The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-10-03
TALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

80 10N
TN ROUTE TO PHILADELPHIA,
l. Pa. oct. 3.-You will read
elsewhere in the news columns
about the purple-tinted complica-
tons which developed in the ninth
inning Of the second game of the
world series between the Cards and
the AS.
But 7 want to talk about the guy who
won the ball game-the guy who put St.
Louis and the National League back IN
the running, the individual who practically
sinele-handed eyened up the annual Oc-
tobcr orgy.
1 refer. Of course. to Pepper Martin. 50
FAR as I have been able to discover Pepper
IS the only name he wants to be known
by. It is a very apt name. There is
more pepper in him than you will ind in
@ Juarez chilli con carne.
What I Ike most about Pepper is the
very obvious fact hat he likes to play
baseball. I will try loosely to describe
him for you. He is a fairly big man. He
has the kind Of shoulders YOU usually see
on University of Nebraska full backs.
Nobody would call him an intellectual,
Indeed, I suspect if YOU called him that
70 his face he would insist that you smile
when YOU said those words. he is finely
trained, clean-faced and belligerent. I am
told that he eats T-bone steaks and Gus
tard pie for breakfast. His fayorite movie
actor is two-gun Hoot Gibson.
The Pepper will not read the newspapers
unless his name is on the TOP Of the
-. 49, H. AT.@TL too Lfr 1nfnsON nf
newspapermen who write baseball is not
high. They arc inst a bunch Of dopes'
h insists-ond mavbe he is right.
The Pepper Chews gum incossantlv. An
advertising company wanted to use his
name to ballvhoo a certain gum. He was
offered $1,000. It was not the kind Of
gum the Pepper chews. He spurned the
grand. It's lousy gum and I don't want
nv name associated with it," explained
the Pepper. A man who can he faithful
to gum can not be altogether bad.
The Pepper is a staggering egoist. and
this is probably the wrong phrase be-
cause he has a sincere belief in himself,
Before the series started he gave out an
interview in which he said: There ain
no pitcher I can't hit He had been
asked what he thought of Lefty Grove.
The interview was given considerable
suacc in the st. Louis gazettes. 1t caused
MANY of the experts to chuckle. But the
Pepper went out and got himself three
hits against the great Grove and stole a
base of him. l say he stole it of Grove
because nobody could have thrown him
out after the lead he had taken.
A ND Friday he got two hits and
"A stole two bases off Earnshaw.
Both Of the hits led to runs, the
only runs made in the game. In
the second inning he doubled and
stole third. The sacrifice was on
but Wilson. the batter, failed to
come through. 1t didn't matter,
The Pepper was on third base at
practically the same moment the
ball thudded into Cochrane's mitt.
In the seventh. he singled to right. stole
second. 1t is hard to do justice to the
Pepper in cold type. I mean there is sc
much eagerneSs and enthusiasm about him
that it leaves you in a sort Of a rapture
and I have no objections to rapture'
when nv team is in there winning.
The Pepper was the big hero in the
dressing room after the game-The Pepper
and Jim Bottomley who made n great
catch to end that uproarious ninth inning
with three on. Bottomley had made {
catch which in the usual run of thing.
would have been little more than ordinary
But because the stage was set for &
dramatic denouement it took on the Shad'
ings Of a masterpiece.
That's all right, too. More power t.
NV man Bottomley. But the guy who vor
the ball game was the Pepper. All Bottom
lev did was to save it. You can't save
ANYTHING that has already been lost.
So the Pepper is in the dressing room
and he is the big hero among his team
mates and he saws to them: These mug
are lust another ball team and I'd like T.,
be batting against pitchers like Grove an'
Earnshaw all my life. They'd never sc
me out"
You are asked to believe that Won ar
listening actually to the Pepper talk. be
cause the incident was relayed to me b.
one Of the Cardinals,
Personally I would not need any con
Armation. It sounds precisely as a Peppe
Martin would talk. And what's more VIII,
shouldn't he talk that way. Grove couldn
yet him out. And neither could Earnshaw
r HAD dinner with Sam Breadol
the owner of the Cardinals, jus
before I left st. Louis Friday night
There is a story in Breadon him
self. He used to be a newsboy II
New York, down on Ninth avenue
He still speaks with a distinct anC
fascinating Bowery lingo. Talking
for instance, of his early days, M
says oily"
what about this fellow MARITIME"
asked.
well. I think he is SWELL snswere
Breadon. you know why-hes got plent
Of fight. The tougher they come the bette
he likes It.. I've noticed that all year
II it wasn't an important series he didn'
seem 10 be trying very hard. But in<th
pinches he always was our star. He wo
the remnant for US. and he'll win thi
series for us -
background. he started out IN WI
Rogers town OF Ardmore, Okla. as
pitcher. Apparently he wasn't much OF
pitcher. In late wears he PLAYED the Out
held and the inhelo, mostly az second g
short. In~Houston TWO years ago ne stol
ss bases. largely because when he got [
frst base ne was not content to sta
there. Last year, az Rochester. anothe
Cardinal farm. which means a place. b
called to the National League.
The Pepper is a very retreshln
character" ADDED Breadon. His only IN
terest aside from baseball is guns. A
OF his money goes into guns. He prohabl
has more guns than Al Capone. or, as
second choice, the United States Army.
n is still living IN the DIME move
DAYS when Buffalo Bill roamed the plsini
He was brought up in the heroic traditio
that the American Boy must shoot q
least fifty Indians before he amounts {
anything. II would never do for US {
VISIT an Indian reserNatinn md takn III