With the `92 baseball season fading, this may be a good time to demonstrate anew there isn`t much new under the baseball sun. Or an attempt to put things in perspective:
From the baiduhai, Feb. 5, 1917:
Pittsburgh, Pa. (Special)-President Dreyfuss of the Pittsburgh Pirates, speaking of losses incurred by his club during the last three years, said they aggregated $70,000. He has made up his mind to cut salaries as a result.
”I am determined to prune off at least $30,000 in salaries this year,”
Dreyfuss said. ”Last year our salary list was $114,000, despite assertions by eastern writers that we only paid $65,000 in salaries. We are forced to retrench somewhere.”
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From ”A Ball-Player`s Career,” the autobiography of Cap Anson, published in 1900:
”Let me say right here, too, that the visitors had their own umpire with them, and he was allowed to umpire the game. He let Al Spalding do about as he pleased, and pitch as many balls as he wished without calling them, and once when I was at the bat and he could not induce me to hit at the wild ones that he was sending in he fired a vicious one straight in my direction, when, becoming irritated in my turn, I dropped the bat and walked out in his direction with a view of administering a little proper punishment to the frisky gentleman. He discovered what was coming, however, and meekly crawled back, piteously begging pardon and declaring it all a mistake.”
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The Chicago Daily Tribune, June 29, 1918:
”Did you ever see anything so awful?” That was what Buck Weaver had to say after the game, and he continued about as follows:
”I have Cobb out easy at third and Connolly calls him safe. Why, look at my hand where his spikes hit? How could he get in and be safe and still spike me? I tell you any time Cobb slides he`s safe. You know the umpire may come around after the game-after you`ve been licked-and say, `Well, Buck, I might have missed that one.` What good does that do you then? We had two of them out at first, too. I never get the decision when it`s close at first and I`m running. They beat me out of that on the last day in Boston and the next time I saw Connolly he says, `Well, here comes the victim of three close ones. Ain`t it awful.` ”
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Henry Chadwick in the New York Clipper, after the 1876 season:
”Say what you will, gentlemen of the league, you must come down in your price; you must come down to the 25 cent admission fee; and you must proportionately lower your salaries; $1,000 for seven months of such services as a professional ball-player is called on to perform, even when he is not indisposed, is amply sufficient. Catchers and pitchers deserve more than players at other positions, but $1,000 is good pay for them, and $100 a month (for six months) is sufficient for the other positions.”
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Sports writing in the 1880s was featured by a picturesque frankness. A judgment of Jim ”Grasshopper” Whitney by a Boston sportswriter:
” `He has a head about the size of a wart, with a forehead slanting at an angle of 45 degrees, and bears an extraordinary resemblance to the Aztec children, Tom and Hattie, familiar to patrons of dime museums.` ”
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From ”The National League Story,” by Lee Allen, published in 1961, on the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (also known as the Exiles) that won 20 and lost 134 games for a .130 percentage, the worst record in major league history:
”On the last day of the season, at Cincinnati, perhaps under the impression that he could do no worse than anyone else, a cigar stand clerk, Eddie Kolb, who worked at the Hotel Gibson in the Queen City, pitched for Cleveland and was defeated, 19-3.
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”After that last dismal game, the Exiles gathered for a little ceremony and presented a diamond locket to their traveling secretary, George W. Muir.
” `We are doing this for you,` a spokesman said, `only because you deserve it. You are the only person who had to watch us in all our games.` ” – – –
From ”How to Play Baseball, A Manual for Boys,” by John McGraw, published in 1913:
”Catching is a dangerous job but most boys make the position more perilous than it really is by the way in which they handle themselves. The amateur or beginner is inclined to get back too far from the batter. He is usually laboring under the delusion that the further he is from the bat the safer. This is not true.
”The catcher should work up as close under the bat as possible. Catchers are always injured working back from the bat. The ball has a chance to shoot, if the batter makes a foul tip, when the receiver is too far away. Up close, a foul tip is not apt to break a finger because there is not so much time for it to change its direction.”
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From ”America`s National Game,” by Albert G. Spalding, published in 1911:
”The statement will not be successfully challenged that the American game of Base Ball attracts more numerous and larger gatherings of spectators than any other form of field sport in any land. It must also be admitted that it is the only game known for which the general public is willing day after day to pay the price of admission. In exciting political campaigns, Presidential candidates and brilliant orators will attract thousands; but let there be a charge of half a dollar imposed, and only Base Ball can stand the test.”