The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-28
When | Sat On
The BIeaChers
RecolIections of a Big League
Fan
fBy John ]. Evers.. in Baseball Mag
azine.)

Johnny Evers says in the Septem-
Der Baseball Magazine" that there
is one man who has less chance to
become an interested spectator of
ball game from the bleachers than
any other person, and that man IS.
strange to say. the player himself.
The big league star Is confined to his
own schedule, he sees few or no con-
tests outside of his own league, and
even those contests he views from the
bench or az an active participant.
Evers Is an exception to the rule and
he gives some "reminiscences Of the
typical star in the role of spectator.
If the average American youth
were to be asked what he desired to
be in baseball 1T is g. safe bet to say
that a big majority Of them would
answer, 81 would like to be a big
Lacquer" Such is the ambition of
nearly every boy or young man who
has ever handled a baseball and, in
these days when baseball has reached
its present high standard, 1t is an
ambition not to be sneered at.
After playing professional baseball
for nearly a decade, and all but a few
months with the same club, the Chi
cago Cubs of the National League, I
cidents that 4 could recall; little
things that have occurred on the
ball field that are interesting to me
as I recount them and which I know
would be of interest to the fans. But
there is one period Of my connec-
ton with baseball, which to me seems
the most interesting, and that period
dates back to the time before enter
ed professional baseball as means of
livelihood, when I Sat on the
Bleachers"
To many this may sound strange,
Init W. II 10 ho
many notable contests that / have
participated in, nor do / forget the
fact that the team I have always
been associated with has been a top
notcher, four. time pennant winner
in the National League and the win
ner of two worlds championships.
With all the success that has come
to me In my baseball career 1 have
never lost sight of the fact that I
once was only one of the thousands
of fans, who have made baseball the
game it is.
There is a. great deal more in view
ing a ball game from the b1eachers
than from the grand stand or the
choicest box seat of a great sta dunn.
In the boxes or the grandstand you
will usually find the fans who take IN
the ball games as diversion from
business or other cares or those who
may be interested in a certain player
or team But when you sit on the
preachers you cannot help touching
elbows with that rabid bunch Of fans,
who pick apart every play that is
made, who condemn the home or Wis
ting players for not doing this or
that. who, from baseball instinct, can
tell almost what every player of eth
err team has done at the bat without
the aid of a score card, and who in
varia bly, know the batting average of
any player you chance to mention. If
all the baseball sense of the bleach
ers at any big league game could be
centered in the brains of a baseball
team I think that club would be the
best thinking aggregation ever put TO-
gether. In my opinion. if half the
people who have never had the pleas
ure of occupying a seat on the
ing. they would abandon their grand
stand or box seats occasionally and
mingle with the bleacherites. On the
bleachers every play that is made In
a game is replayed and replayed
many different ways, not only as it
was executed, but as it should have
been according to the way of think
ing Of the bleacherites. And don't
think for a minute that these bleach
critics do not have the right dope
many a time.
Since becoming big league player
I have sat on the bleachers, aItnouvh
been there, and only a few weeks
ago, upon the occasion of a visit 20
my home in Troy, / found Just as
much pleasure and felt just as much
at home on the bleachers as former
ly- Lately I have also viewed a
great many games from the grand
stand. and, after playing in SO many