Evening star., 1941-05-18

"Okay," Swami grinned. "Okay, Joseph
old boy. won't pick on the poor little ball
players any more"
Joe's face was blank but his lips were tight
shut and his eyes were like a couple of blue
aggies. He'd lost his first brush with Swami
just as sure as if the kid had given him kick
in the pants, and he knew it. Everybody else
knew it too - including Swami.
That was good start; but when we began
transforming, things went from bad to hor-
rible. The team just fell apart in front of our
eyes. The more the boys played the worse
they got and we dropped games to one minor
league outfit after another. Of course we did
take an ll-9 shindg in Little Rock, but as
they'd finished next to last in the Southern
Association the season before, none of us
started spending our World Series cut on the
strength of that notable achievement.
Our fielders booted everything that came
their way. Our pitchers were strictly chuck
andduck. Our hitters got nothing but pop
flies. And it wasn't just one man that went
sour. or even couple; it was the whole team
ExCEPr Swami. In the midst of that blight
he stood out like a wart on a glamor girls
nose. AS one of the writers sad when the
Broncs take the field these days, they con-
sist of Doug Swami and eight remarkable
specimens of uninspired futiity." That may
have been true, but it didn't do the eight re-
markable specimens any good to read about it.
1t didn't do Swami any good. either. Hon
falt ,ba-
saw him strutting around out at second. He
was really good; he could make plays other
guys only dreamed about. But he wasn't sat
istied with that He had to make even the
easy plays look hard; he had to milk the gal
leries for applause when he was doing nothing
but settling under pop fly that anybody
could have caught in their hip pocket without
half trying.
He didn't even stop there. Not the Great
Swami. He had to go out of his way to show
the fans he thought the rest of the cast was
a bunch of stumbebums. Let one of the boys
kick one away, and Swami would put his
hands on his hips and stare at the sky as if
he was calling on Heaven to get load of
what he had to put up with. He backed up
Darrell at first and Tucker at short, and went
out and superintended every catch Weston
made in short right and he did it in way
that made it plain he didn't think his CO.
workers were going to be able to hold onto
the tomato
don't need to tell you that guys can take
just so much of that stuff. 1t was little Dave
Tucker that finally boiled over.
We were playing Birmingham. and in the
third inning Swami tossed one to Tucker for
what looked like the start of sure double
play. Only Dave dropped the ball and all
hands were safe. 1t was just one of those
things, and I've seen some of the best men
in the business make plays just as putrid. But
of course Swami had to go into his act and
make Tucker look even worse. Dawes red
ears could be seen mile away
The next man popped to Darrell for the
second out and the man after that sent
shot to Swami. That lovely character took
careful aim and tossed the ball underhand to
Tucker for force at second He did it so that
nobody would miss the point, and roar of
laughter went up from the stands.
When the boys got back to the bench
Tucker walked up to Swami. Listen" he
said in low voice, you try that business
again and you'll wish you hadn't
Il wanted to make sure you'd catch
Continued on pose 2D