The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-22
cOpYplGHT N25 hYIlNlTED NEVIS

From the case of Carl Mays, let athletes and others take lesson. Never, never threaten to throw your boss over the grandstand unless you
 intend to throw him over the grand . stand, Carl Mays did not suit any ac- tion to the word which thus became
 mere idle gab and now Carl Mays is
 no longer a member of the New York Yankees, nor wanted by any ball club in the American league.
 | Mays had the misfortune to be the
 most cantankerous shift-full of trou-
 ble that ever a club manager had to deal with. He blew down to the Yam | kees from their farm in the reserva- tion of the Boston Red SoX, on the
 wings of a tempest that finally swept
 into the courts and knocked the crown off Ban Johnson's more or less
 noble dome. Then he got himself a
 bad name as a "duster" with the American league hitters, by dusting
 them back from the plate with fast
 balls about the height of the nose
 and just close enough to take the
 buttons off the shirt. With this reputation he found himself almost
 friendless when a bean ball killed Ray Chapman, the shortstop of the
 Indians in the late summer of 192O.
 Ball players believed Mays was dust
 ing" again and let one slip.
 Then he joined one of the many re-
  l ship of the Yankees. Babe Ruth, also was rebel. but the Babe was good politician and when he professed to come into camp and promised to be good he was accepted. Mays lacked | the political craft to engineer any
 thing like that and so when his arm began to slip last spring he was given no chance but to warm up day after day in the bull-pen.
 The days of Mays as a pitcher are not yet over. There is something un der Dver concerning his being waved out of the American league, for Hug gins said only last October that carl Mays could come back all right. Perhaps the other managers simply do not want the care of smoothing his temper always. He is only 3l, a huge man, always in good physical shape and it is only two years since hewounded up two-year streak with 53 victories.
 If Mays had thrown Miller Huggins over the grandstand, Huggins might still have great respect for his throw | ing arm. So it may be set down as a very bad practice to threaten to throw ones boss over the grandstand unless
 one means to give the old man the toss.
 Ping Bodie has been sifted into the discard in the annual shaking of the grate He wound up with the Yer non club of the Coast league and there is nothing for him now but the very small time leagues and very small l time salary.
 Ping was the original fence-buster. He first frightened a corner of the fbig leagues as a recruit member or the White Sox, 3 years ago, swinging his bat in time with the songs they
 had sung about him on the coast, He did well too, for a time but even tually drifted out of the majors.
 However, Ping came back and as q member of the Yankees and room mate of Babe Ruth when the Babe
 was bit of cut-up, he made friends in New York. Bodie always toted
 the Bams bags, collected his laundry
 and attended other little domestic
 chores. For notwithstanding that Ruth had utterly dwarfed his reputa- tion as a slugger, Bodie was fond of
 him.
 Tony Spaghetti" Ruth called him. Worse than that Ping Bodie called
 Ruth.
 Bodie used to sit out in the line of
 chairs in front of the hotels on sum
 mer nights when the club was on
 tour and tell how he loved to "crash
 that old apple."lt became catch
 phrase of the majors for time; it
 was one of the few expressions of a decade of baseball.
 Ping was an unintentional clown. He couldn't outrun a sloth and fly
 balls were always getting away from him as he would tangle his cleats and
 go rolling on his fat nose. But he
 never came in to the dugout without an alibi that would have made jury of landlords weep. Ping helped the Yankees fight their way to the first pennant the New York team ever won and then was sent away. It broke him down for a while because. more than the prize money, Ping Bodie loved to be with a front-running club, and loved to
 crash that old apple" However, he couldn't stay away from a ball-yard long and he came inching back, like kid who had been given a raw deal, but knows he will have to put
 up with it.
 Ping probably will not be of much use except in the very small minors now because he has slowed up very badly. As last resort he tried to pitch so that he would not have much ground to cover, but Ping Bodie was cut out for one thing to crash that old apple" and this time had gone