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Fred A. Mitchell, scout and coach of the Boston National League Baseball Club, has been appointed to coach the University baseball team next spring, providing satisfactory arrangements can be completed. It is understood unofficially that Mitchell will be given a contract of one year. His relations with the "Braves" will remain the same as in the past, except that he will join the club somewhat later than usual.
It was Mitchell's ability to coach pitchers that was responsible in a great measure for the winning of the world's championship by tthe "Braves" in 1914. In March of that year he had in James, Rudolph, and Tyler, three pitchers considered at best only fair performers. At the end of the season these men were considered the greatest trio of pitchers on any team in the country, for Mitchell had not only taught them how to pitch, but had shown them how to save their strength for the time when most needed.
G. A. Davis, 3L., who had been relegated to the minors by the New York American League Club, under Mitchell's tutelage won a no-hit, no-run game from the Philadelphia nine, the hardest hitting team in the league.
Mitchell's coaching of catchers is no less remarkable than his skill in developing pitchers, for Gowdy, a man who had drifted back and forth between the majors and minors, after a few months under Mitchell became the leading catcher of the league.
Nor is Mitchell any less expert as a judge of players, as his remarkable find of Nehf showed.
This is Mitchell's first long engagement as coach of a school or college team, although he did at one time help with the coaching at St. Mark's School, having under him there R. S. Potter '12, captain of the 1912 University baseball team. Last spring he coached the Georgia Military Institute nine with great success.
Mitchell started baseball as a pitcher with the Lawrence club of the New England League in 1897. He was sold to the Boston Americans, who released him to the Athletics in 1902. In 1903 he was transferred to the Philadelphia National League Club, where he remained until 1906, when he was sent to Toronto. While there he suddenly decided that catching was his true position and playing that position with Toronto created such a sensation that he was purchased by the New York Americans in 1912. The latter club had a wealth of backstop material and released him to the Rochester Club, where he remained until Stallings took charge of the "Braves" in 1913
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