Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-17
OFF SEASON FOR
THE BALL PLAYERS
Period of Rest in Winter
Warmly Welcomed by
Everybody.
By Clarence L. Cullen.
,ndencc Of The Star.

BY this time great majority Of the
ball players of the big leagues are well
plunged in the enjoyment of one large,
lollful. lounging rest.
They need the res, and they take 1t.
They all break training for at least a
month or two after the wind-up OF the
season. Even the carefulest men, the
chaps who have no habits that require
suppression throughout the playing sea-
con. stake themselves to a period of thor
ough relaxation for quite spell after
the seasons close.
The fellows who've had a little whiz
constantly in mind during the playing
season, but who'ye religiously shielded
themselves from temptation all the time
when they were due to switch into uni
form in time to catch the bus, get the
whiz promptly off their minds when the
last game has been played. Their sys-
tenn of getting 1t off their minds. natu-
rally enough, consists In enjoying the
whiz.
They go to the whiz with varying de-
grees of earneStnesS and enthusiasm; put
they all go to it. these players who nave
to watch themselves while they're on the
playing job. 1t knocks 'em out, OF
course, jus. as 1. does the fellow who
never frivos around a ball yard. for
there isn't any kind OF immunity Whatso-
ever that gives a man the power to ward
of katzenjammer, which is that next
morning feeling.
But the players of this particular type
make q clean. thorough job of the Whirl
Immediately after the season is over. and
then cut the whiz thing out. nine out of
ten of them, for another year There are
mighty few men in the game nowadays
who poke around the grog shops or have
any steady commerce at all with the
ho n.
Time was when a great number OF the
players viewed the interim between sea-
sons as sort of privileged Souse sea-
son, during which they could sort OF hang
around the beer mills and wooze up and
tote sort of mild. benevolent bun
around with 'em mos. of the time Far
be 1t from such these days, however In
the first place. most of the men OF that
type have been eliminated from the game
by the self-eliminatins process. That is
to say, they couldn't stand the gam.
Their habits prevented their standing 1t.
Even though they kept strictly on the
water cart during the playing period,
they wore themselves out hitting UP the
old moist thing between seasons. Ihey
Slapped their speed. and found, upon re-
porting in the spring, that they "eren
there with 1t. And they were not the
only ones to find it. Their managers
found it out even more quickly than the
players themselves, and viewed the iosSX
players who'd been grogging around all
players of this stripe gradually put the
skids under their own ability, and con-
se"uently their desirability as players.
Even the players of this day who find
that they have to maintain a close guard
on their impulses to keep their between
seasons behavior up to par-even THESE
chaps conscientiously make that kind OF
warfare with themselves during the on
season. and it is finely to their credit that
the great majority of them win the fight.
They all know perfectly we'll that there
only a little matter Of four months re-
manning at the end of one season before
they're required to report for the spring
training They keep their minds eye on
that spring training thing, snd that holds
EN- The men who dissipate even mildly
during the off season have to endure ago
MES during the first couple OF weeks OF the
spring training, and even then there's al
ways the chance that the spring training
stunts won't fetch back their speed and
stamina. So they've concluded that the
game isn't worth the candle. They take
little whack at the hit-it-up business
after the final game. and vortex around
for a space: then they put their heads un-
der the cold water spigot. in way OF
speaking and let the moisties trot for
Hogan for the remainder of their foot
loose time.
The married players keenly enjoy their
reunions with their families. There aren't
any available figures on the subject, but
1t is within the mark to state that con-
siderably more than 50 per cent of the
players are married men, and a great
many of them have thriving families OF
young ones. They don't get much chance
to visit with their families during the
playing season. even when they're play
ing on the home grounds. Their days at
home during the playing season are pretty
we'll chewed up with their ball-playing
business. There's morning practice to eat
a hole, and big one, in the forenoon:
and the afternoon game grabs SO big a
chunk out Of the afternoon that they have
the daylight hours. This, of course. re-
fers to the men who keep their wives and
fam lies in the city of the club with which
they're playing during the playing season.
But the vast majority of them don't dc
this. Ball players. almost as rule are
from the little towns. They marry in
their little home towns, and they keep
their wives and families generally speak
ing, in their home towns. There are many
Of the married players who never see
beginning of the training season In the
early spring until the wind-up of the play
ing season in October. These are the men
whose wives and families live In out-of-
the-way places. too far for little offside
jumps while the team is travelling. SO
that 1t may easily be imagined how keen
these fellows are to pick up and dust for
home when Taps has been sounded
over the final game of the season Very
few of these men. with wives and fam
ilies waiting for them. indulge in that
whfZ thing that has been adverted to-
they are paving the ground too eagerly
to get back to the little old plant where
the folks nearest 10 EN- are looking out of
the window to see them hotfoot il down
the path.
/ have known of many instances in
which ball players have been terrifically
eager for the season to wind I'D so that
they could beat it at top speed back home
to see babies that had been born during
their absence on tour. 1 know one poor
chap. for instance. in the American
League, whose wife. living in remote Cal
ifornia-where the player halls from
presented him with son. his first young
one. just two weeks after he had to hike
across the Rockies to this side to take
up his spring training. This fellow is a
perfect bug over children, anyhow, and
every time he sees baby on the street
in baby carriage or in the arms of a
woman. In any city on the circuit, he in
variahly stops to chatter to the kidlet
and shake its foolish little hand in his
huge. hairy one. and he's always a huge
hit with the babies that he thus frater-
nizes with. at that
Well this fellow sure has been on pins
and needles to see that infant Of his
throughout this last playinp sea SON Ia