The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-12
BarOns at Home for Three Weeks
Baseball Is Real Hard Work and
 V0t Ne7e Pasfime, As Some Think
BY JOHNNY EVERS, (Second Baseman, Chicago Champs.)

| when you hear person give Volce tO the expression, Ball players have an easy time of it." you are doubtless in- clined to side with him and agree that we get our money without an awful lot of trouble. But permit me to say you are far from the truth in your belief. A ball player-I mean, of course, a big leaguer, for in the bushes they will often hold onto man who is not what he might be, simply because he's cheap and good enough to get by-has a life full of real hard work. Tn fact, it's safe to declare that of all occupations entailing a re- muneration of, say, 5000 per annum, that of the diamond artist is fraught with the most hard work and trouble. Men in business who receive large ssla- ries and go about at their leisure, with seemingly nothing to do, work, we are told. with their brains But to use the popular phraseology, the ball tosser gets out every day and enjoys himself for a couple of hours playing a good, healthy game, and then has the rest of his time to himself. It all sounds very fine. but it comes a long way from hitting the target.
 Baseball is a good, healthy game, all | right, and there's much enjoyment to be had playing 1t, but when you have to get | out. day In and day out, for six or seven months and play, think you not 1t Is likely to grow rather monotonous and 1 wearisome? No matter whether you feel l lively or listless, so long as you can stand up you have to keep at 1t and turn l out mighty perfect work, or you'll find l yourself looking for a new occupation. | It's no joke, when you're feeling in the | dumps, to trot out on a field with the sun beating down on you, and the tenn perature at ninety, or whereabouts, and i jump around and act as though the great est pleasure in the world for you con sisted in running your legs off and get l ting in front of balls that are coming | your way at the rate of a mile minute. 1 A persons brain, you all know, is quite likely to become weary when worked too much. In most cases the brain worker, when obsessed by this tired feeling, takes himself off to the country and enjoys 1 himself for a couple of weeks, until his mental mechanism has recovered it's equilibrium. But the baseball man, who | is essentially brain worker, has to stick i right to his job, no matter how worked out he feels. Many hold the opinion that the great qualification for the baseballist is physical strength, but they are wrong. | To be successful in the national game | one must be plentfull,. endowed with gray matter. It's a case of think think all the time, and the fellow who trusts to luck and does not see to it that he has 1 his brains under full steam every minute | will not last long.
 You have to study, both from personal 1 observation and from books and news | papers, the peculiarities of every man who plays on any of the teams in the i league with you. You have to know just where this player is likely to hit an in ] shoot, and where he is likely to send a straight ball or an outshoot. You have to know how much lead a certain player can be given off base before you can catch him mapping. You have to dis 1 cover what player is likely to lay down a bunt and what one will always hit 1t out Then you will have to make long exhaustive study of the pitchers, so that you will be able, once in while, to out guess them. If a player can be reason i ably sure of what g. pitcher is going to serve up to him, it will improve his bat ting ability 100 per cent. Then you have to get into your head a long and complicated series of signals, which cover almost every imaginable twist and , turn of a baseball game. You have to have a pretty good set of brains to get whole lot of signs down to such perfec- ton that you can recognize them on the instant and act immediately though you 1 may be almost crazy with excitement and have mad mob of 2O,OOo or 3o,OOo people shreling at you.
 Ball players, like all other human beings have nerves, and again, as in the case of these other humans, those nerves are apt to go bad when too much strain IS placed on them. And what greater strain can you imagine on the nerves than to know that upon you alone de- bends the winning of a game which may perhaps mean the capturing of a pen nant and the addition of thousands of dollars to your employers profits, and the salaries of your fellow players and yourself The great uncertainty of base ball makes every player have the feeling that to him alone is likely to come tho chance to make or mar the work of an entire season. A little error at a crucial moment, and everything will be lost. Don't you think that 1t Is quite liable to ! worry person, who has to stand there l on the diamond couple of hours day, for perhaps a week at time, to know that at any moment, the ball Is perhaps coming his way, and that he must make good? They talk about the great strain that the engineer on fast train works under. He does, but the great strain on | him Is not any greater than that on the ball player. The engineer knows that if everything holds together, as he is all most practically certain it will, he Is running no very great risk. The ball player on the other hand knows that there ] is no telling what Is about to occur. For | the engineer there are but two courses of thought. one-if nothing breaks, all Is well; the other-if anything happens, | jump and but two situations For the ball player there are innumerable courses of thought, and, as a necessary complement, innumerable situations like ly to confront him. It has been said, and well said, that no two plays on ball field are ever made in just the same way. There is always something new cropping up, which has to be dealt with in the least possible fraction of a second.
 I have mentioned few of the different things that the man in the b\ leagues has to overcome before he can say that he has made good might mention many more. but think that I have shown, al sufficient length. just what nervous tension he is every working under. It Is my opinion that his money is well earned and that his work Is not at all easy. might have touched on the fact that the ball player is the source of enormous profits to the ones who employ him. ane consequently should get his fitting share of the profits, but I do not wish to be put down as knocker, because, in real ity, I'm an optimist.
 ments on the water line, and the de- signers have had to resort to the lead