| Show HIS WAS accidental harry mcintire one of the winning pitchers on the chicago team tells of start BY HARRY mcintire copyright 1910 by joseph B bowlen bowles my baseball career was rather an accident from the outset I 1 never bad had the slightest idea of earning my live lahood playing ball or of taking it up as a profession the truth Is a that I 1 was inclined to go into the priesthood when I 1 was a small boy and my other ambition was to be a locomotive en gincer from the time I 1 first can remember I 1 loved baseball ad played it always as a pitcher it the other fellows would let me and when they wouldn t let me pitch I 1 played somewhere else it was at the brothers school at dayton 0 that I 1 first belonged to an organized team I 1 was backstop tor for the catcher and very proud to chase balls that went past him I 1 began to study pitch ing then for we had a good pitcher on the school team and I 1 watched to see what he did to puzzle batters one of the priests had been a pitcher at school and he taught me some mor mors I 1 remember when he told me that keeping cool and never losing the tern tem per was a better way of winning than pitching curves pretty soon our class team let me pitch and after a time we tackled the school team and beat them so I 1 was put on the school team I 1 began to think I 1 knew it all and it took several beatings to show me how little I 1 knew when I 1 left school I 1 was looking tor for a job and a friend of mine who was playing on the kankakee ill Y M C A club asked me to come over there and pitch for that team I 1 looked on it just as a summer vaca tion but made good there and found foun d myself getting along so well I 1 corn com fenced to study pitching seriously as my pro profession it was hard work with many discouragements but I 1 stuck to it every time a batter made a bit hit off me I 1 studied to find why he had hit 4 P I 1 4 N 11 2 harry mcintire it and what I 1 ought to have done to keep him from hitting hard the next season I 1 arrived at danville III and played all summer there was wae a wise old catcher there who taught me a lot and from there I 1 took a couple of 0 big jumps into the big league and have stuck I 1 think the great reason why I 1 hae managed to stick Is that I 1 never have stopped study ing the game and its players if a man gets to know it all he will be in the th bush leagues soon |
