human
How are you, Dell, old boy?
gpt
Able to sit up and take nourishment,
human
Most of the boys are that way, laughed Joe.
gpt
There are just two things that every ball player is ready to do, take nourishment and nag the umpire.
human
That poor umpire got his this afternoon, he said.
gpt
With McRae on one side and Everett on the other I thought he'd be pulled to pieces.
human
He was sure up against a hard proposition, agreed Joe.
gpt
The next hardest was in a play that happened when I was on the Pittston team. A fellow poled out a hit that went down like a shot between left and center. A lot of carriages were parked at the end of the field and a big coach dog ran after the ball, got it in his mouth and skipped down among the carriages where the fielders couldn't get at him. It would have doubled you up to have seen them coaxing the brute to be a good dog and give the ball up. In the meantime, the batter was tearing around the bases and made home before the ball got back.
human
And how did his Umps decide it?
gpt
He was flabbergasted for a while, replied Joe,
human
An umpire's life is not a happy one, laughed Iredell.
gpt
He earns every dollar that he gets. I suppose that's what some of us fellows will be doing, too, when we begin to go back.
human
It will be a good while before you come to that, Dell, Joe replied.
gpt
You've played a rattling game at short this year, and you're a fixture with the Giants.
human
I don't know about that, said the shortstop slowly.
gpt
Fixtures sometimes work loose, you know.
human
It won't be so in this case, said Joe, purposely misunderstanding him.
gpt
McRae wouldn't let go of you.
human
Not if he could help it,
gpt
Well, he doesn't have to worry about that just yet, said Joe.
human
How long does your contract have to run?
gpt
A year yet, replied Iredell.
human
But contracts, you know, are like pie crust, they're easily broken.
gpt
What do you mean by that?
human
Oh, nothing, nothing at all, said Iredell, a little nervously, as though he had said more than he intended.
gpt
But to tell the truth, Joe, I'm sore on this whole question of contracts. It's like a yoke that galls me.
human
Oh, I don't know, responded Joe.
gpt
A good many folks would like to be galled that way. A good big salary, traveling on Pullmans, stopping at the best hotels, posing for pictures, and having six months of the year to ourselves. If that's a yoke, it's lined with velvet.
human
But it's a yoke, just the same, persisted Iredell stubbornly.
gpt
Most men in business are free to accept any offer that's made to them. We can't. We may be offered twice as much as we're getting, but we have to stay where we are just the same.
human
Well, that's simply because it's baseball, argued Joe.
gpt
You know just as well as I do that that's the only way the game can be carried on. It wouldn't last a month if players started jumping from one team to another, or from one league to another. The public would lose all interest in it, and it's the public that pays our salaries.
human
Pays our salaries! snapped Iredell.
gpt
Puts money in the hands of the owners, you mean. They get the feast and we get the crumbs. What's our measly salary compared with what they get? I was just reading in the paper that the Giants cleaned up two hundred thousand dollars this year, net profit, and yet it's the players that bring this money in at the gate.
human
Yes, Joe admitted.
gpt
But they are the men who put up the capital and take the chances. Suppose they had lost two hundred thousand dollars this year. We'd have had our salaries just the same.
human
Hello, Red, greeted Joe, at the same time nodding to Burkett.
gpt
How are your ribs feeling, after that bear hug you got this afternoon?
human
That's all right, he said.
gpt
But he never touched me with the ball. And that umpire was a boob not to give me the run.
human
What were you fellows talking about so earnestly?
gpt
Oh, jug-handled things like baseball contracts,
human
They're the bunk all right,
gpt
Bunk is right,
human
What's the use of quarreling with your bread and butter?
gpt
What's the use of bread and butter, if you can have cake and ought to have it?
human
Cake is good, agreed Joe,
gpt
You seem to be taking a lot for granted, Joe, said Burkett, a little stiffly.
human
Who is talking of breaking his word? We've got a right to talk about our contracts, haven't we, when we think the owners are getting the best end of the deal?
gpt
Sure thing, said Joe genially.
human
It's every man's privilege to kick, but the time to kick is before one makes an agreement, not when kicking won't do any good.
gpt
Maybe it can do some good,
human
How so? asked Joe innocently.
gpt
No other club in the American or National League would take us if we broke away from the Giants.
human
There are other leagues,
gpt
Surely. The minors, replied Joe, again purposely misunderstanding.
human
But who wants to be a busher?
gpt
There's the All-Star League that's just forming,
human
repeated Joe, a little contemptuously.
gpt
That sounds good, but where are they going to get the stars?
human
They're getting them all right, said Iredell.
gpt
The papers are full of the names of players who have jumped or are going to jump.
human
You don't mean players, said Joe.
gpt
You mean traitors.
human
It's the only word,
gpt
You can't call a man a traitor who simply tries to better himself,
human
Benedict Arnold tried to better himself, returned Joe.
gpt
But it didn't get him very far. The fellows that jumped, in the old Brotherhood days, thought they were going to better themselves, but they simply got in bad with the public and nearly ruined the game. This new league will promise all sorts of things, but how do you know it will keep them? What faith can you put in men who try to induce other men to be crooked?
human
Well, you know, with most men business is business, as they put it.
gpt
I admit business is business. But so far as I am concerned, it is no business at all if it isn't on the level, answered Joe earnestly.
human
A great many men think they can do something that is shady and get away with it, and sometimes at first it looks as if they were right about it. But sooner or later they get tripped up and are exposed.
gpt
Well, everybody has got a right to make a living,
human
Sure he has--and I'm not denying it.
gpt
And everybody has got a right to go into baseball if he feels like investing his money that way.
human
Right again. But if he wants to make any headway in the great national game, he has got to play it on the level right from the start. If he doesn't do that, he may, for a certain length of time, hoodwink the public. But, as I said before, sooner or later he'll be exposed; and you know as well as I do that the public will not stand for any underhand work in any line of sports. I've talked, not alone to baseball men, but also to football men, runners, skaters, and even prize fighters, and they have all said exactly the same thing--that the great majority of men want their sports kept clean.
gpt
But what's the use of talking? he added.
human
Let the new league do as it likes. There's one bully thing, anyway, that it won't touch--our Giants. Whatever it does to the other teams, we will all stick together. We'll stand by Robbie and McRae till the last gun's fired. So long, fellows, see you later.
gpt
MAN OVERBOARD
human
Been having quite a confab,
gpt
Yes, replied Joe carelessly.
human
Burkett and Red came along and we had a fanfest.