Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-06
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they are there" during all OF their waking
moments with profoundly sage suggestions
as to how the home team should be reor-
ganized. The great trouble with them Is
that they are strangely mercurial In their
hopes and desires and likes ana dlsilkes.
A player who is being tried in some posi-
ton that is comparatively new to him
plays a noble game one day.
Fine work. the fans who know all
about how the team should be organized
say to each other. THAT boys a conner.
He's going to be a wonder. Look at the
ground he's covering He goes after every
thing. Milky the slip-up has he made today.
He's all the candy. Yee-ow, for him! The
team was lucky to have him to put that
Job. He's all the cookies, that's what he
is-whee!"
On the following day that same player
boots a couple of .fficult ones. The chaps
who were all but hugging him to their
bosoms on the day before curl up on him
as IL he'd been caught in the act of taking
the pennies out of the fist of a little girl
on her way to the store to buy pound of
soup meat.
Punk! Awfulr' they bawl at him Take
him outi Keep him out! He's a shoe
maker! He's a dope! He couldn't play
puss-in-the-corner a Kindergarten! Can
him. Plug up that hole! He don't know
the difference between a base ball and an
BCam cheese! All he can do Is to boot I'll
He belongs with one of those grip leagues
on the ten-twent -thirt. circuit! He's an
Uncle Tommer! Back to tuscaloosa! Take
him ow-ow { w-oW-iti'
All of which explains why the ball players
of today are not much on that cap-raising
thing The ball player of only a few years
ago. after executing a fine play. would pull
off his peaked lid and give sort OF duck
ing bows to the hilariously happy fans on
his way to the bench. But the present-day
ball player doesn't go In much for that sort
of thing He knows that, much of a hero
as he may be to them today, he'll be a.
piece OF rained-on cheese-cake to thepa>to-
morrow If tomorrow he happens to boot one
or two. The wonder is not great that there
is generally sort of sardonic, reminiscent
gIeam in the eyes of a preSent-day pail
player when he hears the fans lifting up
their pipes in frenzied acclaim for some
play he has lust got away with, for the
echoes of their scorn and their vitupera-
ton of perhaps only the day before, when
some chance has got by him, may sun be
ringing in his ears. AS to the ball player.
IL Is peculiarly a case of not what he used
to be- nor even what he was the day be-
fore, but what he Is just on the minute
when the fans are there to praise or blame.
The hoarse ones are the ever-forgetful
boys. They can swab out with one swtpe
Of the sponge the memory of half sea-
sons fine batting when the fine batsman,
iapsing for a day, whiffs out three or four
times In row. The ball player has gotta
show the unreasonable ones every time be
gets into uniform, or stand for a roast
Ing.
Hard on the Players Nerve.
Few dyed-in-the-wool fans ever stop to
reflect upon the amount of actual nerve
| and courage ball players are called upon to
| put forth to withstand the knocking to
! which they are subjected throughout
playing season. The players are away from
| home during great part of the season.
| When they're In the other cities they're
| knocked kidded, roasted and bounded per-
petualIy by the fans. Clark Griffith, when
| he's playing at the Highlanders' grounds in
New York, Is q hero to his bunch OF fans,
| and everything that he does there is strictly
all right. But when he gets out on the cir
| cult everybody knows what he gets He
| gets 1t here just about the same as he does
| In the other towns away from New York
| All sorts of roasting phrases are howled at
| him. He's a deep. dark, foxy, there-to-be-
! tumped-upon parsonage to the rams or other
| cities and as soon as he shows his head
| they're after him. Griffith Is only mention
ed as an example. When the Washington
| players get Off on the circuit they have to
stand for the roastings of the fans with
| what fortttude and eQuanimtty they may
| They have to endure an amount or klddlng
| and roasting that most of the other teams
| do not come in for. They're told by the
! foreign fans that they're fine bunch to be
| raising their lamps to a place In the first
| division; that they're lot of quarter
/ horses; that they're all right but that they
/ won't do. and they're picked out by name
/ and yowled and howled at In way that IL
| is pretty haTd Tor grown men uiutT HAT
1 ural strain to endure. All teams away
! from home get the same dose to greater
| or less degree So that ball playing is
/ really thoroughly ungrateful and difficult
occupation. The knocking cuts cruelty
! deep in the cases of naturally nervous men,
| but they've got to hide the fact that they re
| cut And IL they feel any natural resent
| n.ent they've got to cover 1t under the mask
/ of a smiling exterior. When, on top of the
| rough treatment to which all travelling ball
| PLAYERS are subjected when they are away
| from home they inadvertently bring upon
themselves, by temporary lapses In playing
ability, the wrath and unreasonable rage OF
] the home fans, they're in q bad box indeed.
Philosophy Of Lave Cross.
/ Lave Cross. who is far from being a
4 talkative man. was caught in an expansive
moment the other day. and he generalized a
bit on this subject.
II have been mighty lucky, during all the
/ time that I've been playing the game, In
| holding the good will and the kindly feel
/ ing OF the fans in the towns In which I've
played-mighty lucky, modestly remarked
/ Cross But I've seen many a player-and
\ quite few crack players-cut to the quick
1 and rendered all but useless in the game
/ through their getting In bad with the home
/ fans Sometimes these players were 70
/ blame because they foolishly exhibited re-
/ sentiment they felt over the treatment given
| by the fans but often enough they were the
| gnuine victims Of inconsiderate treatment.
II never could exactly understand just
what the homo fans expect to Eain-and.
mind. am now spsakine n general terms.