The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1937-05-21


lad in the world because Judge lands
ruled him a free agent and entitled to sell
his services to the highest bidder. He
tells fetO Of his experiences with the
Yankees)
BY TOM HEINRICH
HREE years in professional
l. ball, declared a free agent by
Judge Lands and selling myself to
the World Champion Yankees for
more money than l ever thought
was in the world befOre-its still all
a little bewildering to a small-town
boy.
l guess I couldn't understand any
of it at first. First off, / belonged
to Cleveland. Then l read in a
Montreal paper during the winter
meetings that Milwaukee had
bought me direct from New Or
leans. But Judge Lands cleared a
whole lot up for me. He's the first
real judge I'd ever met.
/ just wanted my case clarified.
I wanted to find out II everything
was on the up-and-up, have the
baseball law of it explained to me.
If you can't get a square deal in
this game, Tom, told myself-and
I meant it, toO-there's no use GO
ing on playing it.
Judge Lands was fine about it. He
didn't try to bulldoze me or trap me
into any admissions. He simply
wanted the truth, and make believe
he didn't get it! Well, l was de-
clared free agent on the first of
April, All Fools Day. l was too ex-
cited to attach any significance to
the date. And as it's turned out, the
joke hasn't exactly been on me.
When 1 arrived home in Massil-
lon there were couple of kilograms
awaiting me, and in three days I'd
had eight major league offers, four
from each league. Perhaps I'D bet
ter not say what they were. 1
weighed 'em all before accepting
the Yankees bid.
had my reasons for doing that.
If I'm ever going to be a major
Lacquer, l want to be with the best
club in baseball. The rest of it is
up to Mr.. Mccarthy.
I haven't been with the Yanks
very long. But never knew there
was so much to baseball. Just sit
ting on the bench through one nine
inning game is a liberal education
in itself. In the minors everything
is sort of taken for granted. But
on the Yanks every player on the
squad is in every play. l feel like
I've been playing for years from
what I've learned already. I never
knew they made 'em as wise as
Tony Lazzeri.
"Always keep your head up, kid"
Lou Gehrig warned me, and the rest
of the gang have given me lots of
other pointers. On this team if
can't learn how to be big Lacquer
I must be pretty dumb.
/ was really weaned on football.
You've heard of the Massillon Tig-
ers and the Canton Bulldogs. They
were playing great pro football be-
fore I was born. I've had my dad
sit down with me by the hour and
tell me about Jim Thorpe, Bob Nash
and the rest of those old-timers.
Nash was a graduate of Rutgers,
and he was the only end ever to
stop Jim from running. But, of
course, dads favorite team was the
Tigers.
Dad used to say to us kids that to
bet on them was safer than put
ting your money in the First Ma
ti0nal bank. From what I've seen
of 'em, that's about the way I feel
about the Yankees, though neither
of us is betting man. Dad
wouldn't let any of us-I've got
three brothers-cven play football.
He's a great baseball fan himself.
He wanted to make me over into a
choke hitter. He said you never
strike out if you shorten your bat
but you never get any home runs,
either.
My brother Eddie is still better
ball player than am and I think he
was an awful chump to chuck the
game and go into business. He's
old now-twenty-five. But Charles
is crazy about baseball. He's only
seventeen years old and is going to
try to catch on with Akron this sum-
mer and come up through the YAM
kee farms. Art is just a fifteen
year-old kid in high school, but he
weighs 1876 pounds already, ten
more than do.
/ came up through the softball
ranks. There was no hardban at
home. But there's no chance to hit
in that racket. The pitchers think
they have a bad day when they
don't fan 20 batters. / bet Nat Ru-
pert has about 1000 no-hitters to
his credit. Hardball's more Of a
| game. Softball isn't exactly fad.
1t offers relaxation to thousands OF
boys.