James Jerpe

James Jerpe (1885 – January 16, 1917) was an American sports writer and columnist, writing for The Pittsburgh Dispatch, The Pittsburgh Post and The Gazette Times from 1909 until 1916.

If harmony and spirit get a club anything the sensational Phillies are getting it: A visit to the bench yesterday revealed the rare thing of a ball club cemented together by warm friendships for the manager and among the men. The old Phils of Dooin days and the youngsters as well, took occasion to whisper a word for Pat. Evidently Pat is a pal as well as a boss.

Quotes

• Official scorers, rule makers and others identified with the statistical end of baseball, should get together soon on a uniform system of scoring, particularly with regard to what is and what is not a base hit. The "baseball uplifters" have ceased their racket; football is over and plenty of time can now be given to a matter that is very important, but which, it seems, has been neglected for many years, particularly last year, when official scorers were hopelessly divided in the matter of scoring a fielder's choice that comes up when a batsman sets out to advance a runner by sacrificing, but gets his base through a play that fails to get the man ahead of him. In some cities they scored this play a hit; in others they gave the batsman nothing excepting a time at bat and still in others the scorers compromised by scoring it a sacrifice hit. A season of this kind of scoring could render team batting figures obsolete. Such a play may come up just often enough in one city where it is scored a base hit to make a material difference in team batting over the club in another city where the scorer does nothing but charge the very successful bunter with a time at bat when a perfect play is made on the man going to second and fails, allowing both runners to land safely.
  • "Uniform Scoring Rules Should Be Drawn Soon," The Gazette Times (December 7, 1912), p. 10

• When a man of his natural physique can eat what he wants, drink what he wants and do what he pleases in the open air all the year around, it isn't any wonder that he prolongs his athletic career and stands off the slowness and staleness that comes to the best of them as the years go by. [...] Honus has a poetic nature in this respect, although he is anything but a poet. But the open air, the trees, the streams and the wild freedom of the woods have a fancy for him, and in this environment only is he happy. Is it any wonder then that he retains his vigor and conserves much of that dash and speed that makes him the annual wonder on the ball field?
  • "Wagner's Habit of Eating When He Pleases Helps Him," Newark Evening Star (December 21, 1912), p. 9

• If harmony and spirit get a club anything the sensational Phillies are getting it: A visit to the bench yesterday revealed the rare thing of a ball club cemented together by warm friendships for the manager and among the men. The old Phils of Dooin days and the youngsters as well, took occasion to whisper a word for Pat. Evidently Pat is a pal as well as a boss. At least every last player is for him and his policies.
  • As quoted in "Dust of the Diamond," Dayton Daily News (June 20, 1915), p. 28

Quotes about Jerpe

Alphabetical, by author/speaker.

• Pitt is credited with having been the first team to identify its football players by numbers on the uniforms. It started many years ago as a bright idea to sell more programs. Yesterday I learned another version from Jim Jerpe Jr., son of a famous baseball writer for the old Gazette Times. He says that when he registered at Pitt, from which he was graduated as a chemical engineer, he was told by the late Karl E. Davis, the then graduate athletic manager, that Jim's dad was responsible for the numbering, which Davis instituted. It seems, according to what Davis said, that Jerpe Sr. complained about the difficulty of covering football games in those days before elevated press boxes, when writers trudged up and down the field, and in protest wrote a story in which he reported that a player named Joe passed the ball to another player named Joe, who took off on a run and was stopped by another player named Joe.
  • Harry Keck, "Sports: West Virginia Not Conceding, Will Be 'Up' for Pitt Game," Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph (October 13, 1959), p. 26

• James Jerpe, the sporting writer of Pittsburg [sic] who has been blind for the two past years but continues his good work in the game in spite of that affliction, may be tendered a benefit game. Johnny Evers is working it up. His plan is for a team of National League stars to meet a team of American League stars, the receipts of the game to go to Jerpe. It is some test of the popularity of a writer when ball players will turn a hand for him.
  • "Sports Snap Shots," The Hutchinson News (June 5, 1916), p. 3