Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-10-25
HOME RUN" BAKER
Gives Good Advice To American
BOys-Himself OF Abstemious
Habits.
SAYS DON'T DRINK OR SMOKE.
A Farmers Boy From Trappe Md.
Gives Interview To New York
Paper.

was biOuShN ui oi d AdilH VI
Trappe, Md.
Having got the taciturn batter to
admit this much, the interviewer
breathed easier and the interview pro-
ceeded little faster.
In 1886, if you want to know the
exact date. | suppose you would like
me to say that began playing base
ball when ! could just about toddle
and made home runs before was out
of the school age. Well can't ac-
commodate you, for it was twenty
years later, in 1906, before / really
got into the game in earnest. /
must admit aways had desire to
shine in the ball field. ] remember
that the other kids took a lot of
interest in the stories of the pirate
and Jesse James kind. while | was
always for the baseball stories.
never wanted to go out and fight In
dians. ! wanted to become a base
ball star So / suppose it was born
in me.
Now, look here; don't go and put
in a lot of CUFF that / don't say at all.
| was no infant prodigy and l can't
recall that ever did anything Won
derful when l played baseball as a
boy. My boy days were the same as
those of any other American kid.
went to the village school at Trappe
and learned about as little as the
other boys did. / had to help on the
farm and i grew up a husky chap,
with no bad habits, a fine, healthy ap-
petite and had as good time grow
ing up as any other country boy.
Don't forget that part. Pm a country
boy, with no city fol-de-rols, and
when l get through playing baseball
back | go to the country and enjoy life
as | am accustomed to. NJ Great
White Way for mine. Trappe is
lively enough for me-"
AT this point the great home runner
showed a tendency to forget the story
of his life and discuss spiked shoes
and Snodgrass, which was not the pur-
pose of the interview
well anyway" said the Home Run
one, as he reluctantly came back to
his own story, "Snodgrasss didn't
come from the same town as me.
Keep that in mind. And, further
more, we are not the friends some
of the players say we are. And as
or my being clumsy in covering the
bag, just let me say that stand like
this-Well, all right. l next played
ball with the Sparrow's Point team
in 1907, and in the spring of 1908 l
hoped to the tri-state league at
Reading, and it was while playing
there that one of Connie Mack's
scouts found me, in the fall of 1908.
! joined the Athletics in the fall of
1908 and have been with them since.
eff any American boy can gather
encouragement from that dope to try
for the bush league with the hope of
getting higher, shall be glad to have
helped him, but pass on the propo-
sition of handing out advice. Excuse
me, | am no silver tongued orator,
and l don't want you to put in lot
cf stuff that never came from me, as
l said before.
There is one thing, though, that
you might put in. don't drink or
smoke. Never did drink or smoke.
If any youngster wants advice from
one who doesn't mean to preach, there
it is. Leave cigarettes or tobacco in
any form alone and don't touch booze
now or at any time. It's the usual
advice and doesn't carry much weight
as a rule, but coming from a ball
player perhaps it may little more to
the American kids.
There is no rule about smoking in
the big league. They don't care for
you to smoke in uniform though.
Some smoke; some don't touch to-
bacco. The managers think the men
are old enough to know their own
minds about such things. Mine is the
total abstainence platform for both
booze and tobacco
In keeping with his lack of osten-
tation Baker lives in a very modest
little house, about block or so from
Shibe Park, Philadelphia. He and
his wife and baby are the star board
ers. Mrs. Baker is Maryland girl,
and is as desirous as her husband of
avoiding the centre of the stage dur
ing the present outburst of enthusi-
asm over the batting success of the
"home runner"
"My one hobby" said Baker in
parting, is cunning. When the sea-
son is over | get back to Trappe as
fast as the train schedule will let me.
l have 70-acre farm, which my
father looks after during the baseball
season. put in the time when not
playing ball in working around the
far and my only recreation is hunt
ing. My wife and l are perfectly
happy down there and we ask nothing
better than to be left alone. We are
country bred and we shall never get
over it,
So the next home run the popular
idol will make will be Trappe, Md.
He likes that kind even better than
the variety that wins the worlds ser
les games.
Concluded