The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1913-09-05
THE: Bali PLAYER.
he Faces Many Trying 0rdeals
III His Early Experience.
MAKING A BIG LEAGUE CLUB.

.WfnEH&F& sEEaE+S .sE
Fluctuations Of . Veteran Star Who
startsd IN With ! .swsllsd Hsadr
and Got Fired and Then Worked He
Way Back Into Fast Company.
In the American Magazine Hugh 3.
Fullerton writes an article entitled
THE Making Of q Big Lacquer. 1t ~
q true story Of the development Of one
Of the greatest ball players In the
United States az told By himself to
Mr.. Fullerton. This player. or course,
began the game a = boy and. passed
through all the stages from amateur to
minor league teams and then into the
big league. In this early experience he
became a great victim OF the ..swelled
head hit the drst bah pitched when
he went to bat after being told to wait
FOR two strikes and finally lost his posi-
don on the big league team. After
many vicissitudes he lost his .'sweIled
head and got into the big league
again. where today. at thirty-four
years of age. be is one OF the great
veterans Of the game. OF bis final en-
trance into the big league he says:
I'm June was purchased for q
large sum by the club which then was
the strongest In the country. | didn't
say a word about money. although the
club paid over $4,000 for me. The new
manager sat down with me In the
hotel the night l Joined his team.
".Ali I want be said. 10 for you to
get out there and hustle and behave
yourself. I've heard you're hard to
handle. but ri take q chance
"'You won't have any trouble with
me- assured him. AL | want Is q
chance to show that | a play.
".YouM get all the chance you want
be said quietly. You're in the lineup
tomorrow
Stage fright! Did you ever suffer
III | did that night. My nerves
jumping. and a thousand times ! ig-
ured out plays-yes, and made them
in planning what ! would do the next
day.
I'VE wer playing y game against q
team which we figured we would have
to beat out to win the cha mpionship
! pictured myself hitting home runs
and making triple plays. and when l
awOke In the morning I was nervous o
shaky. uncertain and scared ball play
er. 10 practice before the game every
thing hit my way ! either fumbled or
threw wild. al my nerves were rags
The crowd seemed to be sorry for me
when they weren't mockina It was a
relief when the game started.
n was second ut bat In the lineup.
on d foreign f3etd and with n hostile
crowd roaring. The frst man died
sout. .Wait him ont. Take two. said
the manager NJ ! picked up a bat. The
FIRST pitched ball. cut the heart OF the
plate. saw It all the way up and
knew 1t would have been easy to hit 1t
hard. yeti let It 90 Strike one.' the
umpire yelled. and the crowd howled.
was cool as a Boston east wind. The
second ball came whixxing up straight
over the plate with nothing On II. and
! itched to bit Il vet let It "a for the
second strike.
aThen ] settled 10 bit. expecting a
curve ball. The curve Nwent wide. A
fast one went high and wide. figured
that the pitcher thought he had a suck
er at bat and would curve one over.
he came with a fast bail q foot high.
and ! swung at It and struck out. NY
heart nearly got spiked az It sank into
my toes going back to the bench.