The Washington times., 1929-07-25
ALL TEAMS
HAVE SLOW
PERIODS
BY Babe Ruth

NEW YORK, July 20.-lt 8
funny how quickly things
aan happen to q club in base
hall and how short a time it
takes to change the whole COM
plexion Of q pennant race.
Three weeks ago the Athletics
were breezing along at a fine
hlip. winning all their ball
aanes and gaining every day.
At the same time the Cardinals
were leading the National League
and it loked like no one could stop
ehern. -
Then almost overnight things pe-
tean to happen. Mickey Cockrane
kroke q rib. Jimmy Foxx developed
j charley horse, "Mule" Haas got
aonsil troubles; Boley came up Win
4 sore leg and Max Bishop got eye
trouble. Three of them had to leave
aha lineup entirely and Foxx was
~ crippled for a few days that ne
nouId hardly move around. Naturally
tie Athletics began dropping ball
games. and now instead OF having
8, walk away they've got TO flght
to hold their lead.
The same thing happened TO
the Cardinals. They were breeE-
ing along nicely when q couple
Of their pitchers went Dad.
I Before anyone realized what was
going ON they had lost 10 games
IN q row and instead Of leading
the league they were fighting to
q keep OtIt OF the second division.
IT lust goes to show how quickly
AhinEs can change in baseball and
how little things can upset all the
plans and ideas &C. fellow has.
some fellows find that mighty
hard to understand. The other day
+ mas talking to Lou Gehrig. Lou,
you know, has been In a terrible
ed1,nnp and for ten days he couldn't
hit 8 ball out Of the .infield. He
wouldn't talk to anyone, wouldn' 7
70 anywhere, and groused around
ike 3, little kid. He came up to
NV room one day to see II ] could
ieiI him what was the matter.
'Keep your head mp" ! told
him. ''Tn baseball you've got
tO take things as they come and
STAY in there trying. All Of ms
= have slumps. And IL we al got
down the way you do we'd
&. never get over them. There's
no need going around stepping
on yourself just because things
are going tough. Buck up and
stick In there"
/ don't know whether my little
talk did Lou any good or not but 1t
seemed to me he had more pepper
after that.
My idea Of real ball player is the
fellow who can take the bad breaks
with q grin and come up fighting.
Tony Lazzeri Is the type mean. A
slump doesn't bother Tony any. He
don't like them any more than the
rest Of us-but when one comes he
just gets sore and fights his way
out Of it. And that's what 1t takes
70 make ball player.
Bob Meusel is the sort and so Is
Rogers Hornsby. I've seen Meusel
20 through 10 or IL games without a
hit, and be fighting just as hard
anu GW4uS1AA J0Sk oS AoA0 eAS Az MAJ
al the start. And that's the spirit
that wins. The Athletics are having
their tough row right now. They
went along easy for awhile and now
they're got to take a few bumps.
The same way with the Cardinals.
And the test Of real baseball
greatness isn't these few games
that they win or lose right now,
but the way they fight them
selves out OF their slump and
the way they come back after
taking q few raps.
I've always said that the 1927 and
1878 Yankees were the greatest base
ball team I ever saw. And the
reason they were the. greatest was
mat they had plenty of nerve. They
never knew when they were licked.
and the tougher the breaks were
against them the harder they fought.
The Athletics will win or lose the
pennant within the next few weeks.
And whether they win or lose will
depend on themselves. Their hard
days are with them right now. We'll
see II they can keep their heads up
and stay in there fighting.
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