Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-09-05

mooch out on hot, sticky, sun soaked,
lot every afternoon ana sweat ana Brunt
around for a couple of hours at the same
old game that most of them have been
playing ever since or before they began to
shave. ~
You can take it from me. if tile aver
age man had date 70 play five or six
games Of casino or blind mans bun or
prisoners base or puss III the cornet
every sumner afternoon out in the open
with thousands of Rowling critics looking
on who think they know more about he
game than the players themselves, he'd
mighty soon forget all about the funny
part of that stun.
.PIavin,. MI! is the hardest work 7
know any thing about. and this doesn't
mean either, that ! haven't done heap
,, Of hard work in NY life besides playing
ball I'm not speaking now, either Of
managing a toam-juat play ing the game
is hard enough.
Or course the young fellows just
nud9inE irto swift COMPANY PICK niue
enjoyment out Of the thing at the start
off. but ! know plenty even of the young
ones in the game nowadays who hate
the sight OF the bus that takes them out
to the grounds.
.The samencss Of the game Of ball is
bound to get on n players nerves sooner
or later Added to this sameness is the
chance every PLAYER has Of making mis-
take at every stage of the game and the
humiliation following the mistake, and
| the boots and jaers Of the crowd and all
like that.
"Flaying the game Of ball every day.
month in and month out, is iridgery and
strain tncdch. but managing q bunch is
--" and the manager of the Highland
ers gave utterance 70 the word that Cen
cral Sherman employed to express his
idea of war.
other wcll-known players in the big
leagues express themselves in VeIJ much
the same Way wien the fun question is
put to them outright. O. Young, tho
veteran Boston American pitcher, is or
dinarily one OF tile most taciturn of men,
line recently expressed himself in pretty
round terms about the fun element Of
baseball, as far as the players are con-
cerned.
IA sooner take a pick and trot out in
I he sun for a couple of hours every after
noon ard chop away at asphalt" was the
Way he expressed it. II think most of the
o'd time pitchers nave got the same way
rt feeling about it, even if they don't
bulge to tie front and saw so.
- pitcher is liable to have the distaste
of the game grow upon him even more
than the other players. The best pitcher
on earth never knows how mes going to
perform when his day to go i'll and work
comes around.
"Ile nay feel all right and work out all
right before the game and vet 90 in and
get slaughtered in the very first inning
and then get dragged ont ana chased to
the bench with the whole mob bowling at
him. The dread of all this Keeps q lot of
pitchers awake nights as their days to go
in and work draw along.
I'D a heap rather work at some corner
of the game when I'd be used every
day than 90 through the strain of figuring
on whether / would be III shape to make
good hen my working days swing along.
Tut | can't see where the ians get
that notion about the fun of il for the
PLAYER of any corner of the game. Ball
playing is toll. and it's more often thank
less toll than not. You can put me on
| record as to that part of it,
Bill CoUShlin, the captain of the De-
trots. dwelt upon the thanklessness of
he ball players ioh in some conversation
he gave utterance to not long ago.
Most Of the work Of the player" he
| said, lis done on the road in the cities of
| the opposition. where the fans are natur-
| ally ag'in him and disposed to pick on
| and ioer him ct every stage Of the route
! strain
| Pail players try. Of course to harden
| themselves against the taunts of the OPP
position fans. hut few of them ever be-
| come really used TO it. though they're of
| course obliged to glIlp it down. Tnera
can't be any pleasure in doing anything in
| you're liable to be hooteu at for the
| slightest mischane, and that's the reason
| why SO many seasoned ball players have
| no NOR" real ZeSt III the game than you
could expect doScatCher to have in his
Worf-for you're t. remember that most
people who watch the dOgcatcher mt work
are ae'in linn and on the side of Tie dog
| George LAWS Of the SoX, who according
to some authorities has been playing the
game ever since the Black Hawk War;
| is another one Of those who frani.Iy. admit
that, While habit is so strong With him
that he can't keep out of the harness, the
game Of ball itself has been drag upon
HIM for good many years now.
ITS jdst treadmill work. when all's
tod, was Davis way Of putting il.
row, forever. It's like walking in cir
Gle.
Why DO | keep on playing the game.
then? Well. willy does man keep on do
pbranGn %
| OF us are fellows who can do just the one
thlng and We don't know of any way to
get out.
The queer part of it, though. is that
NOBODY pletcnds that it's fun to b.. a shoe
clerk, for instance. whereas it appears to
ne the common notion that the funniest
| t!hns on eatth mat you possibly can do
| Is to Play professional BAH for a living
| WHAT'S tie ansWery
| The veteran OF them all, old Jim Nc
| tiure- whose success as manager of the
| boSton Americans is so acrcea Bile to the
| New York fans, expresses very different
views as to the game.
| - sure do enjoy playing ball. he said
ont OF band 1t may be that I'm childish
or simple minded or something, but I'm
| bound to say that I've never got over nv
carry enjoyment in going out on the lot
and lnduleing in a game of ball.
i Nope, the game never got on nv
| nerves little bic and, by the way. I can
easily remember the time when ball play
efs weren't supposed to have such fine
/
guess we won't talk about that part of it.
] Lack Of variety? Why. I've never
seen Two balls games Just alike in all of
the time I've been playing. and I'm not
nudSln2 out 10 the firing line and saying
now many games of ball I've played in
either, but they's been . few. There's al
| ways the chance for a new situation in
| the game of ball as there is in the game
Of billiards: and even if there weren't
there's plenty Of fun and exhiliration and
sort of whatever you choose to call it in
the old game to entertain and amuse me
from the beginning of the season to the
end OF It,
II enjoy the whole scance, from the
warn1up stuff before the game to the trek
| hack to the hotel bound bus. like to
win, but 7 never could see the sense of
the crouch thing wnen it's not a win.
/ II am only speaking of and for myself
remember that There are. know, plen-
/ ~ nf players-good players and good fell
lows too--who are sick and tired of the
game. Bat I can't enter into their feel
| ing Of WEAKNESS for the reason that. as
! ] saw, probably can't understand it. for
I'd Just as lief go on PLAYING the game for
II months in the year If that were asked
| of ne