Traders

Boston's baseball fan is thumbing his nose at the fan of Manhattan. For some ten years Boston, both in the American and National League, has been a clumsy underdog. When potent baseball players came to Boston they were soon sold to stronger teams. Boston has been in or near the baseball cellar long enough to be smeared with the damps and cobwebs of depression. Last week, in one of the most astounding trades in the intricate business annals of the game, Rogers Hornsby, some say the greatest second baseman of all time, went to Boston in exchange for a young catcher and an inconspicuous outfielder.

The imposing New York Giants thus shed a player who ranks in popular imagination with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, the late Christy Mathewson. Manhattan, irate, demanded reasons. The Giants management sat silent.

Baseball writers soon learned that Hornsby had been rude to President Charles A. Stoneham of the Giants. Acting manager of the nine last summer, Hornsby heckled Stoneham when famed Manager John J. McGraw was absent, ill. He suggested he did not like Stoneham; that he would not manage the team until Stoneham evaporated. This was unwise. Stoneham owned Hornsby.

Stoneham offered his potent property to Philadelphia, Cincinnati, to other teams. They offered little in return. Hornsby is notably difficult to handle; the season previous he fought his way off the world's champion St. Louis Cardinals. Boston, bitterly in need of ball players, joyfully talked business.