The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-11-09
By Clarence l.. Cullen.

BY this time great majority OF the
bail PLAYERS of the big leagues are well
plunged in the enjoyment of one large,
lollful, lounging rest
They need the rest, and they take IT.
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
season. stake themselves to a period of
thorough relaxation for quite a spell
after the seasons close.
The fellows who've had a little Whiz
constantly in mind during the playing
season. but who've 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-
TEN of getting it off their minds, nat
uraIly enough, consists in enjoying
the WhiZ.
They go to the Whfz with varying de-
grees of earnestness and enthusiasm:
but they all go to it. these players who
have to watch themselves while they're
on the playing job. It knocks em out,
of course just as it does the fellow
who never frivols around a ball yard,
for there isn't any kind of immunity
whatsoever that gives man the
power to ward off katzenjammer,
which is that next morning feeling.
But the players of this particular
type make a clear, thorough job of the
whiZ 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 grog during
the winter league" season. Time was
when a great number of the players
viewed the interim between seasons
as a sort of privileged souse season,
during which they could sort of hang
around the beer mills and Wooze up
and tote a sort of mild, benevolent bun
around with 'em most of them time.
-, he frnr in 6nHy
however. In the first place, most of
the men of that type have been
eliminated from the game by the self
eliminating process. That is to say
they couldn't stand the gaff. Their
habits prevented their standing it,
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.
They Slapped their speed. and found,
upon reporting in the spring, that they
weren't there with it. Their managers
pta|ers, themselves, and viewed the
peggy players, who'd been grogglns
around all winter, with a jaundized
eye. Thus players of this stripe, grad
ually put the skids under their own
and consequently their desir-
ability 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 them
selves during the off 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's
only a little matter of four months
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
who dissipate even mildly during the
off season have to endure agOnies dur
ing the first couple of weeks Of the
spring training, and even then there's
always the chance that the spring
training stunts won't fetch back their
speed and stamina SO they've con-
cluded that the game isn't worth the
candle. They take a little whack at
the hit-it-up business after the final
game, and vortex around for a space:
then they put their heads under the
cold water spigOt, in a way of speak
ing' and let the moisties trot for Ho-
San for the remainder of their foot
loose time.
The married players keenIv enjoy
their reunions with their families.
There aren't any available figures on
the subject but it is within the mark
to state that considerably mors than
90 per cent of the players are married
men, and a great many of them have
r n