Paddy Baumann.
Match Is Dead
Whatever interest there might have been in the proposed Willard-Moran match has now been practically killed by the jangling of the promoters, and it is very doubtful if it will ever be possible to revive that interest. Maybe after all the row was a good thing.
It is still going on to a greater or less extent, but the babble of conversation finds the fistic followers indifferent. Willard can now seek other matches, and can probably make just as much money as he would have received in a bout with the champion.
So far as New York is concerned, the Willard-Moran thing is to all intents and purposes a corpse. It was just naturally talked to death. There may have been some curiosity for a time to see Willard in action, but there is none now. The state boxing commission will not have to step in and bar the match, which was recently suggested in these columns. It has barred itself.
There has been a hint that Willard may be matched with Fred Fulton or some other heavyweight for a New York bout. If any promoter thinks that such an affair will draw anything like the $30,000 that Jess is alleged to have set as his price for appearing in the ring, that promoter should immediately consult an alienist. He needs attention right away.
Not at the P. G.
It had been suggested that the Willard-Moran prize fight might be held at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, along about Memorial Day, but it will certainly not be held there unless in the meantime the Giants change owners.
Harry N. Hempstead, president of the baseball club, is on record on that proposition. Mr. Hempstead is powerless to prevent those pleasant little extemporaneous bouts which spring up from time to time at odd corners of the diamond during the run of the baseball season, but he will not permit prearranged prize fights in his ball yard under any circumstances.
Last summer numerous offers for the Polo Grounds were presented by promoters, and in several instances the baseball management would have profited not a little, but Mr. Hempstead refused all comers. The chief stockholders in the Giants at this time are women, and they have no desire to embark in the prize fight game.
Then, too, Mr. Hempstead took the view that many of his baseball patrons may be opposed to prize fighting, and that the spectacle of the Polo Grounds in the hands of the tin-eared element might be very offensive to them.
Some of Mr. Hempstead’s baseball contemporaries could profit by his example—notably the Hon. Charles H. Ebbets and the McKeevers of Brooklyn. They are the owners of Ebbets field, and they rent it out for prize-fighting purposes in the summer. An attempt was made by promoters to get Washington park, the home of the Federal League in Brooklyn, for the same purpose, but the late Mr. Ward declined to stand for that sort of thing.
The Fed field is now said to be in charge of the national commission, and as it is hardly likely that the baseball powers will ever care to officially approve of prize fighting, there is little chance that Washington park will be devoted to fisticuffs in the future.
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