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Show 'LA UGH WITH ME- NOT AT ME' SAYS BASEBALL CLOWN Whoa! Hey! Huh! f: , - ,-. . " J BY DEAN SNYDER. Why go to .' dentist to take laugh inc 2s when you m go to a ball park ami see Nlek All rock'' You will find it easier to lake and ihe result will beat it farther than Rainbino can sock a horsi skin There's just one Nick Altroek in ih world - big. loTgble, laugh-getting, nutty nut-ty Nick the court Jester and the clown of nur baseball BEHIND MASK Working behind hi mask of buffoonery buffoon-ery he i? as much a part of the game as are its stars. It is Ihe business of Ruth, Cobb, Speaker, Sisler. Ilornsby and olhers lo thrill the stands with their smartness and to make them glow wiih ihe enthusiasm that onh brilliance can produce Put Nick! It's his job to make ilp- fans laugh. Day after day he works on the side lines with all the glory and sensitive-ness sensitive-ness of a prima donna of ihe legitimate legiti-mate stage The stuff It takes lo make folks laugh Nick's got He isn't a made-up clown He was born with the goods on Dim EXPECTS APPLAUSE "Laugh with me. not at me." says Nick. And I hey do. Nick expects applause quite ns much as an actor before the flickering footlights foot-lights of stagedom. accepting it as his due. If he doesn't get it which is seldom sel-dom if ever he is disappointed as a rebuked child He pantomimes, he poses, he acta positively silh He hits balls that wen- never pitched. He fields flies that were never knocked He swims on the dusty chalk lines. He sneaks up on bfttterfliea that were never oc cooned. Sometimes h. tvalk.-. a tight wire 40 feci In the air, ou would judge from the contortions and swaying, he poes through He stands on his head, he dances on his ear Expressions fly on and off his foe" faster, than a wireless wire-less make dots and danhda SWAYS CROWD. His face irn I handsome it would not exactly ho the answer to a maid en's dreamy prayer, but it is a laugh-getter laugh-getter from the very fust takeoff It sways his crow ds quite as convincing ly as a Bill;- Sunday sermon or a Tet-razzini Tet-razzini lullaby. ESver spontaneously comical, his wit ariees to the moment as natural as a steamboat whistles in a log. GIBES HURT HIM. Sharp remarks, concerning Ins per sonai appearance from unthinking bleacherites cut him to the quick. He broods over ihem for day- when off the playing field! Yet on the Ridel n. a he conceals hjs personal feelings be- 'lund a mask of satirical boisterous ' ness. Players are always n the alert to aid him in his stunts All the mana ?ers and umpires are for him. They remember that Nick was once a ha ball star whose name was on every 'one's lip? Those yvere the palmy days for him. OTHER DAYS. Back In 1906, with Ed Walsh. Jess , Tannenhlll and "Due'' White, h-' helped pitch the Chicago White Sox into a pennant. That was the year the Windy City boys were called the "Hitless Wonders " Uut ihe strain of Lookit Me! - 1 ' aBaf ' (that season's work "banned him from jone of the premier southpaws of th-big th-big leagues into a has hi- n He went lo the minors then to eko oui an existence for the rest of his i shattered baseball career. In 1 D 1 2 ' Clark Griffith: brought him to Wash .ngton to do a brother clown. act with the late "Germany" Schaeffer. Ran Johnson frowned on Ihcir stuff. 1 Germany" Ger-many" was banished Irom 'he portals of the park. Nick has slaved on alone, 'unmolested and enjoyed. FANS FOR HIM. The fanr- have come to .n in. ml him j to speak his piece wherever the N;it play. At home thej have been known i" ash their money back when ihe Jester didn't work. Grlff has strict or-Iders or-Iders to brins him to Cleveland and New York on all mad trips. Circus managers have tried to buy 'him out of baseball. The movies have sought to put on celluloid in vain "I'll never quit baseball as long as I can make the fans laugh." he says. ( The ball park is the only atmospher- I have ever known And then, whll I'm doing all those silly things, I can I dream over the old days when I was n legitimate star not a freak jester." LONG GIGGLE And BO Nil k goes about his business of making bascballdom do Its long gig Rle. They say an actress Is no older than her ankle nowadays We might add that Nic k's line is younger than that. I I for he horns a new repertoire every I time he opens his mouth. The chapter which he la writing into our baseball history will last as long as the cows' come home. If you haven t met Nick Altroek your baseball education is still in th" , cornsilk stage and If you ever do see him youre" going to join in on the chorus with "By gosh! Nick s a miracle." mira-cle." . - . :--dakvJ What! Ah! Sssh! |
