The Alaska citizen. (Fairbanks, Alaska) 1910-1917, 1913-11-03
That Fighting Spirit
By CHARLES Z, VAN LOAN

ing. Pretty soon he said he thought
he'd quit and go TO bed. Old Mike
said something about fortune hunt
erS. Abe came back at him. one word
led to another. Jake Neustadt horn
ed himself in as aCemaker and in
the end the doll rags was part d
three ways. and three sorer guys
you never saw. Abe said he would
mt ever play another hand of cards
with Mike in his whole life. and ask
ed US all TO bear witness that he
said it. Mike got back by cracking
that Abe was about three hundred
winner on the training trip, and
meant 10 play it safe. When Jake
ulsd 10 get en- TO shake hands he
made IL worse than ever. besides get.
+ ting sore himself and threaten np
to 90 to the floor with both of EN-.
That was just sample of the way
the bad blood got into the team. Be.
fore We left for the North we was
absolutely poisoned with t. There
was forty different grudges and as
many little cliques. 1t would have
made bookkeeper's head ache to
Keep tab on the different quarrels
and the sides the rest of us had TAX
en- on EN-.
And most of EN- started on moth
ing. Somebody got into Billy Breen,s
room one night, took the bed apart
and turned the trunk upside down.
and pulled lot more of that physi.
cal humor-and Billy accused DO
Brooks and Jerry Davidson of 1t,
and said they not only fixed UP hs
room. but read the letters from his
girl. The lie was passed and Bo
and Jerry quit speaking to Billy.
Fred Cushman, the left fielder, got
into an argument with Ted Nc
Curdy, the center fielder. about the
name OF some miserable beetle that
used to run at Hawthorne years ago.
and II likely dead now, and they
stopped speaking to each other.
Charlie kitts-he's a grand little
pitcher, but the worst crab that ever
hved-accused Whitley Blanchard of
breaking his fungo stick Oh purpose.
L YOU want to get ball player real
sore, do something to his fayorite
bat. Put scratch on it, and he'll
fight; break it and he'll murder
you. Charlie had logged that fungo
stick around for two seasons. and
he was sort OF attached TO t. As
matter of fact, the fellow that broke
it Vas me, and it was an accident.
had my own troubles, too Me
and Red Mcpherson had a run-in
over story that one of the news
paper men printed about Red He
said | told the reporters about the
night we went to the niger camp
meeting and Mac got tossed out on
his head. He got back at me by
tipping it off to all the boys that
used to work in a livery stable
in Emporia. Kansas. amt ashamed
OF anyth ng | ever done, of course,
but it kind OF got my angora to
have the reporters writing me up
as Mel Hardy, the equine chamber
m a L t,,ff Ill No. T.
funny, and l thought it was uncalled
for but | made Red set up and
squawk when | told the reporters
about the time he started out to
lick dago bootblack on the East
Side, in New York, and found out
after he came to-that the boot
blacks other name was Young Gro
gan, a cracking good welterweight
fighter
Well, that was the way it went.
The darned microbe was in the air;
we was all acting like little kids
instead of grown men, and the thing
was catching as smallpox. Every
body was doing it, doing it, and the
situation got worse instead of bet
ter. On the way North we didn't
have enough fellows all on speaking
terms to get up whist game. Can
you imagine anything rottener than
that?
Ben Day saw how things were 60
ing and the day before the season
opened he gave us talk. He said
We ought to let bygones be bygones,
and quit playing horse, and do some
thing for the club. Abe Goldbaum
said afterward that he didn't harbor
no hard feelings at all, but if Mike
Fish or Jake Neustadt ever opened
their traps to him he'd run EN-
GREATNESS if it was the last official
act of his life. Mike said the same
to him, and many of EN-. Some of
the men that were the sorest could
not remember what started the
trouble in the first place; they only
knew they had it in for the fellow
on general principles. Silly? Sure,
but that's human nature.
| had an idea that when We got
into the pennant race and had that
worlds series money to think about
we'd forget our squabbles and get to-
gether again. Maybe we would have