Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-21
HOW BALL PLAYERS ARE SLANDERED.

fire extfnguiShers while making their little
welding base ball fans who happened to
look into the car during the journey saw
and heard the weird and wild joyousuess
at one end Of the car, and then they pop
ped back to their own cars and spread the
story that the Boston ball players were
all spiffiicated and trying to eat each oth-
er's ears off. When the mallet wielders got
spreading gait up, and that's how that
story about the Bostons drinking rum a-raii
got going. took one eight hundred-mile
ride with those same Bostons just about
the time this yarn was getting into Its fun
stride. and during all that tiresome jour
ney l didn't see one man. of the club taking
one-eighth of one glass of beer. There
wasn't q button-t TOUGHER among them They
students bound for examination. Most OF
them. in fact. spent most of the time OF
the ride Tin the hay" pounding their
ears"
Yarn About Gambling.
In Detroit last summer there was a knock
going the rounds that half dozen mem
bers of the Detroit team were devoting
themselves so assiduously and so incessant-
ly to gambling In whole lot of different
forms that they had no time nor inclination
to play base ball. One Of these knocks al
legged to be funny, was to the effect that
right after one of the games in Chicago, IN
which the Chicagos had overwhelmed the
Detroit club, one of these alleged gambling
players in going off the field had bawled to
some or his alleged gambling mates, We'll,
come on back to the hotel, fellers, and Wen
settle down to the real national game,
whereupon, right after their meal, they all
sat down and played poker all night for
huge stakes. Another of these yarns re-
cited the story that on the train from De
troit to ST. Louis a craps game had started
up among the members of the Detroit club,
and that on one pass they d chucked the
bones for 5000!
Unique balderdash and moonshine. all
of that. There wasn't man possessed of
the gambling bug in all that aggregation
oC ball players on Detroits list last year
not one. They played poker among
themselves very rare1y-not one-third as
often as the players of most of the other
clubs-and when they did play 1T was
that little 10-cent lint game in which
all hands cash in cents loser or IA cents
winner at the windup of the sitting. L
travelled with the Detroit team for about
month, and there were perhaps four
poker games among them. with no out
siderS in the game except the attached
war correspondents, during that time.
believe Bill Coughlin was the huge win
ner during that month. Bill must have
been fully $2.47 to the good at the con-
clusion of all those sessions at the fever
ish gambling baiZe. There wasn't any
craps game at all among the Detroit
players on the train, much less craps
game at which that mere little bag o
shells, SO 1000, was staked at one chunk
The knock went on to say that while the
Detroit team was In New York all or the
members of the club who weren't booked
to play went to the New York race
track every day and attempted to make
Bookmakers George Wheelock and Sol
Lichtenstein look like ptkers on the
dead line in the free field Not one mem
Der of the Detroit club went to the New
York race track while / was with them
and this in the face of the fact that every
day some good thing was pushed at
them by New York friends, and several
of these good things went through at ing
ures all the way up to 90 to l.
A Cruel SANDER.
A top-notch player belonging to one OF
the western clubs disappeared for three
days during one Of the long series OF
home games in the middle of last sea-
son. The mallet-wielders instantly had
something ia gnaw upon. There was only
one way for them to handicap that situa-
ton: The player had embarked upon one
gigantic, monolithic Brobdignag1an DIV
Vie of a drunk and was lay1n up some
where with the concentrated juice OF the
corn lust dribbIing out of his ears. AS
matter of fact, the player, with the iuli
knowledge and consent of ms manager,
had returned to his eastern home town TO
be with his wife on a certain critical ana
imnortant occasion-the first in the fam
ily The ball player, modest chap, WASH
advertising his domestic happenings, anu
so when he was sent Tor py wire ne J,1se
tipped off his manager, got the WORD 20
on boy, and here's hoping 1t weighs sev-
enteen pounds" and went his way. Ihat
ali there was to that knock. When, at the
end of three days, the player returned,
looking a bit pale about the gins, Tor
he'd been travelling a lot, and his wire
had had a little battle for her HE, tne
rnsllet-wielders took his pallor as COM
nletely confirming It that he'd been en-
"a ged in tossing the long and hlgn ones
into his system during the three Gays Oh
his absence. oo+ober
whose playing never seems to deteriorate'
remarked, off-hand. in a western hotel iop-
INV one evening, II don't feel quite so nm
her as I used to-" Some OF the hammer
smiths happened to overhear the renlarK'
II was all over the western town lmmedl-
ately that this catcher had observed Oh
himself: -os,,, o,d
sll in. | COULDN'T catch the chicken pox az
a bows school. I feel like I'm 1lS years
old. and this is my last year. It's me 70
take in plain sewing after this season m
the worst worn-out old stiff In the busl-
ness" .
Dread the mallet-wielders? Is 1t any
wonder that the oldtimers In the game
who know the knockers power FOR evil
dread EN-? " L. ~