PLAYERS BEGIN TO GO.
Comiskey Gets 500 Congratulatory Messages; Perquisites for the Cubs.
Chicago spent yesterday with its head wrapped in cold towels, calling for cracked ice and more ice in an effort to recover from the effects of a week of world’s pennant battles and of a night’s celebration of victory or defeat.
In marked contrast to the excitement and intense interest in a single absorbing question, which had been the rule for days previous, was the comparative quiet and feeling of relief which was noticeable at different baseball and fan headquarters the day after the struggle was over.
Pressing business began to be attended to once more and the commercial centers assumed a normal aspect. There were frequent groups of enthusiasts, holding post-mortems with more than the usual number of “I told you so’s.” There was lacking any apparent aftermath of bitterness or arrant partisanship. Even the most dyed in the wool rooter for either victor or loser was willing to admit it was a great series of games, that the victory was hard and cleanly earned, and that the defeated players were game losers.
Getaway of Players.
The getaway began last night with the departure of Jimmy Sheckard for his home in Columbia, Pa. He was compelled to leave early to attend the funeral of his wife’s father, who died on Saturday. The other players of Nationals will remain for tonight’s reception and banquet, however. Manager Fielder Jones, Eddie Walsh, “Hub” Hart, and possibly one or two others of the White Sox will leave for the east this morning, along with the final delegation of eastern baseball writers, while Frank Isbell also starts to Wichita today. Roy Patterson of the White Sox went home Sunday night. Both champion teams will do some barnstorming this champions are booked to play in Joliet tomorrow have an invitation to play at Kankakee on Thursday, and are billed for Kenosha, Wis., on Friday. They will return to Chicago and play the Logan Square on Saturday, and the Gunthers on Sunday at the local semi-professional parks.
Cubs to Play Exhibitions.
The National league champions are booked to play the Gunthers on Saturday and the Logan Squares on Sunday. There has been some discussion of the possibility of trouble with the national commission over playing with Jimmy Callahan’s team, which has been declared ineligible, but it was not thought yesterday there would be any trouble or this account, as the players’ contracts will have expired before that time, and they will not be amenable to their clubs or managers.
White Sox Get Spoils.
The White Stockings reported at their clubhouse and the American league offices in the morning for the purpose of talking over the series and settling up accounts. Everywhere they were met with congratulations. Jones’ world champions received as their winners’ share of the receipts of the world’s series $25,051.23. In addition, there was the generous gift of $15,000 from President Comiskey, which raised the purse for them to cut up to the cozy sum of $40,051.23. As there were twenty-one Sox eligible to the world’s series each player’s share was $1,845.29, a tidy bit to help him over “a hard winter.” Besides this there will be the receipt from the exhibition games of this week, which probably will raise each player’s surplus to $2,000.
Chance’s men got together at the club’s headquarters in the Masonic temple, and after exchanging condolences proceeded to divide the loser’s end of the spoils. The Cubs bore themselves admirably in defeat and were unanimous in their expressions that they had been beaten fairly by a great team of ball players, and that they hoped to meet the same team next year for the same honors and reverse the verdict.
Losing Players’ Share.
The losing share of the players’ pool form the national commission amounted to $8,350.41. In addition to this Chance’s men were the recipients of $2,777.40 from President Murphy as their share of the exhibition games the team has played since July 29, from which date the players have been equal beneficiaries with the club itself in the matter of exhibition receipts. This raised the sum for the Cubs to cut up to $11,127.80, which was divided among nineteen players. When the player had finished that work, President Murphy added a check for $100 as a gift to each of the players for winning the National league championship, and this brought each man’s share close to $700.
Comiskey Flooded with Telegrams.
President Comiskey did not “show” downtown until late in the afternoon, being unable to dig himself out from under the shower of telegraphic congratulations which poured in on him all day from every point of the compass. The telegraph companies estimated no less than 500 messages were received by them for the “Old Roman” during the day, and they were all of one tenor. He was kept busy shaking the hands of those who had been unable to locate him the day before and in making preparations for his annual trip to the happy hunting grounds of Wisconsin, with which he invariably winds up each season. He will start tonight in charge of a party of a dozen or more White Sox fans, to be gone for two weeks in the wilderness back of Fifield, Wis., and while there will select the new pennant poles which will be necessary to carry the bunting his club has won this season. It will require three pennant poles unless there is some “doubling up,” for in winning the world’s championship the White Sox also won the lesser honor of the championship of Chicago from Chance’s men, who have worn the latter title for a year. Provision also must be made for the American league pennant.
Johnson Goes to the Woods.
President Ban Johnson of the American league left last night for the woods in company with Managers Stahl of the Washington club and McAleer of the St. Louis browns, Secretary McRoy of the league, and a number of railroad officials for a ten days’ hunting trip at Heywood, Wis. Before leaving President Johnson expressed great admiration for the White Stockings and great pleasure in their victory, and promised in the name of the national commission that the emblems to be awarded them by the commission would be left to their choice in design, while no expense would be spared to make them worthy of the team.
Come form Cuba to See Games.
President Murphy of the Cubs entertained two disconsolate visitors yesterday in the persons of Victor Munoz and Jose C. Perez, baseball reporters of rival Havana newspapers who had journeyed all the way from Cuba to see the world’s series, arriving late last night to find it was all over. They had been delayed two days by failure of their steamer to part as advertised, and another two days by missing connections, they said. They brought credentials from a Cuban promoter of baseball to arrange for a trip of American players to Cuba this coming winter, but on account of the unsettled condition of political affairs there, none of Chance’s men cared to embark in the scheme.
Attend Theater and Banquet.
Last night, the members of the Cubs and White Sox and Robert Edeson, the actor, exchanged calls. Early in the evening the players and their wives were the guests of Mr. Edeson at Powers’ theater, where Mr. Edeson was playing “Strongheart,” and later on the actor and the players’ guests at Rector’s, where there was a midnight banquet, attended by the members of the two teams and their wives.
At the theater a good part of the audience apparently was not aware of the special baseball occasion, and as the diamond heroes were scattered about the house and in citizens’ clothes they were not readily recognized. Manager Fielder Jones of the Sox was summoned from his seat at the end of the first act, and as he passed up the aisle he was recognized by some and vigorously applauded.
Previous to this the appearance as a minor incident of the play of a pair of large white stockings was productive of noise, which was renewed when a character in the play dragged the white hosiery from his pocket a little later. But the effort to get the players of either team into the limelight failed.
Hero Flees from Speech.
At the end of the second act Mr. Edeson in response to persistent calls, made a speech the tenor of which was baseball, the audience responding with apparent appreciation. His remarks were followed by loud calls for “Jones.” At this the manager of the world’s champions, who had been watching the proceedings from a rear doorway, fled precipitously ? so precipitously, in fact, that his hurried exit took him down a side stairway not designated for masculine champions. The gallant leader beat a hasty retreat from this avenue of escape, and, still hearing the calls for a speech, left the theater.
Between fifty and sixty attended the banquet at Rector’s. Capt. Chance was not in attendance, but a majority of the players and their wives were there. President Ban Johnson was on hand as the representative of the national baseball commission, by whom the banquet was tendered, but he left early to take a train to Wisconsin.
Banquet to Cubs Tonight.
Tonight Chance and his champions will be the guests of honor at an informal reception and banquet to be given them at the Auditorium hotel in celebration of their victory over McGraw’s Giants and a few other hated rivals. The reception will begin at 5:30 o’clock and last until the banquet beings at 6:45, when it is expected a number of notables in other lines that baseball, as well as in the national pastime itself, will be present. The affair is in charge of a committee of thirty-third degree fans, many of them members of the board of trade rooting band, which was so prominent a feature at the west side games.
The dinner itself is to be enlivened with musical novelties and to be followed with brief toasts under the supervision of Toastmaster J. Hamilton Lewis. Some of the speakers will be Mayor E.F. Dunne, “Cap” Anson, Francis W. Walker, James A. Hart, Walter Fitch, George Ade, Judge C.S. Cutting, Col. Henry L. Turner, Charles W. Murphy and such of the players themselves as can be induced to tell how it all happened.
Charles H. Genslinger yesterday appealed to Mayor Dunne to call prominent citizens together and arrange a banquet for the world championship White Sox, the event to be held at the Auditorium. The mayor will give his answer today.
