Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-18 | Page 47 | Strolls through Sportville

Strolls Through Sportville I By WILLIAM F. KIRK. The Days of Frays. Baseball used to be a game for fighting men. Now the players of the rival teams shake hands before the game. Barney Dreyfuss. In days of old, so we are told, By "Barney DTeyfuss, Pittsburg's pride, AH baseball men looked daggers when They saw the men of t 'other side. When Flynn essayed to get a chew Of finecut. from his rival. Stone The latter answered: "Not for you! Go buy a packago of your own!" In days of old, before the game, The rivals glared like fighting dogs; Donlin would laugh at Wagner frame When Honus showed in baseball togs. Bill Bahlen mocked Three-Fingered Brown, And what tha.t doughty twirler said Could not be safely jotted down i Or be by youngsters safely read. -A O Time, thou thief! Bring back the days, The stolen days of years gone by, . " When Dreyfuss "gave a man a raise . For closing an opponent's eye! Bring back the bing, the jolt, the swing, The umpire dashing for his trench, . When ev'ry day was one grand frav And Barney viewed it from the bench. i The Old Spirit. The old-time boys were never .Toys, but Glooms of deepest black. Thev had to poke a rival "when a rival answered back. They used to bet that they could get their hated foes beneath, and had no need to show their speed if they could show their teeth. They never came upon the field to smile upon the foe. Their fighting natures were revealed by taunt, as well as blow. The college youngster breaking in had much the same soft snap as our old comrade Uimda Din, the water-carrying chap. ' When young men join the teams today the older members try to show them all they know of hall and help the kids get by. In davs of old the veterans told the lad who joined the crew: "Hello, you long-shanked busher where in sin did they get YOU?" They made the umpire's lifo a load these 1 old-time playing men though when they cursed at old Tim Hurst he often fined them ten. 'Twas said that once in Louisville, right after a revival, Pat Tobeau had a kindly thrill and shook hands with a rival" but that before the game was o'er ho brooded so like sin that he approached the chap once more and poked him on the chin. Oh, time and change! 'Tis surely strange to think the rears can make a mollycoddle bunch of lambs the old boys' places take. To think that Hugliey Jennings, once a pepper box for fair, can beam upon his plavcrs with a father's kindly air. To think that even John .McGraw a bag of ginger then has softened with the seasons till he smiles upon his men. We do not know why this is so. but when you go to see them show vou '11 see the change and think it strauge that athletes now with placid brow iust don't know how to start a row. J Three Athletes. There was a young runner named Chct, i Who ran to a game of roulette; ' He had so much running At all kinds of running lie wanted to run into debt. There was a high jumper named Lowe, ; Who did a high .jump with a show; The show jumped away lYoni a village one day And left him asleep on Floor O. t There Tas an old skater named ?!iav, Who was cutting a grapevine one day; He had heen at the grapo And wasn't in shape For skating outside a cafe. - .