- Team Heading South
- Cardinals to Leave for Texas on Same Train With Browns
- Four Cards and Three Brownies Still Unsigned
March 3, 1917 Age 26
BY HARRY P. PIERCE. The St Louis Star and Times
St. Louis’ two major league ball clubs, the Browns and Cardinals, depart tonight at 6:25 o’clock on the Iron Mountain system’s Sunshine Special for their training camps in Texas. The Browns go to Palestine and the Cardinals to San Antonio. Twenty-five players will make up the Browns’ party. The Cardinal squad will be composed of Manager Huggins, Scout Bob Connery, Trainer Al Woods and twelve or thirteen players. Bill Doak, who arrives from Pittsburg this afternoon, will be the thirteenth member of Huggins’ coterie, provided he signs a contract before train time.
All players journeying direct from their homes to the training camps have been ordered to report, ready for work, Monday morning. Huggins has twenty-eight men on his roster. However, there may be a couple of absentees on each squad. Rogers Hornsby, Bill Doak, George Pierce and Bruno Betzel have not signed Cardinal contracts.
Hornsby May Sign Monday
It is believed that Betzel and Rumler will sign up after their arrival here this afternoon. Hornsby and Pierce agreed to confer with manager Huggins at San Antonio Monday. Doak and Marsans are the only holdouts likely to stay away from the training quarters until their salary demands are satisfied.
The Browns reach Palestine tomorrow morning. The players will be quartered at the Redlands Hotel. They are scheduled to begin practice bright and early Monday morning. The squad will remain at Palestine a week or ten days and will then journey to Houston, Galveston or some other city to complete their preliminary training before starting on the strenuous exhibition trip arranged by Branch Rickey.
Easy for Cards Monday.
The Cardinals will not hold their initial training session until Monday afternoon. The main squad reaches San Antonio at 8 o’clock tomorrow night, but the trunks containing the bats, uniforms and other playing paraphernalia will not be unloaded at the Hot Wells until Monday morning. The Hot Sulphur Wells Hotel and training quarters are located in the suburbs, about four miles from the business district of the Texas metropolis.
Jack Miller, Bob Bescher, Dick Niehaus and Jack Smith of the Cardinals reported at Robison Field yesterday. Miller and Smith were holdouts until the last few days. Huggins effected a compromise with Miller on his salary demands. Smith signed up Wednesday when scout Eddie Herr convinced him that the National League would not permit the elimination of the ten-day clause, which seems to be the prime cause of George Pierce’s dissatisfaction.