JM»p« Southpaws as Easily ai
lj|W - Handers; Seen as
Otfk Best Center Fielder
Since Taylor Douthit
By I. Roy Stockton,
Os The St Louis Post-Dispatcl
A sturdy Carolina youngster
**f 18 years was fighting ground.
«ax at a baseball trial camp at
Greensboro, N. C., in the fall ol
MM. When he finally overpower
jed one of the grounders, he show
xd a powerful throwing arm as
lie fired the ball on a line to first
base. When the work turned to
totting, the sam'e young man
jtoyed a rataplan against the far
aaway sauces. When he ran, he
stowed smooth rhythmic speed.
Me wasn't an infielder, the
•> snouts and managers and other
•Observers quiqkly paw at that
Seal camp, but they perceived
tosebail ability. They saw he was
>ja tod, a natural athlete. They
- InW him to give up the idea of
fie infield and move out to the
-Sfycbasing department.
Ybday, the same young man is
1 Jon file major leagues, a stand-out
among the new players of 1938
yanrt his potential brilliance may
yw T1 take some of the sting out
* season already marked by
atony disappointments fcfr the
Louis Cardinals.
Bis name is Enos Bradsher
' Slaughter and if he continues to
--fiweiope as he has during his
'Tftwi meteoric career on the
-.Jfiamoiid, he easily can be be-
Jnre October comes, the best
“'iwriri fielder the Cardinals have
’ . tod since Taylor Douthit used to
the terrain in the middle
Ttoiibu for the Redbirds.
after only three brief
of professional experience,
Bans' Slaughter is up in the big
v Jpw*y*nd Cardinal f arm S y S .
— the scouts can take pride
‘*3B*his development and point to
Jtim as a shining example of how
aapidly a young man can ad
,sauce in the club’s great organi
sation—if he has the stuff.
After flashing his obvious, if
>' xrude, qualifications at that
.XSxeensboro camp in the fall of
3934, Slaughter was sent to Mar
tosvilk(Va-) club of the Bi-
State League, where he bombard
rad the fences, easily earning pro
motion. In 1936, he flailed his bat
tor the Columbus, Ga., club of
Bie South Atlantic League, build
ing an average of .325.
M y this time the scouts of the
xxumtry were talking about the
writing young man with the
~stnmg arm, who made all right
feM fences seem too near to the
pkOe, and in the spring of 1937,
"»e reported to the Cardinals’
draining camp at Daytona Beach.
probably needs another
'9BBT in the minors,” the obser
•**ut Frankie Frisch remarked
«after a week of training. “But
Itell be up to stay before long.
.Be seems to have everything
shat it takes to make a big leag.
** * *
P> From One Columbus
Several Notches To Another
Slaughter jumped that spring
jbmn Columbus, Ga., to the A
iiki'if»n Association and imme
diately became the Columbus
*ight fielder. The fans at Colum
tas had liked Nick Cullop, a
hard-hitting right gardener, but
Cfaughter quickly made them
Axgcl that anybody else had ever
patrolled the field. With only
two years professional experien
« behind him, he topped the
American Association in hitting
with the remarkable average of
AB3* the first time in the history
atf toe circuit that a first-year
man stood out as the leading hit
ter.
Besides having the highest
batting average in thie league,
Baoa made the most base hits,
3B; the most total bases, 391; and
waned the most runs, 147. His
BB hits included 42 doubles,
jtS triples and 26 home runs. Al
though be batted in second posi-
Hm virtually the entire season
nft Columbus, he drove 122 runs
joanr toe plate.
■ JW as Slaughter had become 1
:a immediately at Mar. 1
Young Slaughter Gives New Killer Punch To Cardinals:
WWWWWWWWWA WWWWWVWWWWV
Enos, Three Years Off Lots, Says "Call Me Country”
(ARTICLES AND MATS GIVEN TO TIMES BY THE SPORTING NEWS OF ST. LOUIS)
L _ ■■■ ■ ——mJ
•Enos Slaughter./
MINOR. LEAGUE- ROOKIE, IN
tinsville, Columbus, Ga., and
Columbus, 0., so he quickly es
tablished himself when he »e
--ported at St. Petersburg this
spiring and put ion a Cardinal
uniform.
“He’s my right fielder.” Man
ager Frisch said, virtually the
first day in camp. And Slaugh
ter was the right fielder when
the opened, performing
out there every day until Man
ager Frisch decided, May 11,
that somjething would have to
be done about center field.
The Cardinals haven’t had a
regular year-to-year center field
er since Taylor Douthit moved
out of the picture. Pepper Mar
tin had flashed out there and so
had Ernie Orsatti. Johnny Roth
rock had tried it. Terry Moore
filled the bill defensively, but he
didn’t hit up to requirements.
Don Padgett was given a trial,
but he lacked the ground cover
ing ability and so Frisch decided
before the first game of the ser
ies with the Giants at Sports
man’s Park that he’d make a
change.
r “I’m putting Slaughter in cen
ter field,” Frank announced be
-1 fore the game. “And he’s going
t to stay there. He’s young, but I
. think he can make it.”
! Slaughter’s first game indicat
■ ed that Frisch was right. In the
first inning, Hank Leiber hit a
tremenduous line drive to cen
ter. The ball plainly was headed
for the flagpole near the center
, field bleacher wall. Slaughter
| was off with the crack of the bat.
He turned his back to the grand
stand and ran and when he had
gone about as far as he could go,
without interfering with con
crete, he turned, reached out his
glove and hauled down the drive,
nipping a Giant rally and pre
venting at least two runs from
crossing the plate.
Joe Medwick went almost out
, to the wall to congratulate Slau
! ghter and escorted him back to
his position. It was the best bit
of outfielding Joe had seen in a
long time—by a man who also
could lambast a baseball with a
bat.
The Carolina boy, who was a
stand . out in three minor
leagues, earning a place on the
American Association all-star
team, with unanimous choice of
the baseball writers in that
loop, has lived up to his repu
tation as a batter. Enos hits to
all fields, has made a goodly
share of extra-base blows and '
has shown as strong a punch
against left-handers as against
His Batting Makes Hit In Majors
I—v'
SLAUGHTER’S BATTING GRIP «
the supposedly-easy right-hand
ers.
He Got Monicker fit “Country”
From Burt Shotton—
And Liked It
Slaughter is “Enos” to his
tteam-mates, though he has a
parsonally selected nickname, if
anybody wants to use it. While
he was with the Columbus Red
Birds, one of the Columbus writ
ers ran a contest to pick a moni
cker for the young slugger from
Carolina. Hundreds of suggest
ions were made by the fans, but
Slaughter, who was appointed
sole judge, decided that he pre
ferred one that was hung on him
by his manager, Burt Shotton.
Shotton had called Slaughter
“Country” and it appealed to the
youngster, who loves the cows
and chickens and the earth which
his family has tilled through
many generations. Enos still
loves the country and before he’s
through with baseball, he’s go
ing to have a large farm of his
own. He already has a small
tract of land near Roxboro, N. C.,
purchased for him by his bro
ther.
It was on the family farm that
Slaughter acquired the muscles
that ena|ble him to run and
throw and bat so well. Probably,
on the theory that no story of a
farm boy’s life and rise to fame
would be complete without at
least one “tall tale,” somebody
spun one to the effect that Sla
ughter had amazed the Carolina
countryside with his skill as a
rock-throwing hunter. Accord
ing to the yam, Enos spumed
rifle and shotgun, and with only
PERSON COUNTY TIMES ROXBORO, N. C
urn v '<
•AS -A MAJOR. LEAGUER* TODAy....
a hound dog as his companion,
| would wander into the fields
with pockets full of rocks and
come back with a sack of rab
bits, killed at fairly-long range
by the young marksman.
The facts, as Enos relates them,
were that the cow pasture on the
Slaughter farm is a lowland
meadow, down by a creek. In
the evening, when it was time
to get the cows for milking, he
would trudge to the meadow and
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ROXBORO, N. C.
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-• , ...
Carolina Farm Boy Learned How
To Throw Accurately by
Winging Rabbits While He
- Was Going After Cows
on the way, for exercise and a
- bit of meat for the table, he
I would spy a rabbit or two or
I three with his keen eyes, and
■ bag them with well-aimed rocks.
I The hunting with rocks didn’t
I do the Slaughter arm any harm.]
I He can rifle a ball to the plate
I with better than average accura-
I cy, and the strong arm will help
I him as he patrols center field
I for the Cardinals.
I Has the young man any faults
I as a plhyer? Oh, yes, and he
I knows about them. He wants to
I practice on ground balls, which
I still give him trouble, as they did
I when he was trying to be an in-
I fielder. He’s naturally modest
I and retiring, but he’s overcoming
I that under the teaching of Herr
I Frisch, the Gas House Gange
I manager..
I What does he think of the big
league—especially the pitching
i he has to face?
“It’s a whole lot like it was
I in the minors,’’ he explains
] “There are pitchers in the min
ors with as much speed as I’ve
seen up here and some with good
curves. It’s the better control
that makes the pitchers harder
to hit up here.”
Now that farm animals are ac
customed to his electrical fence,
John McElveney of Person Coun
ty says he has to turn on the
current only about once a month.
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By The 10th
Cattle Breeders
Hold Conference
More Than 700 Help Prize 801 l
Celebrate Birthday At
Quail Roost Farm
More than 700 people, includ.
ing cattle breeders from this and
other states, attended the annual
summer meeting and field day
of the North Carolina Guernsey
Breeders association held at the
Quail Roost farm Wednesday.
Plans were approved by the
members for the formation of a
sales organization as a substitute
for Southeastern Guernsey
Breeders association.
Karl B. Musser, secretary of
the American Guernsey Cattle
club, principal speaker at the
morning business session, praised
the Quail Roost farm as a fine ex
ample of what can b.e done in
the development of dairy farms
with the wise application of
capital.
He pointed out that the occa
sion for visiting the local dairy
farms was to celebrate the 14th
birthday of High Point Prince
Maxim, prize bull, who was one
of the principal attractions of
the cattle show, as he ate his
large, synthetic birthday cake
with 40 of his daughters and
three sons looking on, The bull
was purchased by Mr. Hill at a
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SUNDAY, JUNE «, IMS
cost of $7,500.
Members of the aMOtiatttm
passed a resolution asking that
N. C. State college be given «
tract of land, owned by the pris,
on department, for dairy work.
L. B. Compton, president of
the state association, presided
over the business session, George
Watts Hill of Durham delivered
the address of welcome.
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DIAL 4501
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