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Show "a la eaa siaii i aa Miiaaiiiinieiiawaiaai.awiii. ,itf.aatM.li.a.A4.- I ! BLOCK TELLS OF HIS STAR1 . j Cstcher for Chicago Amtrlcan League I I e"'aa- Turn, Isllt of Struggles In f YJJL Getting His Stsrt. f " fesJr DY JIMMY BLOCK. ,. JgT"f 'r,.i,vrii,t. i,v J.m.ph i. II... last ' , . f Fori-Un born boys, and sons of lm , . migrants. It seems to me. are tha j ditchers who are In the majority In I 1 1 the major leagues. I think boys of ' the first generation In America. Bona ' of Immigrants, learn to love the Amer- f 1 Iran game even more than the boys J of this country. Perhaps thst so- , ' ' counts for tho number of them In the ' j ' game today. My people were Polish, although I . 1 ' waa born In Michigan. They went Is) I 5 ' Milwaukee when I waa very younav J J ; They were poor and I had little time J ' for games, slthough I began to play ( baseball before I waa ten yeara old I 1 ' ' They call It the American game, but ! , ' ' j ' you should have aeen our team In MhV wnukee Kvery boy on tha team waa j j c '. ' Polish, so nsturally wa celled tha " f , team tha Shamrocks, and we tackled . I '. I ) ' all tha teama composed of Irish and 1 y ' I I j J ' uerman kids In our end or town. I .!? wsa manager and chief fighter for tha f -i v . club, becsuse wa had to flght whethee I ' k : i wa won or loat a gams. I 'v i I had no Idea of making my living j , out of the game. I worked at any lit thing I could find to do, and played , A f ball all the rest of tha time. Tba T , fghta brought ma to the notlea ot ' iiimt fellows who began to teach ma to box. Wa needed money, ao I started i fighting. When I started I decided I would keep at It until I became chant- plon. I fought 14 fights In one year 1 won 11 and then waa knocked out That convinced me I never could ba a champion, ao I quit that gams and , went to work. Playing baseball gave, me time to learn eomettiliif site. I retried a lot of slda lines and dualled all tha time. In some way a manager ' down at Voralrana, Texas, heard xf J ma and offered me a fair sum to catena. j ' for his team. I worked hard and tried V !0 learn the game better. I bad bard 'A it niggle there, but won out, and Tata- 1 pie, Texas, signed ma tha next year. I From there I moved up to (Jelvetton V 1 Jimmy Block. ' J In tba Taxaa laagua and after alo f progreaa for nearly three yeara work- . '' ed my way up Into tha major leagues, f . i j landing at Waahlngton. I bad not the 1 I natural apeed to be a great catcher ' 1 and lacked a lot of other tblnga. but (f J those thlnga I tried to overcome by J I hard work and study. Minneapolis got ' me from Washington aud tbore I bad ' i ' ' a good year, ao good that the Chicago team tecured my tervlrea. ! It haa beon bard work all the time and I bave been handicapped, but I , have nut been aorry. I atlll love tbo 1 game as much aa I did when a kid , on the lots. When they will not pay ( me a salary any longer I am going to . '" I catch fur nothing. |
