What will Connie Mack do next to the Phillies?

Convinced that the American League was here to stay, the wave of play- ers eager to join it reached tidal proportions, practically wiping fifa 15 coins out the pre-1901 lineups of the Cardinals, Brooklyn, Chicago, and the Phillies. The Phillies were plucked and bled like kosher chickens; only one starter, Roy Thomas, and no pitchers remained from their 1900 team. In Pittsburgh, Barney Dreyfuss was still relatively untouched, having signed his players early with generous side deals. His payroll reached a reported $57,000, high- est in the game. The Pirates would win the 1902 pennant by 27½ games.
One problem in signing new jumpers was that some of them had already signed 1902 National League contracts. Ban Johnson was adamantly opposed to signing contract breakers. Some of his club owners, in collusion with the players, got around that by predating their contracts. Counterattacking National clubs were then forced to backdate their contracts — at higher salaries — to reclaim their jumpers. These shenanigans prompted Ned Hanlon in Brooklyn to complain, “If things keep on at their present rate of signing and cross-signing, some of these players will be holding contracts dated years before their birth.”
Connie Mack reaped his share of this 1902 spring harvest. He captured three more Phillies: outfielder Elmer Flick, a .336 hitter with some power; shortstop Monte Cross, a smart, far-ranging gloveman with a light bat who had played for Mack in Pittsburgh; and right-hander Bill Duggleby, a 19- game winner in 1901. Mack even hired away the Phillies’ groundskeeper, Joseph Schroeder, who brought with him what proved to be an invalu- able bonus. Schroeder’s fourteen-year-old son Robert began by hawking peanuts from a basket and stayed for forty-eight years. Connie Mack sent him to business school; he became the club secretary and a member of the board of directors.
Quipped the North American, “What will Connie Mack do next [to the Phillies]? The peanut and sausage vendors are awaiting the word. The cantilevers remain and someone has removed the bases.”
Mack also captured a prize from the Chicago Orphans, who were rap- idly becoming known as the Cubs: outfielder Topsy Hartsel. The five-foot- five speedster gave Mack an ideal leadoff man, a perennial league leader in drawing walks, adept at stealing a base or an opponent’s signs.

With these additions to the lineup that had finished strong in September, no wonder Ben Shibe, normally a conservative, matter-of-fact gentleman, waxed wildly enthusiastic about the league’s and his team’s prospects for the coming season. Connie Mack, described as “self-contained and imper- turbable as usual,” smiled but avoided predictions.