Spring Training, 1912 Style!

                                                                           Spring Training, 1912 Style

Here’s a nice photo from the Giants Spring training camp in 1912. Someone sent it to my Old-Time Baseball Photos Face Book partner Ron, and after a little sleuthing we were able to determine it was from the Spring training camp in Marlin,Texas. Besides McGraw, we identified Heine Groh (to the right of McGraw), probably minor leaguer Gus Gardella holding the bat, coach Arlie Latham in the middle, and Jeff Tesseau (without the cap). Not sure who the player on the far right is. Check out the dilapidated conditions of the field. Not exactly up to 2016 standards!

Here’s a nice article about the Giants in Marlin. It’s from an article in “Sports Day” by columnist Kevin Sherrington:

“Before Florida and Arizona officially cornered the market on spring training, any big league club seeking hospitable climates spent at least one spring in Texas. And that’s how little bitty Marlin, Texas became baseball’s first permanent spring training site. The White Sox, Cardinals and Reds had trained in Marlin — or Marlin Springs, as it was sometimes known — before the Giants put down roots from 1908-1918.

Marlin fulfilled the desires of Giants manager John McGraw, who wanted a place where the world’s greatest baseball team could train without getting in trouble.
‘My idea of no setting for a pleasure party,’ said the Giants’ fabled pitcher, Christy Mathewson, ‘is Marlin Springs, Texas.’ The team holed up in the Arlington, one of three hotels serving a town noted for its healing waters. Mathewson set up on the front porch of the Arlington for the duration, taking on all comers in checkers.

The team practiced twice a day at Emerson Park, a mile from the hotel. The players walked the train tracks both ways. Between workouts, they took advantage of the hot baths and found entertainment where they could. Occasionally, they might go stir-crazy. One player attacked a Giants coach unprovoked, biting him on the cheek. Others woke sleeping sportswriters with firecrackers. Rube Marquard, Hall of Fame left-hander, fired a pistol from his hotel window out of boredom. When authorities responded, McGraw threatened to take his team and never come back. No charges were filed.

Marlin loved its big league team, and, according to a three-part series in the Marlin Democrat, McGraw loved it back. Every year, the town hosted a fish fry before the Giants headed north. A benefit and dance were social highlights. The Giants became part of the town’s life cycle.

‘I still stick to my assertions,’ McGraw told a local newspaper in 1912, ‘that Marlin with its famous water is the finest place on earth for a ball team.’

Alas, the marriage didn’t last. Baseball broke it up after World War I with travel restrictions. When the Giants returned to Texas in 1920, they jilted Marlin for San Antonio, a popular baseball destination three hours south.

No big league team ever trained in Marlin again. The Arlington was demolished in the ’30s, its bricks used for a high school. A post office sits in its place. Emerson Park, which the town had deeded to the Giants, remained the club’s property until the ’70s. Now it’s a housing project.

From an old fountain in the middle of town, though, McGraw’s famous water still flows.”

-Gary Livacari

Thanks to Don Stokes for help with the identifications

Photo Source -Featured photo from  Higgins and Scott Auctions http://www.hugginsandscott.com;

Others from public domain

Information: Excerpts edited from article in “Sports Day'” by Kevin Sherrington: http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/…/sherrington-giants-manage…