Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-21
Growing and Spreading Power
of a "Knock"-Stories Cir
cuIated With Small Basis
of Truth-The Charge
of Gambling.

and the almost uncanny spreading power
Of the littlest bit OF knock-dread the fan
with the mallet. The fan with the mallet
makes noise like small boy with a new
drum. Worse than that, however, he re-
peats his little self-invented and PERSONAL
ly-conducted knock so often that he event
ually comes to believe it himself. He clings
to the knock through fire and water. He
fights for it like a man battling for home
and hearthstone. It's his'n, and he's going
to stay with It. Just a few OF these mallet-
welding fans are capable of unravehng
ball players carefully maintained reputa-
ton.
To elucidate: A ball playei' wakes up
some fine morning and finds that he has
had the reputation of being a souse thrust
upon him. He is man who perhaps takes
q glass of beer once every three of four
days curing the playing season.
He = standing up before a bar. taking
one Of these rare glasses of malt, in cafe
in his club town some evening. when cou
pie of the mallet-wielding fans, passing
through, happen to catch him In the act.
The KNOCK" Started.
"Ho-ho"' says one of the knockers to the
other. '"Tosser ucl.n' up scuttle of suds,
hey?"
Huh, It's'no wonder he's goin' back in
his work" replies the other spiker, and
they part and go their ways Each has the
sprouting seed of the knock implanted in
his midriff
Il saw Tosser lappin' up a few down
town last night" says one of the mallet-
wielders at the game the next day.
$50 that's the answer. hey?" says the
friend alongside of him II kind o. thought
Yet we ''VAe' "S Il lie ''Ao'' sO' OUT O'0
Look how he's sweatin' in his work-out,'
eXclainis the fan further along the line.
He can't bend over without the old stuff
just pourin' out of him.
Tosser. through pure chance. puts up
rather an off game for him that day, max
ing couple of errors. And in the mean
time the knock has been set on its travels.
Here is the way it develops and grows
by secretion as it is carried down the line
by the malet-wielderS:
They're tellin' me that Tosser's putin
in some hot nights with the old dope-juice
lately"
Fellow was telling me that he saw Toss
er all Stewed up and loCkin' like a dill
pickle in a gale o wind last night
'TosserH be hittin the tobog if he don't
draw in. Heard he was chewln' on the
high balls last night like fox terrier pup
on old shoe"
''Tosser gets tanked every night of his
life-take it from me. I'm there with the
know"
How dye expect we're goin' to have a
ball club with souses like Tosser on the
team? He was lit up the other night
might before the day We lost that game by
a ru0-Nke the headlight of the hulljine
that pulls the Palm Limited"
''Tosser's gettin' so bad lately that they
tell me he has to have coupla cocktails
every morning before he can get his break
fast down.
II hear that Tosser was so edged I'D last
night that he got into a rasslin' match
with cop outside his hotel, and got
clip on the jaw for his'n before the break
away"
well. Tossers goin to be canned. How
/ a iyS asIy
The Knock Attains Full Growth.
yep I'm told he's already got his walk
Ing papers. It's one of those punk yarns
that he's laying up with sore arm-I hear
he's got the jim-jams. with a coupla doctors
working over him night and day."
And there you are. Nor is this any fanci-
full picture of the progress of a knock. l
traced three or four of them. just like this
one. from their beginning to their wind-up
last season. and had the best of opportuni-
ties to observe how the thing works
And in the meantime the ball player who
has thus unwittingly fallen victim to
this kind of hammering, begins to vaguely
wonder why his popularity is waning with
the home fans. He can't figure it out He
may be just bit off his best FORM but he s
working all the time to deliver the goods as
best ne can, and yet he finds that at home
there's a certain slantwise way Of viewing
his efforts, and for the life of him he can't
understand it. Then as a general thing
some friend finally comes to him and tells
him OF the yarns that are cluttering the at
mosphere about his. Tosser's, rummerno
habits. The player, knowing how perfectly
helpless he is to combat such utterly base
less lies, despairs, for ball players, almost
without exception. are an acutely sensitive
class of men. And when the player who
has thus been victimized falls into state
of gloom over the calumnies that have been
spread about him, he Is of course in no
shape to dish out the best of which he Is
capable. He loses heart In his work. He
strains his hearing apparatus for the hiss
that he is sure awaits him at the slightest
break on the field. He subsidies into a rut,
and, very often. his value to team is
wholly destroyed.
The calumnies thus spread about often
embrace the personnel of a whole team.
Knock About the Bostons.
Early last season, for instance. the knock
gathered immense Roadway that Jimmy
Collins troupe had developed into an aggre-
cation of suds artists which accounted for
the Boston teams failure to show any form
whatever at the outset of the season. This
story was particularly widespread in the
city of Detroit. where it seemed as if every
fan believed it implicitly.
AS a simple matter of fact, the story first
got out in Detroit, and thence it spread all
over the country, And. incredible as 1t may
seem, mere Is tIle way that story got out IN
Detroit:
When this Boston team hit Detroit for the
first time, they were bodily sore lot of
| players, for they had been playing in all
kinds of raw weather, and the chilling
| blasts of the field had got into their bones.
| They were stiff and CLASSY as a bunch. In
| Detroit they began to Systematically at
| tempt to rub themselves out of their sore
| ness. They bought a quantity of witch
hazel and alcohol, wherewith to give them
| selves semi-daily rubs for their soreness.
| They all bought their witch hazel and
alcohol at establishment near their De-
| troit hotel, where such goods were sold In
| faskS-fasks that looked like ordinary pint
| whisky TASKS. So, when they quit their
| Detroit hotel the shelves of their room
| closets were found TO be covered and clut-
| tered with these TASKS. The chamber
| maids Of the hotel commented upon this
| fact to the bell-hops. The bell-hops spread
| the yarn around that three or four bushels
| OF booze TASKS had been taken from the
rooms of the Boston players when they
| left their Detroit hotel And there YOU
are again. The Bostons were put Dc Vn
| as amiable old soaks who were just rip
| ping and roaring around the country hav-
| ing a sozzled time of II at the expense of
| the management, and not caring a durn
| whether they played any kind of base ball
| or not. And all the time they were the
really Understanding players and the
| hardest losers of any team in the Ameri-