The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-10
filter the
season Ends

Night after night the baseball fanatics
who can tell you Charlie Comiskey's stick
record in his first year out gather round
the little stove in the cigar store and
listen to the story of the man who was
brave enough to lead mob of 1000 or
1900 against an offending umpire, or the
tale of the afternoon Dusty Miller soaked
out homer when the score stood 2 10
in the sixteenth.
AT the clubs the little knots gather and
tell each other of the killing Jimmie
Barnes made on a rank outsider at 100 to
l, and of how that Kelly boy pulled the
pony that carried the crowds money for
what should have been q sure WIN
Just memories of the past that's all.
Jimmie Barnes has an oil of Sleepy
Tom hanging in his den and the fanatics
have Lajoie half-tones and that wonder
full batting record always before them,
but these liberal gentlemen who assisted
during the summer months in lifting the
mortgage from the roof of an unfor-
tunate bookmaker, and these fanatics new
er give thought to the plain jockeys,
the ball players the race track touts and
the many others-the stage hands in these
plays of the summer.
The end of the ball season is in sight
Some other town has the pennant as good
as nailed to the mast The crowds fall
away and the players lose interest in the
game. Then the last game of the season
is played, the old guard file out of the
stands, the gates are nailed up and the
held is again the undisturbed home of
the doodle bugs. The players meet the
manager in his Office the checks are dis
tributed and the night trains carry the
wearers of the spangles away. The day
after the close of the season the ball
player has disappeared from his haunts
of the summer months. Where does lie
go?
1t all depends upon the Individual
Some ball players are married men,
who, separated from their families during
the entire summer, put aside the larger
part of their salaries and work and wait
for the day that will see them back home
again.
Some ball players, the majority of them
it might be said, are single men, and this
class is the hardest to trace If the
single man is sober and industrious he
either secures a position in the city that
has been his home during the summer
months. goes back to the farm or returns
to his home town, where he generally
finds employment
If he is not sober and Industrious his
finish can only be guessed at. Perhaps
he will establish headquarters in saloon,
with the white apron until his money
gives out. Again he may finish quick by
attempting to clean UP some well heeled
gambling joint, and sometimes, though it
is hard to say it, he is talked into giving
UP the baseball profession by some UNI
thinking judge, Who forgetting the
day that the game was saved by that J
timely drive, says: "Mr. Sheriff, you viii
deliver the prisoner into the custody of
the warden of the states prison, and to
keep him from brooding over the past,
you will request the warden to work him
hard for the next five years.
The better class of ball players regret !
that men of this stripe are permitted to
break into professional company, and
many of them secretly rejoice when they
hear that some "rowdy'' has been put
where he belongs, but these conditions
must be, for the baseball magnate if !
he desires to be successful, cannot draw
the line anywhere between murderers
row and the state universities or coll
leges.
In a few words, the ball PLAYER re-
sembles much the volunteer soldier. When
the playing season opens he reports for
work. When the season ends he lays
aside the spangles and becomes a plain
citizen. Perhaps he is professional
.nan who sees in baseball a chance TO
enjoy a summer vacation without inter
rupting his fortune building work; per-
maps he is a mechanic or plain laborer.
One or the other he-and in this case he
is the great majority-auietly resumes
his place in the ranks of the citizen army
and takes up his selected work until the
next season swings around.
That finishes the ball players.
The race track jockeys and touts are
left. There are but few jockeys, and In
the main these men are easily accounted
for by their friends. Perhaps they Sc
cure mounts where winter does not inter-
fere with the racing sport. or, better still,
the more prominent riders spend the days
of the overcoat and earmuffs doing the
sporting centers of the two worlds They
have earned good money during the ra-
cling season, and now it is their turn to
be entertained.
No one really cares what becomes Of
the race track tout The name tout
stands for all that is despicable. The
tout comes from the Sums, and when the
race season is over he returns to the
Sums Generally he is too cowardly to
do anything more criminal than to be-