Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-04

ure, his swart and finely chiseled counte-
nance and his bush of wavy black hair. he
looked that part right down to the soles OF
his spiked shoes. But the man was modest
to the point of diffidence, taciturn as q
night Waterman, with no more Of that kind
of conceit known as elephantiasis OF the
brain-pan about him than is exhibited by
the possessor of an ingrowing face, and 80
inwardly determined that nobody should
ever have the right to toss the big head
knock at him that he even lacked In right
eous sef-assertiveness in the playing OF
ball games at times. Therefore, Win Mer-
Ger caught the fancy as well as the respect
Of the fans around this town, and he never
lost either the one or the other.
But Mercer caught the horse bug at an
early period Of his ball playing career, and
about the facts can have the least doubt
that the horse bug did more to damage his
playing ability. II not to nudge him along
the off-side path to his distressing death.
than anything else with which the normally
splendid pitcher had to do.
1t might not have been so bad If Mer-
Ger hadn't been born-as he must have
been-with the Indian sign already branded
on him. He was the unluckiest horse
player that ever peered at a dead one wal
lowing along in the rear of a bunch of bad
skates.
GO anyway from me, Winnie" old Dad
Clark once said to Mercer when he hap
pened to run into him on a day off at the
on you at race track break leg or get
q telegram that my house has burned down..
Go anyway from me-.
In different towns around the main circuit
l suppose l met Winnie Mercer at race
tracks often twenty times. ! never
saw him, in those twenty times, cash more
than one ticket. And there was a toll-off
on that one ticket Winnie had played the
three to five thing TO win, and the three to
five thing had run a dead heat with a fir
kin of grease that was chalked up at 40 to
/. The two owners didn't run the thing off
and SO the tickets were split in two. and of
course Mercer got less money back that
time than he had pushed in.
Yet he knew all about the horses had a
students line on the dope, watched the
educated money got the supposedly correct
things from all sorts of in-right racing
people who liked him and were willing to
slip him what they thought was nice and
all like that. And yet with all Of these ad-
vantages, Mercer could never by any
chance get anything at a race track. This
fact obsessed him, got on his nerves and
mind. put hollows under his eyes, kept him
tossing in his sleep. and. ultimately one
must suppose from 4 certain knowledge of
the facts. ruined him absolutely.
Once l saw In the most direct sort Of fash
ion how the horse bug affected MERGERS
| work on the slab. He was pitching q game
| for the Washington club against the New
Yorks in New York on a Brooklyn handi-
cap day. / was unable to break away
| from work on that day in time to make
the track for the dig race, but l found that
l could make the ball game, and so I went
! Before the game Winnie told me that he
liked Sly Fox. the Dwyer three-year-old
| to nail the Brooklyn. and said that he d
! send 500 down to The track on that prop
ostion.
Mercer had the New York club absolutely
| buffaloed for five innings, not a hit being
made off him.
Then, as he was just about to begin to
pitch the sixth. somebody up in the press
! box megaphoned down the fact that Orna-
| ment had won the Brooklyn, Sly Fox, after
leading nearly all the way, Waiting into
/ third positon-and Winnie had only played
| the Dwyer thing to win. l could see the
| shadow of disappointment crossing Mer-
| GERS face. His hand shook as he twiddled
| the ball around preparatory to pitching It,
! He was up in the air then and there. and
| the New York club scored six runs on him
| right off the reel. Winnie being yanked at
| his own request after that carnage.
In brief the horses kept Mercer poor all
| the time. did lot toward sapping his play
| ing ability-and he was great pitcher
! when working with mind at ease-and
| kept him in sort of state of perennial
| eclipse. An abstemious man. he was to all
| intents and purposes, on account of his
| horse playing addiction, almost as unrelia-
BILE, particularly toward the finish, as a
| team member in the habit of trotting off on
| big 5amborees at critical junctures There's
| many well-informed man who'll tell YOU
that Winnie Mercer would pretty surely