Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 42 | Shipyard Job a Pipe? Listen to this Player!

Shipyard Job a Pipe? 8 S 3 4$ ' & Listen to This Player! To the ball player -who thinks working in a shipyard is a bed of Toses scented with myrrh, listen to the tale of one who is now building ships for Uncle Sam after living a ball player's life for a dozen years. The veteran who gives voice to the following is a former big leaguer who quit the game to work in an essential industry. Here is his liue: They Said It Was Soft. "Say. I never worked a dav in my life. They told me it was soft. Softi Say, I've lived through a hundred spring training trips. I have been sore and worked it out. But not like this. The first three days I felt more humpbacked hump-backed than any mascot we over had. 1 ached like a bone bruise from head to foot. "Can you imagine a ball player getting np at 5:30, riding a half dozen miles and then being handed a monkey-wrench ? They put me to work tighten- HAVE 5TEW Dlti- T0W6HT- 1 j. ing up nuts that no one else was strong enough to tighten. T pulled 11,234,452 nuts tight in one day. That night f looked like one of Mordecai Brown's curves, bent right in the middle. Condition, Oh, Boy! "I never had worked a day in my life. I was strong enough and willing enough, but I went through niue spring training seasons' in one week. I'm no quitter. Ill stick to it; but a fellow isn't much good when he is bent double. But coudition; man, I used to think 1 was in condition when I could SDeed and never feel it. 1 lost more weight in the first twenty-four hours in the shipyards than I ever did in a dozen years playing baseball. Hereafter I'll consider playing baseball a summer vacation. Maybe it is just as hard for a shipbuilder to play baseball as it is for a baseball player to build ships, but 1 doubt, it. Anyho'w, every nut in baseball ought to p"uH oue ou a ship, which would help considerably. "If these fellows think they are dodgiug something by coming into the shipvards I'm due for a big laugh."