The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-05-19
WHY l AM ON
 THE BENCH
(By John Eyers.)

My put-outs are just about the same as usual,s says John Evers, in a sketch in the June Baseball Maga- zine, explaining why he is on the bench.
 No, am not playing just now. That is nothing unusual I have been out of the game a good deal for quite a. few years. It is habit the umpires have. They like me and don't want. to see me overwork At least that is the way I try to explain the many holidays they have given me
 T have never felt wholly right since I had that severe nervous breakdown some years ago. I don't think any one ever fully recovers from such an attack. And yet I feel fine in every other way save for that arm.
 It came on me very suddenly the
 middle of last season. I was walked from sleep one morning by a severe pain in that arm. couldn't under stand 1t. went to doctor He said 1t was neuritls
 The pain grew worse until it got so
 bad could hardly stand it. And it hung on. That arm ached all the time for months. couldn't sleep. I couldn't do anything. Sometimes at night if I would grip the bed post with that hand as hard as could it would let tip little so could get some sleep. But not a great deal. The club was anxious to have me
 back in the game toward the close of the season The race was very tight
 and they felt they needed me. So they
 asked me to undergo electrical treat
 ment. They were in a hurry to get l,ra 1fG C0 hoI %o +olx ~.sx- treatment. I sat on a platform for l three hours every morning while a strong electric current was passing
 through my body. I kept this up for two months.
 | Then some one thought my teeth might have something to do with it. By that time didn't care what hap pened to me, so I allowed a dentist to take out all his spite on the world on my jaw. He certainly hated the world that dentist He had me seeing stars and rockets. I spent two pleas ant weeks in his operating chair. There l was one tooth in particular that he said was causing trouble Before he got through he proved his statement It certainly did cause trouble It had half Nelson on my jaw. He wrestled with that tooth but he couldn't seem to break the hold. Fin I ally he had to ge me ether. I took a number of long inhalations of that
 sickish sleep-producer and dozed off had some very exhi1arating dreams dreamedNa a muscle-bound ironwork- | e' was pounding my jaw with sledge hammer. It was only the kind hearted dentist trying to pry that
 tooth off me with crowbar. When I I woke up I felt as if had been. run over by a road roller. The dentist
 told me he had a little more work to do on my teeth and for me to come
 back the next day. But when I find a faithful friend I don't want to impose [ on his good nature. I thought he
 had used up quite enough strength
 got out on the street I leaned up
 against a lamp post and drew a few long breaths. Then I forgot all about
 his request. They never come back,
 you know, and didn't want to be an exception.
 l The electric treatment or the ,dy-
 namiting of my jaw did some good.
 The ache went out of my arm. Now 1 it doesn't pain me but it is life1ess, dead. It felt ail right in the spring.
 But after had played few games
 :t bothered me. I couldn't seem to get it to work. So I am laid off
 again for a while. When it gets
 warmer the arm will be in better shape. am sure of it. I am not going to be thrown out of baseball
 for good by a bum left arm It can
 keep me on the bench for a while like an umpire but not for good No, I am only thirty-five years old and I I have got a lot more baseball in my system.