The Washington times., 1929-05-28
RUTH TALKS
OF TRAITS
ON FIELD
BY Babe Ruth

un1Ay IuluSS AuPPOh OO
there on the ball field in the
course of a game things that
the fan in the stands misses
entirely. And some Of them
bring q lot Of laughs to the
players.
guess every big league player
has certain pecularities that are part
Of his makeup. There's that little
shrug OF the shoulders that Earl
Combs makes, for instance, when
he's hitting. And Lyn Lary's habit
Of going down for handful Of
dirt on every pitched ball. That's
why Lyn always has a dirty
uniform. He keeps grabbing dirt
and then rubbing his hands on his
uniform.
Mark Koenig is one of the
funniest fellows on the field
know of. Mark sings to himself
all through the ball game. And he
makes up his songs as he goes
along. Like the other day, for in
stance, Mark had kicked two balls
and when a third one come down
toward him he went charging in
for it and singing SO that fellows
ON the bench could hear:
Come on. KOenig, get that
ball. You've kicked two already,
and you can't kick 'em allv'
Mark whistles 4 lot, too, and he's
always kidding out there on the
field. While in st. Louis on the
Western trip, Hoyt was pitching a
tough game. There was runner
on first base, the score was tied
and the batter singled to right.
Hoyt Immediately sprinted over
back 0f third base to back up the
play. Koenig took the throw, made
q sweep OF his arm and tagged
the runner out. Then, almost be-
fore the umpire had waved the
runner out, he turned to Waite.
Hey, Waite, Z he said, tell me,
where do you develop that excellent
running form.
Ed Wells is another player who
has a peculiar habit. All the time
he is pitching, Ed talks to himself
cOngratulating himself il he gets a
hitter and .cussing himself out if
someone gets a. hit 81
That's the boy, Ed,'' he'll say
TO himself when he retires the
side. Those guys can't hit you
with shotgun Z
esHow did that guy ever get a. hit
eft your" he'll ask himself. why
that fellow ought never to get a foul.
off you. The next time he comes
up there 20 to work on him, Eddie,
60 to work on him.
Joe Shalte the Cleveland left
handler is another singing ball
pIayer-though Joe does most Of his
singing before the game. He used
to pick on me every trip-and al
most every day he'd come down on
the bench and sing songs to me
about how the Indian pitchers were
going to stop me dead. Funny
aongs, too, so he'd have the whole
bench laughing.
The nOisiest cOacher in either
Ieague Ii Benny Meyer, now
with the Detroit Tigers. Benny
has 8. voice like fog horn and
he starts exercising IL when the
first batter steps to the plate.
And he's still going strong at
the finish. I guess there isn't
another man i'm baseball whose
yOcio would stand for all that
strain. Benny used to be in
the National League and they
ten . story of Dick Cox, the
former Brooklyn Outfielder, who
was going to initiate Benny on
the coaching lines.
Dick started out well enough,
dancing around and shouting his
head off at every pitched ball. But
at, the end of the second inning he
had to quit. His voice was entirely
gone. Thereafter TIL give inlita-
tions OF Dummy Taylor and not OF
Benny Meyer" he remarked to Win.
bert Robinson when he came back
to the bench.
Art Fletcher is another fellow
who has one of those high, strong
voices that you can hear for blocks.
Art used to be a fire-eater, too, out
there on the coaching lines. He'd
get into more arguments and start
more rumpuses than any, two men
in the big leagues. But Art has
tanned down a lot now. You never
hear him say much any more and
since he's been in the American /
League he hasn't had single argu-
nent or been kicked out of a single
ball game.
ffyonvriShf 1929 hV thu (rbri.t,