Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-17
FANS UNABLE To
REACH AGREEMENT
ALWAYS READY TO ARGUE
OVER CELEBRITIES
Hard Luck Story Ever on Tap When
Sporting Event Goes Contrary
to Judgment Of Unfortunate
Dopester

! bilt sc DuBS u your nelEnDOfnOOQ
talk over the sporting results of an
evening at the corner cigar store or
drug shop or rumorium? If you have
you've listened to some mighty jun
bled conversation. The whole bunch
come as near talking all together in
Jumps as any assemblage of ladies at
a sewing circle.
The baseball fans and the horse bugs
who meet up at these talk-fests are
strictly for their own game and no
other. The ball fans show strong an
noyance over the exclusive interest of
the horse bugs in the way the ponies
have run, whereas the horse players
look upon the baseball fans as mild,
but rather Objectionable breed of
idiots.
And so they gather themselves in
little groups wherein their pet obses-
sion is discussed and the result Is an
amount of south breeze that it would
be hard to duplicate at any other sort
of a gathering. The baseball fans and
| the horse bugs are subdivided into op
| timists and pessimists, and they de-
cline to view any kind of a proposition
except from their own angle.
"Well, the home team copped, eh?"
says one of the ball optimists. Huh,
bad, 1 guess! 1 suppose L didn't tell
you plugs last night that 1 had hunch
l suppose 1 didn't?"
"You and your lunches" sticks in
the confirmed baseball pessimist and
knocker. "They just f1uked through
today's game, that's how they got it.
Made five errors-just got the game by
pure bullhead luck. They gotta show
me that"
"weTl, what dye think of that
Three Legs gets beat by a 2year-old
mutt that never even heard of before,
and me with five bucks on him."
means one of the horse bugs. Every
one of the paper pickers gave Three
Legs as the one best best too-all of
'em, said he couldn't lose. Huh! Swell
lot O. swamp crabs, those consensus
makers with their one best bets-and
me falling for it with five bones! Three
Legs couldn't beat a cookstove running
down hill Now, 1 could ha' bet those
five simoleons on that 40 to thing"
Missed 40 to Shot
Huh, l picked that 40 to thing
myself this morning." puts in another
of the disappointed horse bugs. "Doped
him out as a pipesky, even If he had
been running like a mud cat, and 1
came as near as anything putting
ten-spot on him. Only thing that kept
me off was that 1 was afraid they
might put punt lock up-and here he
am bles home at 40 to 1, and me break
ing my neck this afternoon to reach
the phone in time to get my five down
on a lob that they chalk up at to 5.
and that doesn't slam into the money
Prince of all the Patsies-thats mel"
well, what dye think of that parlay
of mine today?" snorts another of the
horse bugs Five of EN- go through
and the other one of 'em runs second
on me-wl1at dye think the parlay ud
have paid? | figured it out a while
ago. It would ha' paid just $67,567.45 to
ST. 1 guess that wasn't the bum luck!
Just pure fat-headed luck, our get
ting that game o. ball, cronks the
chronic baseball knocker "Surest
thing. you know it was. The other fell
lows had to all but lay down and slip
the game to us. They made more hits
than we did, but they must ha' got to
booting the ball all over the yard when
we happened to be poking 1t little.
and that's how it happened. On'y way
we can ever get a game of ball is to
have the other fellows boot it. Now,
if they'd only switch the team around
like I've often told you, and make the
field captain
These ball bugs give me the ear
buzz" growls one of the pony enthus-
lasts. Can't see what they find in it.
Every game of ball is just about like
another. Now, you take horse race
why, every race is different and
81 guess l haven't got Jonah asleep
at the switch when it comes to get it
where Leonora wore the leopard's
teeth" cuts in another of the horse
bugs sadly. ME with twenty pieces
of zinc on that skate that nailed his
race at 20 to l and then gets disquali-
fled. That's the nearest | get to yank-
ing down bet in three straight months
Il tnlt tGAI Taf fGaT-
greasing home at 20 to l. That's the
kind o. roses the old game pins on me-"
Huh, that a mighty big noise they're
making about those long home run hits
that Charlie Hickman made at Cleve-
land" observes one of the grizzled ball
fans "Why, those hits of Hickman's,
far as l can learn. We're just pokes
compared to some hits I saw in the
old days, when ball players really knew
how to play ball-when they weren't
little jumpingjack runts like they are
nowadays, but big, full-grown men that
were there with the clouts all the time.
Why, say, l saw Dan Brouthers of the
old Detroit club paste one once that
sailed so high over the top of the fence
that
Pitchers Are Easy
"Ye-eh anybody could hit those easy
ones that the pitchers of his day lobbed
obviously believed in the superior
prowess of the ball player of today. II
like to see Brouthers and the rest of
the big four bunch of the old Detroit
nine stick up against some of these
pitchers th-t are working today-that's
what l would. I bet they'd saw more
gashes in the atmosphere than bunch
of punk little Texas leaguers,"
This argument as to the merits OF
the old and the present day ball play
ers starts one OF the old-time horse
bugs a-going along the same line
what did the old buddy say about
the od-time ball players goes about the
old time horses. too" he cuts in, adj
dressing his pony-playing group. ITO
hear 'em talking about that Sysonby
horse that died the other day you'd
think he was a sure-enough good
horse! Huh, I'd be willing to lay 10 to
that Hanover could ha' run eighteen
different kinds of smokerings around
Sysonby doing anything from a jump
to four miles. and. when it comes to
sprint, why Salvador or Domino could
ha' made this ROSeben counterfeit that