Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-11
INTELLECTUAL GIANTS OF
THE BASE BALL FIELD

Ball players. a class, are not fitted to
fill chairs of Sanskrit in large universities
Some will take offense at the statement
yet 1t Is true. Worse than that few could
become lecturers in philosophy. To such
sad state has the game fallen despite the
influx of what Dad Clarke used to call
them long hairs that spent their paws
money''-by which he meant college men.
The intellectual development of a ball
player Is arrested probably a search
warrant. about the time they begin to
play base ball; and after that stage IT de-
velops along the lines of the game-if 1t
develops at all Tim Hurst. who talks
backward with fine sarcasm at times, calls
them intellectual giants''-just as he used
to call Sammy Thompson a "spendthrift'
when Sammy had the first dollar he ever
earned hanging beside that God Bless Our
Home" sign back on the old Indiana farm.
They know base ball; they talk. eat.
drink and sleep base ball; and what they
don't know outside OF that game, prize
lighting and horse racing, and actors. Ibsen
couldn't supply. They seldom read any
thing but the sporting pages, and only a
few of them ever see anything worth while
in any city they visit. l have known play
ers who went to Washington year after
year and never went inside any public
building. and about all the majority of
them knew about the city Is the hotel. the
station and the ball field
There was player once with the old st.
Louis club under Won der Abe who had
been around the eastern circuit a dozen
times. His home was at Cincinnati. One
day the team was jumping from Boston
to New York and he went to Chris to
ask permission to stop off at Cincinnati
on the way there.
Poor old Tim Donohue as smart a man
educated and interested only In sport, was
sitting in the seat in front of the poker
game during one jump of the Chicago club.
Everybody was Interested in the poker
game. and Tim was laboriously reading
the paper. Suddenly he jumped UP all ex-
cited, and said:
Holy mackere' Did YOU see this In
What is ito demanded some one.
Why, they've got Barney Dreyfuss out
on island In the Ohio river, Pitts
burg. I guess, and are holding him for
ransom.
Ned Swartwood one of the best umpires
that ever braved a bunch Of enraged citi-
zens, once mixed up with couple of the
best ever-Tommie Hess and Bad BIZ Egan
Neither Tommie nor Bad BIZ was familiar
with the three r's-or even one of them
one day Bad BIZ was playing second base
for Springfield Mass. and Tommy was
catching. a runner started to steal and
Tommy threw. Egan got the ball. touched
the runner. who slid circle around second
and landed the base.
Safe" yelled Swartwood, who was on top
of the play.
manded BIZ. Il touched him stopped"
You what?" asked Swarty.
Il touched him stopped" repeated BIZ.
SWartwood scratched his head a moment
a fbgu Walked hack the Dlatp. ''SaV
Tommy" he remarked to Hess. what does
i dunno" said Tommy. What did he
'ae says he touched him stopped"
Tommy scratched his head a minute and
then remarked:
Swarty, he's iggoIunt."
There was another outhelder with the
Boston club in % who made break. We
were sitting around a hotel one day. when
one of the newspaper men inadvertently
spoke OF Martin Luther in support of some
argument. and he quoted Luther.
Il knowed that fellow" remarked the
knew Martin i.uther?" asked one re-
porter.
League. Good hitter, that fellow. and he'd
have made good in fast company if he'd cut
out the booze.
But they're not all that way. and the pro-
portion OF the ignorant i growing less every
year. Nowadays the fairly well educated
ones are the leaders In the teams, and those
who have never been to school even Initiate
and in time acquire a good deal OF the sur
face polish of their better educated fellows
But the fellows who have studied Greek
and Latin don't play any better balI-!f as
Eood-as the boys who pick up their educa-