Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-04

1t is difficult even for training experts to
understand just how professional base ball
players contriye to keep In condition dur
ing the playing season In respect to the
protracted and intense strain base ball
players endure without murmur, without
breaking down, and generally without det-
riment to their speed or their an-around
ability, they are the most remarkable. and
at the same time. the most puzzling body
of athletes In the world. The wonder
should not be that base ball players oc-
casionaIly suffer from charley horse at crit
icai periods in their teams fortunes. but
that the majority of them are rot charley
horsed all the time
Fans who don't use their minas to any
great extent are frequently heard to re-
mark of the ball players, It's pretty soft
for those fellows. Snapsl1y for them!
Bout two hours play a day, just dancing
around and having fun on bali lot, and
the rest of the time just cumming around,
hitting the high places of luxury, and hay
ing a swell time. Pretty soft for those
fellows, that's all We got to say.
OF course. any body who knows anything
about the life of ball players during the
playing season knows that this sort Of
talk is pure nonsense.
In the first place, the travelling business
Is an extremely irksonie proposition for
base ball players. The great majority of
them, except the new players taking their
first look at the cities, hate the travelling
part of their jobs with a deadly and vitri-
Ollie hatred, as well they might The aver
age base ball player takes his travelling
great deal haraer than the average man,
for ball players are a much more highly
strung lot than average folks. They've got
to be high-strung to be speedy. There are
times when ball players a-rail are as nerv-
Gus and peeyisi and fidgety and hard to
deal with as bunch of babies an emf
grant train. They become travel-sore They
get to imagining that they re full of Gin
ders and clinkers. and there are some rail-
roads over which they travel where this
isn't all Imagination, either. They always
travel in the best of sleepers, of course,
but this makes a comparatively small
diminution of the discomfort when they re
virtually travelling all the time.
Players Hate Sleeping Cars.
The average man who takes "a trip from
Washington to Chicago on a sleeping car
has about all the car riding he wants in his
for a long time when he reaches the town
of wind. The STIFFNESS of sleeper has
oppressed him, the night in the sleeping
bunk has stiffened him and taken the en-
thusiasm and heart of him, the lach of Gus
tomary exercise and the eating on the
journey have made him feel heavy and
logey and stupid, and, when he gets to his
chicago hotel. he's mighty willing to splash
around in his tub for while to relieve him.
self of that cindery sensation. to get a
mouthful TO eat and then to slide into the
hay" for a long seance with the sleep
thing. If, after arriving in Chicago, say,
at 10 O'Clock in the morning. he were called
upon to scramble out from between the
sheets at about noon to get ready for a
ride to big lot, where he'd be required to
prance around at a game of SKILL for a
couple of hours and make no mistakes at
his job, either, he'd probably imagine, after
it was all over, that he had performed a
prodigy of endurance and nerve. Yet that's
the sort of thing that ball players are up
against during the entire long playing sea-
SON Ball players learn, in time, to hate
the sight of railroad car. Nor Is this any
fine-ladyish feeling. The clatter of travel