Jack Scott Holds Record
For Baseball Comebacks
U1
(Continued from last week)
However, those writers pictured
Scott, down and out, asking John
McGraw for a chance to pitch his
way back. The theme of their ac
counts was that this down-and-out
er, shown sympathy by McGraw,
had rewarded the kindly manager
by helping the team in a world’s
championship.
And this is as it was: Scott
was released by Cincinnati in June.
McGraw had watched the tall
North Carolinian for a long time.
He had confidence in Scott and in
the man’s courage. Scott had
hardly been released by Cincinnati
before McGraw came along with a
proposition which Scott accepted.
It is true that Jack hung around
the Polo Grounds a long while,
throwing a few pitches today and
a bit more each day until his arm
came around. But he had known
the arm would come around; he
had told McGraw so as far back
as June, and McGraw had believed
in him. And so, Scott’s work in
late weeks of the season and the
world’s series was only what he
had promised McGraw in June and
hich the North Carolina never-say
cue would produce.
Scott wasn’t down. He wanted to
stay in baseball, he wanted to pitch
again. But he wasn’t looking for
charity, he didn’t need it. He was
only looking for a chance to shoot
at something real after he had
regained his pitching prowess. Mc
Graw gave him that chance, and
McGraw realized dividends for
having confidence in the confidence
of the young man from Ridgeway,
N. C. — a village Jknown through
out the baseball world because it
produced the man whose rare
courage and constant comeback
habits have given baseball some
of its color.
Jack’s first test of his regained
pitching ability in that 1922 sea
son came in August and against
that clever pitcher, Grover Cleve
land Alexander. Scott earned a
2-1 decision. He had come back t
Blanked Yanks With 4 Hits.
Scott pithed the third game of
the world’s series for the Giants,
and his feat of blanking the Yank
ees with four hits to win 3-0 fo
cused the eyes of the baseball
world on the tall right-hander
from North Carolina. The critics
had overlooked the fact that Scott
had won eight games and lost only
two while pitching for the Giants
in the closing days of the season.
They had under-rated him. And so,
their own blindness to Scott’s real
ability made all the more remark
able in their eyes his world series
feat. But Jack Scott figured it
just as another game. He had been
winning an average of four out of
five games; the Yanks were just
another club to him. And judging
by the way he mowed down the
charges of Miller Huggins, they
were just that.
Only once during the game did
the Yanks as much as threaten,
and on that occasion Scott bore
down and ended that flurry in a
hurry. He had almost perfect
control, giving just one walk, and
his exhibition was rated as one of
the best in series history. In dis
cussing that game with scribes,
John McGraw declared, “We need
ed nothing else but Scott; we didn’t
need any strategy.” Earl Smith,
who did the catching, joined with
his manager in paying tribute to
the splendid performance of the
Tar Heel.
McGraw Believes in Scott.
John McGraw believes in Jack
Scott. McGraw now has Scott for
the third time. Twice before the
Little Napoleon of baseball cut
the Tar Heel loose, but each time
he brought him back. Last sum
A Miarhtv Boy
Is He
With all the grace and form
of an Olympics star, George
Michael, 5-year-old Pennsylvania
lad, is shown toesing the 24
ounce shot a distance of 6 feet
2 inches. This amazing feat won
George first place in that event
at the Miami, Fla., baby relays.
mer when the Giants were in the
home stretch pennant fight, Mc
Graw needed a capable picther.
For whom did he send out an S.
O. S. You guessed it — Jack
Scott.
And Jack answered the S.O.S.
with a strong rescue line. He
pitched three complete games for
the Giants, finished up ten others
when starting hurlers got in tight
places, and lost only one game
while winning four. He did his
share in admirable fashion, but
the McGrawmen couldn’t make the
grade.
McGraw first released Scott af
ter the close of the 1923 season.
The season before Jack had won
16 and lost seven games for Mc
Graw. ’Tis true that Scott had
failed in the world series, but it
also is true that the Tar Heel
tried to pitch while he was ill e
nough to be abed. But McGraw
decided to put Scott out on option
in 1924, and sent him to Toledo.
There Jack became an idol of the
fans. In the opening game of the
season he fanned 13 hitters, and
turned in twenty victories for the
Mudhens during the year.
McGraw recalled him at the
close of the campaign and Jack
stayed with the Giants until the
1926-27 off-season. In 1925 Scott
won 14 and lost 15 games but had
the good earned run average of
3.15 per game. The next season
he won 13 and lost 15, with a four
run per game earned tally average.
He went to the Phils in one of
those queer trades of baseball.
Four clubs figured in the swap
ping, which resulted in this fash
ion — Fresco Thompson, Ferguson
and Scott went to the Phils; Hen
line to Brooklyn; George Harper
to the Giants, and Bill Huber and
Ray Pierce to Buffalo.
With the Phillies, habitual tail
enders, Scott managed to win nine
games. Last season he was back
at Toledo, having been sold to the
Mudhens by Baker’s club. The
pitching of the Tar Heel veteran
was a sensation of early play in
the American Association. He won
13 games for Toledo before being
purchased by McGraw when the
late-season emergency arrived. He
was retained by the Giants for
the coming season and is with the
McGraw club at San Antonio.
Began In 1913.
We have covered Scott’s base
ball days from 1922 to the pres
ent. He began his pro career in
1913 with Durham of the old Caro
lina Association. The next season
he was with Greensboro. He went
to Portsmouth in the Virginia
League in 1916 and after a month
with the Virginians joined Macon
in the Sally. Scott was sold to
Pittsburgh in August, and got in
three games for the Pirates. He
was back at Macon in 1917, but
soon was taken over by Colum
bia, which in turn told him to
Nashville in the Southern, where
he won 12 and lost nine games.
The Boston Braves bought Jack
in August — that must be his
favored month for going up — and
he stayed with the Braves until
the close of the 1921 season when
he was traded to Cincinnati for
Rube Marquard and Bill Kopf, a
deal which is said to have been
made against the desires of the
Braves’ manager and a deal which,
although it seemed a good one
when Scott’s arm went bad, finally
proved to be a poor one.
When Scott reported in the
spring of 1922 with an ailing arm,
the Cincinnati club put up a howl
on the order of that now raised by
Brooklyn because of Shortstop
Wright’s reporting with a bad arm.
The Reds felt they had been gyp
ped. However, the year before
Scott had won 15 and lost 13
games for the Braves. The deal
was ruled as final, but the Reds
released Scott when his arm fail
ed to come around and after “Bone
Setter” Reese’s declaration that
he would never pitch again.
Knows How to Hit.
Scott not only knows how to fool
opposition hitters, but he knows
how to keep rival pitchers from
fooling him. He is one of the best
hitters among big league ptchers.
Scott wound up the 1925 season
by getting four hits in four tries
in the final game of the year. In
his first game of the next season
he got four more hits in as many
tries — eight consecutive hits and
something of a record. In his
next start, however, he was bat
ting against Dazzy Vance. The
Dazzler bore down in an effort to
stop the slugging pitcher and Scott
went out on a hard liner. He was
up two more times in that game,
hitting safely on the second trip
and then walking.
Always he has been a consistent
hitter, and whever he plays Jack
is used frequenty as a pinch bats
man. While with the Phils in 1927
he banged out a homer on one
pitch assignment. His best batting
mark was made in 1926, when he
hit .337.
Scott comes of hardy stock. His
father came to North Carolina as
a boy when Jack’s grandfather—J.
W. Scott—lost his sight. TThe
elder Sott had been president of
Washington and Jefferson for 25
years before losing his sight. He
moved to North Carolina with his
two sons, I. D. and J. W., Jr., the
latter the father of the pitching
Jack. Jack’s father, now dead,
married Emma Petar, a native of
England, and of this union fve
sons were born, all big fellows.
Jack, the tallest of the lot, stands
6 feet 3. inches and weight 210
pounds. Robert, deputy register
of deeds in Warren County, is the
baby of the family—he’s only 6
feet tall. Other brothers are Gil
bert, in the paint business in
Greensboro; Spencer, auto dealer
at Warrenton, and Donald, con
nected with the State Highway
Commission. Incidentally, Donald
was quite a catcher as a youngster,
and he and Jack used to team up
as a brother battery in amateur
and semi-pro ball.
Dreamed of Being With Giants.
Jack has always been a lover of
baseball. As a lad he’d get on his
trusty bicycle about dawn, and
pedal to some nearby, or not so
nearby, town to pitch in the after
noon. The Giants in those days
were to youngsters what the Yank
ees are today. Often Jack would
tell his mother that when he grew
up he was going to pitch for the
Giants. That’s one childhood dream
that has come true.
Mrs. Scott had the pleasure of
seeing her son pitch in the world’s
series of 1922. His father, too,
was there. Pictures of the father
and son appeared in papers
throughout the land. The senior
Scott was then 72, but the photos
showed an erect though grey
haired man, who almost matched
his son’s 75 inches in height, a
man of steady gaze and with e
face which bespoke courage and
determination. No caption was
needed to show that the man in
civilian clothes with the black hat
so typical of the old Southerner
was the father of the baseball
hero beside him. The likeness
could be found in their facial
characteristics.
Jack’s mother has told a story
about her trip to the Polo
Grounds, which is rather amusing.
She was seated in a box almost
behind home plate. Two men were
in the next box. One informed the
other that Jack Scott would be the
Giants’ pither, and then, pointing
to a pitcher going out to warm
up, declared: “There he is now—
now big fellow, the one who walks
like a turkey.” The mother look
ed, and, sure enough, Jack did
walk something like the gobblers
back home on the Ridgeway farm
place. And for the next two
hours Jack gobbled up the Yank
ees.
Jack is married and has one son,
another Jack, who, at 7 years of
age, is a lively, observant and
clever youngster. Jack was mar
ried to Miss Hattie Boyd, of War
renton, in 1918. Mrs. Scott and
young Jack move their home to
the head of the household’s
pitching base each Summer, and
those who know the Scotts, with
out taking any credit from Jack
for his own courage and will to
in, will tell you that the encour
agement and faith of his mother
and his wife have had much to do
with making of Jack Scott the
champion of comeback makers.
-o
Although twice wounded, Dew
ey, a 6-year-old dog, routed two
gunmen who tried to rob his
master, 'Martin L. Endward, of
Sioux Falls, S. D.
[’ Both these plots of tobacco received completefertilizer of exactly the same^l
*analysis. The difference is this! The mixture used at the left was made I
from old style natural materials; at the right, from pure materials. J
LOOK...COMPARE
Camera sees all... tells all
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Once we believed crops needed
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gen. Now we know they require
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tilizers only as sources of phos
phate, potash and nitrogen. Now
we know they contain other- equally
necessary elements.
au tnese years we
have been following
Nature’s laws—and
only realized what that
meant after trying sub
stitute materials.
There was a differ
ence. Crops showed it.
They did not seem to get what they
needed—what the old-time natural
fertilizers supplied.
What is the difference? Same
people think it is the extra elements
—the “vital impurities.” Others be*
lieve it is the natural origin, the
centuries of blending and curing
Probably it is both. The main point
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Be sure to say “Chilean” when
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See your dealer for Chilean Nat*
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ural Nitrate. Two
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NATURAL
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1M OU> OUOINAL SODA
Nr* got those
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.II I