The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-07-21
BALL PLAYING IS
HARD WORK, SAYS
The GREAT EVERS

Johnny Evers, the wonderful second
sacker of the Chicago worlds cham
pions, hands out the following on the
work of a baseball player:
When YOU hear n person give voice to
kthes expression, Ball players have an easy
tinlesof it, you are doubtless inclined to
side in 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 III your belief. A ball player-L
mean, of course. a big Lacquer, for in the
bushes they will often hold onto a man
who is not what he might be. simply be-
cause he's cheap, and good enough to get
by-has a life full of real hard work. In
fact, it safe to declare that of all occu-
pations entailing a remuneration of. say.
IS. 600 per annlini. that of the iamono
artist Is frausht with the most hard work
and trouble.
Men in business who receive large
salaries 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 he has the rest OF his time
to himself. 1t all sounds very fine. but it
comes. Il long way from hitting the target.
Baseball is a good healthy game al
right, and there's much enjoyment to he
had playing it. but when You have to get
out, day III and day out, for six or seven
months, and play, think you not It is likely
to grow rather monotonous and wearisomc?
No matter whether you feel lively or list
less, so long as you can stand up. you nave
to keep at it, and turn out mighty perfect
work. or you'll find yourself looking FOR a
new occupation.
Its no joke, when you're feeling in the
dumps. TO trot out OF al field, with the sun
beating doWn ON YOU, and the temperature
at 10 Or whereabouts, and jump around and
act as though .he. greatest pleasure In the
world for you consisted in running yonr legs
off, and getting in front OF the balls that
.1N coming Eflr WAY at rho rata nf N Y1fIa
II minute.
A persons brain, you all know, is uui.c
likely TO become weary when worked too
nucn. In most cases The brain worker.
when possessSi by this tired feeling. takes
himself off to the country, and enjoys nim-
self FOR a couple of weeks, until his mental
mechanism has recovered lis equilibrium.
But the baseball man, who is essentially
a brain worker, has 10 stick to his lob. no
.lnatter how worked out he feels. Many
Iold the opinion that the great qualification
Tor the basebalist is physical strength.
But they are wrong. To be successful in
the national game, one must be plentifully
endowed with gray matter. It's a case of
think, think all the time, and the fellow
VINO trusts 10 luck and does not see to it
that he has brains under full steam every
minute will not last long.
4 on nave 10 study, both from personal
observation aud from books and news
papers, the peculiarlties Of every man who
plays on any of the teams in the lea que
with you. You have to know Just where
this player is likely to hit an inshoot. and
where he is likely to send a straight ball
or an outshoot.
You have to know how much lead a GER
tain player can be given off a base before
You can catch him mapping.
You have to discover what player is like
~ to lay down : bunt, and what one will
always hit 1t out. Then you will have to
make a study OF the pitchers. 80 that Won
Will be able, once in Il while, to outglcss
( "a nla VI a h.. ,an-n,aL1. . a
What a pitcher Is going to serve up TO
MIN, II will improve his batting ability a
hundred per cent. Then. you haze to get
Into yonr head a long and complicated
series or signal, which cover almost every
Imaginable twist and turn of q baseball
q me. You have TO nave a pretty good set
or brains to get a whole lot of signs down
to such perfection that you can recognize
Item on the instant and act immediately.
though YOU may be almost crazy with ex-
and have a mad mob of 20, 40 or
900 people shrlekins at you.
Ball players, like all other human be-
ings, 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 yon imagine on the nerves than to
winning OF a game which may perhaps
the capturing OF a pennant and the
of thousands of dollars to your
mployers profits, and the s1laries OF yolr
fellow players aud yourself.
The great uncertainty of baseball makes
every player have the feeling that to him
alone Is likely to come the chance to make
Or mar the work OF an entire season. A
little error At a crucial moment, and every
thing Will be lost.
Don't you think that it is quite liable TO
worry a person. who has TO stand there on
The diamond a couple of hours a day. for
perhaps a week at a time, to know that,
any moment, the ball IS perhaps comma
mis- way, and TINT he must make good?
They talk about the great strain that the
Engineer on a fast train works under. He
Toes, 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 almost practically
certain it will. he is running no very great
'isk. The ball player on the other hand
xnows that there is no telling what is about
% occur. For the engineer there are but
courses Of thought, one-if nothing
Freaks, all Is we'll; the other-if anything
appens jump. and but two situations.
For the ball player there are innumerable
OF thought, and, as a necessary
complement, innumerable situations likely
o confront him.. 1t has been said, and
yell said, that no two plays on n ball field
re ever made in just the same way. There
S always something new cropping up, which
las to be dealt with in the least possible
Of a second.