Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-17

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termination" and promise to come back
10 tha old game when the ira ming trains
start south n the spring. Nary a huftIe
That stuff used to work out that way
back before King Philips war. or be-
fore the Mohawks and the Senecas be
san to nov toward the land of the set
ting SUM- but it s the old. shopworn, moth
i:azzled. fringe-ino stuff now. and it
doesn't get the neVer-no-mores a thing
not one thing.
They'll all come back. awaggin' their
tails behind en-. and the ball club owners
know II. Some of EN- may stick quite
a while. and make loud noises through
their teeth, and fiack their arms and
chuck heap of disturbance into the
simple pastoral life of the little villages
where many of EN- hold forth grandly
during the winter months. But they'll BE-
back What time the lush grass begins
IS greening along the rive" banks and
he perch and catfish are beginning TO
rhirk up and take the bait and the non
1luffing ball players are assembling IN
she great mad sad cities to make their
starts down 70 the magnolia country for
The spring train'ng-on, then-then-iS the
tine that the neVer-no-mores are seiZed
with the quick. fushy panic. the fear that.
maybe. after all, the .WhimSy old game
might be carried on through a hull sea
son without them being anywhere near
it-ard then isn't it the rare old sight to
see the stampeded ones Chucking the
shirt and the collar and the old mitt into
the carpetsack and Just beating it-more
than beating it-for the choo-choo kyars!
prosperous" Ball Players.
As simple matter of fact. there has
been good deal of cxaggeration with re-
spect to thu alleged immense prosperity
that ball players are said to wallow in
when they quit the game of ball. About
nine out of ten Of the yarns about how
wealthy tho CHAPS who abandon the game
either voluntarily or involuntarily. pro-
coed 10 get in business enterprises are
pure slumguzzle. not worth d moments
attention. much less credence.
A few. very few. of the ball players
do fairly well when they get out of the
game. But their well-doing IS always by
and through the money they've earned or
pretended to earn in base ball. If they've
been of a saving sort and put their change
snugly by. Some of them start grog-
geries that do mod erately well; others.
hotels; others, little stores and the like;
but they don't get on terms of conpeti
ton with ]. Pierp. Morgan and +. Harr-
man and people like those when they
nudge out Into the general world of men;
not by enough aces to make up the full
house do they. 1t wouldn't be worth
while to advert to The matter at all if
there hadn't been such whole heap OF
eXaggeration with respect to the way
these ball players make good and get the
ttppS COM NIeH tlley TURN LIelT backs
IN the national game"
Few of them. for the Enatter of that
turn their backs" on the: game. Not. at
any rate. before they've got the cold cer-
tain tip that If they DON: make noise
like turning their backs the game is going
to turn them out They stick mostly. as
long as they're allowed to. Then. when
they see that the jig is up; that because
they're crabs. or shirkers. or noody-nad-
dies, or agitators, or something. they're
f,tpNsr TO ' i
low envelope-its then that the great.
great majority of them turn their backs
on the game. It's just is we'll to look at
these facts in the face when the matter
of ball players is under consideration.
Exaggerated Self-Estimates.
In truth. our enthusiasm over base ball
is liable to cause us to get a heap too
Rrgly and sentimental and therefore
ridiculous with resoect to professional
base ball players Their names are lug
gled back and forth. they're rarely named
but to be praised they're in the eye all the
time, and in the course of time they be
come genuine personalities individuals
falsely adjudged as of the same merit as
statesmen. philanthropists, human beings
OF mark and brains and attainments. This
is OVERRIDING 1t. 1t Is the one source of
the enlarged Uranium from which so many
base ball players suffer so acutely. Not
only do they accept all of the adulation
as the stuff that's sure a-coming to them.
but they work themselves into perspira-
ton that would be tragic If it weren't alb
surd when so much as a word of criticism
IS said or written with reference to their
pla wing ability.
But they don't turn their backs" on the
game. Just run over the dope on the
players for the past quarter of century
and observe how many-how few, that is
10 say-have quit the game voluntarily.
Nor do they when they nudge out of the
game. proceed to make folks like Russell
Sag. and ]. Rockefeller look like pikers.
They make ID living. maybe, the great
mass of them. and that's about all
Jl4st as well not to floss and gloss over
facts like these. Just as well to get the
correct angle and then look again from
that point Of view Ball players get all
that is coming 10 them, and then about
$50 per cent more.
And then tiley ''hGller"