The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-08


 Nick and Al, to borrow a popular word have gone phhhht! Almost any day you may hear of Nick popping Al on the chin with boxing glove that is loaded with nothing funnter than a horseshoe. Or it may be the other way around-there is a chance that in their little soft-ball game. Al may toss comical 10-pound shot in the general direction of Nick's noble dome. They just don't get along.
 How it started and who is to blame remain untold mysteries. But the fact is that these clowns go through their comedy acts day after day. bringing roars of laughter from the stands-and each hoping down in his heart that the other has Jumps in his gravy.
 LOggerheads
 Your correspondent investigated a. Biloxi, where the Senators trained, having heard toward the close of last season that the two had decided to get as far away from one another as Kamchatka is from Tal- lahassee. I found that wherever Nick was, Al wasn't. Once they found themselves in the same room with several of the Washington baseball writers. and Nick suddenly had to go and see a fellow about a dog.
 There was a well-confirmed rumor to the effect that last year, during one of their clown-boxing exhibi- tions, the two actually swung real lawmakers at each other, and brought them right up from the floor, and no folin'.
 During their winter vaudeville trip, the favorite diversion of the rest of the actors on the bill, it was said, was watching Nick and Al try to push one another into cavernous trap doors off-stage.
 Things being as they are, there Is more than a chance that they will be trying to bend bats around one another's ears in the form of wood en neckties before the season has gone very far along.
 Can't Agree
 "It's their temperaments that clash" says some of the baseball the two for years. Nick is sort of easy-going as a rule, but Al is on fire with ambition. Altrock does his stunts on the ball diamond and after he is through he remains in the background. Al is great fellow to be pushing himself to the front, to keep in the public eye. Al gets sore because Nick doesn't push himself along more. Nick gets sore because Al pushes himself too much. They just can't seem to be friendly"
 Nick, by the way, was once one of tho best left-handers in the Ameri- can League. Pitching for the White Sox of 1906, ''the hitless wonders" Altrock helped the team to win pennant and hurled two fine games in the world series with the Cubs. He won the fit, to l, beating ond, to o, again opposed by Brown. He set fielding record that stood for years, accepting II chances. of which three were put outs and eight assists.
 One of the stories told about Nick as pitcher was his deceptive throw to first base. He used to walk run- nsrs deliberately and then nip them off the bag. Nick used little psychology in this, taunting runners with sticking too close to the bag" then suddenly trapping them as they accepted his dare to take your foot off that bag and you're dead baby.'
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 Nick drifted to the minors after his day with the Sox was done. AL ways tricky in his handling of a ball, he practiced while at Kansas City, and soon Germany" Schaefer, who was doing a similar clown stunt in the majors at that time, invited Nick to come along and become part of the act.
 After Schaefer's death. Nick car ried on alone with his shadow box ing. ball juggling and other stunts for year. Then Schacht came to the Washington club as a pitcher. Clark Grifiith soon decided that as a pitcher Al would make better clown, so he teamed up Nick and Al as coaches and entertainers. In their years with the Senators they have drawn thousands to the park.
 Their "emperamental clash" does not seem to interfere with their work. This year they have been carrying on in the same old slapstick way that delights the fans.
 But, as I said before, watch for A r