The Busher Reenlists
Friend Al: Well Al I was down to see the Dr. for the last time today as he said they wasn’t no use in me comeing down there again as my arm is just as good is new though of course its weak yet on acct. of being in a sling all this wile and I haven’t used it and I suppose if it was my right arm it would take me a long wile to get it strenthened up again to where I could zip the old ball through there the way like I use to but thank god its the left arm that the Dutchmens shot full of holes. But at that it wouldn’t make no differents if it was the left arm or the old souper either one as I have gave up the idear of going back in to the old game.
I bet you will be surprised to hear that Al as I am still a young man just a kid you might say compared to some of the other birds that is still pitching yet and getting by with it and I figure that if I would stick in the game my best yrs. is yet to come. But that isn’t the point Al but the point is that after a man has took part in the war game all the other games seems like they was baby games and after what I went through acrost the old pond how could a man take any interest in baseball and it would be like as if a man set up all night in a poker game with the sky for the limit and when they come home their wife asked them to play a hand of jack straws to see which one of them had to stick the ice card in the window. No man can do themself justice Al if you don’t take your work in ernest whether its pitching baseball or takeing a bath.
Besides that Al I figure that even a man like I am that’s put up like a motor Laura you might say can’t last forever in baseball and why not quit wile you are young and have still got the old ambition to start out in some other line of business that a man can last in it all their life and probably by the time I got to be the age where I would half to give up pitching if I stuck at it, why by that time I can work myself up to the head of some business where I would be drawing $15,000.00 per annum or something and no danger of getting kicked out of it when the old souper finely lays down on me.
And besides that when a man has got a wife and 2 kiddies that the whole 3 of them has got the world beat why should I go out and pitch baseball and be away from home ½ the yr. around where if I hooked up good in some business here in Chi I wouldn’t never half to leave except maybe a run down to N.Y. city once or twice a yr. So in justice to them and myself I don’t see nothing to it only give up the game for good in all and get in to something permerant.
Well Al I suppose you will be saying to yourself that I haven’t never had no experience in business and what kind of business could I get in to that would pay me the right kind of money. Well old pal if you will stop and think I haven’t never tackled no job yet where I didn’t make good and in the 1st place it was pitching baseball and I hadn’t only been pitching a little over 2 yrs. when I was in the big league and then come the war game and I was made a corporal a few wks. after I enlisted and might of stayed a corporal or went higher yet only I would rather pal around with the boys and not try and lord it over them and you can bet it won’t be no different in whatever business I decide to take up because they isn’t nothing that can’t be learned Al if a man gos at it the right way and has got something under their hat besides scalp trouble.
As for getting in to the right kind of a place I guess I can just about pick out what kind of a place I want to start in at as everybody that reads the papers knows who I am and how I went in the war wile most of the other baseball boys kept the home fires burning though I had a wife and a kid to look out for besides the baby that came since I went in and for all as I knew might of been here a long wile before that. So it looks like when I make it up in my mind what business I want to tackle I can just go to whoever is at the head of the business and they will say “You bet your life we will find a place for you after what you done both in baseball and for the stars and strips.” Because they won’t no real man turn a soldier down Al a specially 1 that erned his wound strips acrost the old pond.
So they won’t be no trouble about me landing when I decide what I want to go in to and the baseball men can offer me whatever kind of a contract they feel like and I will give them 1 of my smiles and tell them they are barking the wrong tree.
Regards to Bertha.
Friend Al: Well Al this is a fine burg where a lot of the business men don’t know they’s been a war or read the papers or nothing only set in front of the cash register and watch how the money rolls in or else they must of bet 20 cents on the Kaiser and have got a gruge against the boys that stopped him.
The other night I was with a couple of friends of mine that’s White Sox fans and we was histing a few and 1 of them is asst. mgr. down to 1 of the big dept. stores so I told him I was going to quit the game and try and bust in to some business where I could work up to something worth wile and he says they was shy of a floor man down to their store and he would speak to the mgr. about me and if I come down maybe I could land the job, as the floor man has to be a man that can wear clothes and carry themself as most of the customers is ladys and you half to give them a smile and make them feel at home and the job pays pretty good jack.
Well I didn’t think much of the job only this bird is a kind of an admire of mine on acct. of baseball so I didn’t want to be nasty to him so I went down there yesterday and he introduced me to the mgr. and his name is suppose to be Kelly but I guess Heinz would be closer to what his name is. Well he asked me had I had any experience in dept. stores and I said yes I had had all the experience I wanted the times I had been in there with Florrie shoping and my feet was still sore yet where all the women in Chi had used them for a parade grounds. So he said he meant did I ever have any experience working in a store so I said do I look like a counter jumper or something? I said “I have had the kind of experience that I guess a whole lot of men would give their right eye if they could brag about it, playing in the big league in baseball and the big league in war and I guess that’s enough of experience for a man of my age.” So he said “Well our floor men is not suppose to hit the customers with a bat or tickle them with a bayonet either one so I don’t see how we can use you right now.” So I said “I have got a charge acct. here and here is where my wife does pretty near all her shoping.” So he said “Well if we was to give jobs to all our customers why as soon as they had all reported for work in the a.m. we could close the doors and get along without a floor man.” Well Al all as I could do was walk away from him as I couldn’t very well take a wallop at his jaw on acct. of his asst. being my pal.
Well as long as I was down town I thought I might as well look up some of my other friends so I happened to remember a pal of mine that use to work in the Gas Co. so I dropped in there and asked for him but he wasn’t there no more so I asked for whoever was in charge and they showed me to an old bird that must of began to work for them the day they struck gas and I told him my name and who I was and he said about the only thing open was meter readers so I said “Read them yourself” and come away.
That’s the kind of birds we have got here Al but they can’t all be that way and the next time I will wait for them to come to me before I go around and lay myself libel to insults from a bunch of pro German spys or whatever you have a mind to call them.
Well they’s a saloon on Adams St. that it use to be a big hang out for the fans so I dropped in there before I started home but they wasn’t nobody in there that I knew them or they knew me and the bunch that was in there didn’t even know their own name but they was all trying to sing tenor and that’s about the way it is in all the saloons you drop in to these days and they all seem to think that every day is June 30. Well I couldn’t stand for the noise and everybody with their arm around each other tearing off Smiles so I come home and Florrie asked me how I had came out and I told her and she says it looked like I better go back in to baseball. So I said if I do go back it will be because they give me a $5,000.00 contract in the stead of the $2,500.00 I was getting when I quit and enlisted and between you and I Al that’s the lowest figure I would sign up for and of course I wouldn’t have no trouble getting that if I give Comiskey the word that I was thinking about pitching baseball again. But nothing doing in baseball for me Al when I know I can get in to some big business with a future in it and won’t never half to worry about my arm or catching cold in it or nothing and be home every night with the kiddies. But if I did sign up to a $5,000.00 contract in baseball it would mean our income would be around $8,000.00 per annum as Florrie is kicking out pretty close to $250.00 per mo. clear profit in her beauty parlor.
Well Florrie said if I couldn’t get no $5,000.00 from the White Sox or find no job that suited me she would give me a job herself so I said “What doing pairing finger nails over in your studio?” So she said “No indeed I would hire you as nurse for little Al and the baby in place of the one we have got.” So I said I wouldn’t mind being a nurse for little Al as I and him can have a fine time playing together and I would make a man out of him but I wouldn’t sign no contract to take care of little Florrie for no amt. of money as it would mean I would half to stay awake 24 hrs. per day as this little bird don’t never close her eyes and I only wished they was a few umpires like her in the American League and maybe a man could get something like a square deal. I have often heard people that had babys brag about how good they was and slept all the wile except when they was getting their chow but little Florrie ain’t no relation to them or neither is little Al as he was just as bad when he was a baby and when I hear these storys about these here perfect babys I begin to think that the husbands and wifes that owns them is the same kind that never had a cross word since they been married.
But jokeing to 1 side Al I don’t see how the Swede stands it being up all day and then up again all night and sometimes I wished I could help her out by walking the floor with the kid nights but the Dr. said I wasn’t to do nothing that might strain my bad arm till I was sure it was OK
Friend Al: Well Al yesterday was the American League meeting and I happened to be down town so I dropped in to the hotel where the meeting was at just to see some of the boys as they’s always a bunch of them hangs around in the hopes that 1 of the club owners will smile at them or something and any way I dropped in the lobby and the 1st bird I seen was Bobby Roth that was with us a few yrs. ago and played the outfield for Cleveland last yr. So I says “Hello Bobby.” So he said “Hello Jack.” Well it was the 1st time I seen him since I quit baseball for the army but I guess he hadn’t never heard that I was in the war or something and any way he didn’t say nothing about it but finely he said he supposed I would be back with the White Sox next yr. so then I told him I had made it up in my mind to quit the game and go in to business and he said he was sorry to hear it. So I said “Yes you are because when you was with the Cleveland club I always made you look like a monkey.” So he said “I never had a chance to hit against you as they had me batting 4th at Cleveland and by the time it come my turn to hit you was took out of the game.” So I said “Yes I was” and he didn’t have nothing more to say.
Well I walked around a wile and run in to some of the other boys Artie Hofman and Charley O’Leary and Jim Archer and Joe Benz but not a 1 of them mentioned about the war or me being over there and I finely figured it out that it was a kind of a sore subject with them so I walked away from them and all of a sudden I seen Rowland the mgr. and I thought sure he would ask me about signing up but I guess Bobby or somebody must of tipped him off about me going in to business so he didn’t want to take a chance of me turning him down or maybe he thought he would have a better chance of landing me if he didn’t say nothing at this time but just sent me a big fat contract when the time comes. Any way we didn’t talk contract but he had heard about me getting shot in the left arm and he mentioned about it and smiled and said it was lucky I wasn’t a left hander so you see he has got me on his mind and I suppose the contract will come along in a few days and then I will half to send it back to them and tell them I am through even if the contract meets my figure which is $5,000.00 because I wouldn’t go back and pitch baseball even for that amt. when I can go in to business and maybe not do that well right at the start but work myself up in to something worth wile.
Well after I left Rowland I bumped in to Hy Pond that I was with him down in the Central League and he asked me to come in and have a drink so I went with him and histed a couple beers but it was a mad house and besides wile we was over there takeing the fight out of the Germans the people that stayed home done the same thing to the beer and the way they have got it fixed now you could drink all they have got left without feeling like shock troops so finely I told Hy to make my excuses to the boys and I come along home.
Well I have had 2 or 3 pretty good chances so far to break in to some line of business and 1 of them was an ad I seen in the paper today where they wanted a young man of good appearances to represent them in Detroit with $5,000.00 per annum to start out but they didn’t say what line of business it was and besides I don’t feel like moveing to Detroit so I decided to not answer the ad but wait till something showed up where I could stay here in Chi as they’s no use of a man rushing in to something blind folded you might say when all as I half to do is play the waiting game and let them come to me with all their offers and then pick out the one that suits me best. Get them bidding against each other for you is the system Al.
Friend Al: Well Al I just come back from down town where I and Florrie has been all p.m. buying xmas presents and she has been saying ever since I come back from France how lonesome she was all the wile I was away but from the number of xmas presents she had to buy for people I never seen or heard of they couldn’t of been more than a couple hours of the time I was over there when she wasn’t busy saying please to meet you. But whenever I would raise a holler about the jack she was spending she would swell up and tell me she would pay for it out of her own money so of course I couldn’t say nothing though when the bills comes in they will be addressed to me and her check book will of probably got halled away with the garbage.
Well when we got through buying for the city directory she said she was through except for the baby as she had fixed up for little Al last time she was down so she asked me what could I suggest for little Florrie so I said why get her a new rattle as what else is they for a 6 mos. old baby so she said the baby wasn’t going to be 6 mos. old all her life. How is that for a bright remark Al but of course a woman can’t expect to have the looks and everything else with it, but any way she said she had a idear that she heard about a friend of hers doing it that had a little baby girl and that was to start a pearl necklace for her and 1st buy the chain and a few pearls and then add a couple pearls every yr. so as when she got old enough to wear it she would have something.
Well I said why not wait till some xmas when we have got a little more jack say in 7 or 8 yrs. and then get enough pearls to make up for the yrs. we passed up and then give them to the little girl and tell her we started buying them before she was a yr. old and she wouldn’t know the differents and in the mean wile we could get her something that if she busted it we wouldn’t be out no real jack. So Florrie said “You don’t suppose I am going to leave her get a hold of the necklace now do you or even show it to her?” So I said “That is a fine way to give a person a xmas present is to buy something and hide it and if that is the system why don’t you buy her a couple new undershirts my size and I can wear them and when I have wore them out you can put them away somewheres till she gets old enough to have some sence and then you can hall them out and show them to her and tell her that was what we give her for xmas in 1918.”
Well you know how much good it done to argue and finely she picked out a little gold chain and 4 little pearls to go with it and it cost $47.50 but what and the he‑ll is $47.50 as long as the baby has a merry xmas.
Well we was shoping all the p.m. but you can bet we didn’t go in that smart Alex store where that smart Alex mgr. got so fresh when they offered me that cheap job and we use to spend a lot of jack in there at that but never again and if they want to know why they haven’t got no big bill against us like they usually have around xmas time I will tell them and then maybe Mr. Smart will wished he hadn’t of been so smart but at that when I seen them floor men on the job today I was tickled to death I turned that job down because the way them women jousled them around I couldn’t of never stood for it and I would of felt like busting them in the eye if it had of been me and of course I don’t mean that Al as I wouldn’t think of hitting a woman but I would of certainly gave them the elbow or accidently parked my heel on a few of their best toes.
Well of course I couldn’t buy Florrie no present wile she was along and I half to go back down again tomorrow and try and find something and I haven’t the lease idear what will it be and all as I know is that it won’t be no pearl necklace for adults. She says she has all ready boughten my present and wait till I see it. Well I suppose it will be a corset or maybe she will give me a set of false teeth and hide them away somewheres till I come of age to put them on.
Well Al we are sending xmas cards to you and Bertha and I only wished it could be something more but we kind of feel this yr. like we shouldn’t ought to spend a whole lot of money what with some of the boys still over in France yet and another liberty loan comeing along some time soon and all and all it don’t seem hardly right to be blowing jack for xmas presents but maybe next yr. everything will be different and in the mean wile merry xmas to you and Bertha from the both of us.
Friend Al: Well Al they’s not much news to write as everything has been going along about like usual and I haven’t made it up in my mind yet what line of business to take up though I have got several good offers hanging in the fire you might say and am just playing the waiting game till I decide which 1 looks best as I would be sorry to get in to 1 thing and then find out they was something else opened up that I would like a whole lot better.
One of the things I have got in mind is takeing up newspaper work and writeing articles about baseball or maybe army life and when the baseball season opens maybe I would go out and see the games and write up the reports and you can bet my articles would be different then some of these birds that’s reporting the games as I would at lease know what I was writeing about wile you take the most of these here reporters and all the baseball they know you could carry it around in a eye dropper.
But I don’t know whether the papers would pay me the kind of money I would want and if not why I am in a position to laugh at them.
Well I got tired of setting around the house today as Florrie was over to her looks garage and the Swede had both the kiddies out to get the air so I walked around a wile and then I hopped on to a 35th St. car and rode over west and I happened to look out of the window and we was just passing the ball pk. so I didn’t have nothing else to do so I give the conductor the highball and jumped off and went up in the office to see if they wasn’t maybe some mail for me that some of the boys wrote from France not knowing my home address.
Well they wasn’t no mail so I set down and fanned a wile with Harry the secty. of the club and he asked me all about what I seen over acrost the pond and we had quite a talk and finely I thought maybe Comiskey would be sore if he heard I had been up there and hadn’t paid my respects but Harry said he wasn’t in so then I thought maybe he might of left some word about me and wanted to know if I was going to come back and pitch baseball for him or not but Harry said he hadn’t mentioned nothing about it so I guess when the time comes he will just send me my contract and then I will send it back and tell him I have decided to quit baseball and go in to some line of business where they’s a future in it.
Because they’s no use of a man killing himself pitching baseball and then when your arm gives out you haven’t got no business to go in to because business men won’t hire a man that’s 33 or 34 yrs. old and no experience and besides if a man has got a family like mine why not stay home and enjoy them in the stead of traveling on the road ½ the yr. around you might say. So even if Comiskey should send me a contract calling for $4,000.00 per annum I would send it back though that is the lease I would sign up for if I was going to sign at all.
Well Al xmas is over and I only wished you could of been here to see how little Al eat it up. Besides all the junk we give him all of Florrie’s friends sent something and all together he must of got about 25 presents in the 1st place and now he has got about a 100 as everything he got is broke in to 4 peaces and they also sent the baby a load of play things that means as much to her as the hit and run but Florrie says never mind they will be put away till some xmas when she is old enough to enjoy them and then we won’t half to buy her nothing new. Well the idear is OK Al but it reminds me like when Sept. comes along and a man has got a straw Kelly that looks pretty good and you give it to your wife to take care of till next June and when it comes June you go and buy yourself a new hat.
Well Florrie’s present to me was a phonograph and of course that’s a mighty fine present and will cost her or whoever pays for it a bunch of jack but between you and I Al I wouldn’t be surprised if she was thinking to herself when she bought it that maybe she might turn it on some times when I am not in the house. What I give her is 1 of these here patent shower bath attachments that you can have it put up on a regular bath tub and you can have a regular tub bath or a shower just as you feel like. They cost real money to Al but what’s the differents when its your wife?
Friend Al: Well Al I don’t know if you have been reading the papers but if you have you probably seen the big news where Kid Gleason has been appointed mgr. of the White Sox. Well old pal that peace of news makes all the differents in the world to your old pal. As you know I had entirely gave up the idear of going back in to baseball and figured where I would take up some other line of business and work myself up to something big and I was just about makeing it up in my mind to accept 1 of the offers I got when this news come out.
Well old pal I haven’t no idear how things will come out now as I guess you know what friends I and Gleason are. You know he was asst. mgr. when Callahan had the club and then again the yr. Rowland win the pennant and he seemed to take a fancy to me some way and I guess I may as well come out and say that I was his favorite of any man on the club and I always figured that it was because when he tried his kidding on me I always give him back as good as he sent wile the rest of the boys was a scared of him but he use to kid me just to hear what I would say back to him. Like 1 time we was playing a double header with the St. Louis club and Jim Scott lose the 1st game and Callahan said I was to work the 2nd game so I was warming up and Gleason come out and stood behind me and I had eat something that didn’t set very good so Gleason asked me how I felt and I said “Not very good. I’m not myself today.” So he said “Well then it looks like we would break even on the afternoon.” So I said “I will break your jaw in a minute.”
But a side from all that he was the 1 man that ever give me the credit for the work I done and if he had of been mgr. of the club he would of pitched me in my regular turn in the stead of playing favorites like them other 2 birds and all as I needed was regular work and I would of made them forget Walsh and all the rest of them big 4 flushers.
Well Al Gleason lives in Philly in the winter so I expect he will either wire me a telegram and ask for my terms or else he will run out here and see me and if they give me $4,000.00 per annum I am afraid they won’t be nothing for me to do only sign up though I have got several chances to go in to some business at better money than that and with a future to it. But this here is a matter of friendships Al and after all Gleason done for me why if he says the word I can’t hardly do nothing only say yes though of course I am not going to sacrifice myself or sign for a nickel less then $4,000.00.
You see Al this will be Gleason’s 1st yr. as a mgr. and he will want to finish up in the race and I don’t care how good a mgr. is he can’t win unless he has got the men and beleive me he will need all the pitching strenth he can get a hold of as Cleveland and N.Y. has both strenthened up and the Boston club with all their men back from the service has got enough good ball players to finish 1st and 2nd both if they was room for all of them to play at once. So that is where friendships comes in Al and I figure that it is up to your old pal to pass up my business chances and show the Kid I am true blue and beleive me I will show him something and I will come pretty near winning that old flag single handed.
So all and all it looks like your old pal wouldn’t go in to no business adventure this yr. but I will be out there on the old ball field giveing them the best I have got and I guess the fans won’t holler their heads off when I walk out there the 1st time after what I done in France.
Friend Al: Well Al it says in the paper this a.m. that Gleason is comeing to Chi for a few days to see Comiskey and talk over the plans for the training trip and etc. but they’s another reason why he is comeing to Chi and maybe you can guess what it is. Well Al that’s the way to work it is to wait and let them come to you in the stead of you going to them as when you make them come to you you can pretty near demand whatever you want and they half to come acrost with it.
That’s a fine story Al about him comeing to talk over plans for the training trip as I know Comiskey and you could talk to him for 3 wks. about the plans for the training trip and when you got all through talking he would tell you what the plans was for the training trip so you can bet that Gleason isn’t comeing all the way out here from Philly to hear himself talk but what he is comeing for is to get some of the boys in line that lives here and when I say some of the boys I don’t half to go no further eh Al?
And all the more because I dropped him a letter a couple wks. ago and said I had made all arrangements to go in to business but if he wanted me I would give up my plans and pitch for him provided he give me my figure which is $3,600.00 per annum and I never got no answer to the letter and now I know why I didn’t get no answer as he is 1 of the kind that would rather set down and do their talking face to face then set down and take the trouble of writeing a letter when he could just as well hop on the old rattler and come out here and see me personly.
Well Al he will be here next wk. and I have left my phone No. over to the ball pk. so as he will know how to get a hold of me and all they will be to it is he will ask me how much I want and I will tell him $3,600.00 and he will say sign here.
Well Al Florrie says she don’t know if she is glad or sorry that I am going to be back in the old game as she says she don’t like to have me away from home so much but still and all she knows I wouldn’t be happy unless I was pitching baseball but she also says that if I do get back in to harness and ern a liveing and they’s another war breaks out she will probably half to go as she couldn’t claim no exemptions on the grounds of a dependant husband. So I said “I guess they won’t ask no women to go to war because the minute they heard 1 of them trench rats give their college yell they would all retreat to the equator or somewheres.” So she said “They had women in the Russia army and they didn’t retreat.” So I said “Yes they did only the men retreated so much faster that the women looked like they was standing still.”
Jokeing to 1 side Al I will let you know how I come out with Gleason but they’s only 1 way I can come out and that is he will be tickled to death to sign me at my own figure because if he trys any monkey business with me I will laugh in his face and Comiskey to, and give up the game for good and take the best offer I have got in some other line.
Friend Al: Well Al I have just came back from the ball pk. and had a long talk with Gleason and the most of it was kidding back and 4th like usual when the 2 of us gets together but it didn’t take no Wm. A. Pinkerton to see that he is anxious to have me back on the ball club and in a few days they will probably send me a contract at my own figures and then they won’t be nothing to do only wait for the rattler to start for the sunny south land.
Well Gleason got in yesterday p.m. and I was expecting him to call up either last night or this a.m. but they didn’t no call come and I figured they must of either lost my phone No. over to the office or else the phone was out of order or something and the way the phones has been acting all winter why he might of asked central to give him my No. and the next thing he knew he would be connected with the morgue so any way when they hadn’t no call came at noon I jumped on a 35th St. car and went over to the pk. and up in the office and the secty. said Gleason was in talking to Comiskey but he would be through in a little while.
Well after about a hr. Gleason come out and seen me setting there and of course he had to start kidding right off of the real so he said “Well here is the big Busher and I hoped you was killed over in France but I suppose even them long distance guns fell short of where you was at.” So I said “They reached me all right and they got me in the left arm and wasn’t it lucky it wasn’t my right arm?” So he said “Its to bad they didn’t shoot your head off and made a pitcher out of you.” So then he asked me all about the war and if I got in to Germany and I told him no that I got my wounds in June and was invalid home. So he said “You fight just like you pitch and they half to take you out in the 5th inning.” So I asked him if he got my letter and he said he got a letter that looked like it might of came from me so he didn’t open it. So I said “Well I don’t know if you opened it or not but I just as soon tell you right here what I said in the letter. I told you I was going in to some business but I would stay in baseball another yr. to help you out if you met my figure.” So he asked what was my figure, so I told him $3,000.00 per annum. So he said how much was I getting in the army and I told him I was getting about $30.00 per mo. most of the time. So he said “Yes you was getting $30.00 per mo. to get up at 5 a.m. and work like a dog all day and eat beans and stew and sleep in a barn nights with a cow and a pig for your roomies and now you want $3,000.00 a yr. to live in the best hotels and eat off the fat of the land and about once in every 10 days when we feel like we can afford to loose a ball game why you half to go out there and stand on your feet pretty near ½ the p.m. and if it happens to be July or Aug. you come pretty close to prespireing.”
So I said “You are the same old Gleason always trying to kid somebody but jokeing a side I will sign up for $3,000.00 or else I will go in to business.” So he asked me what business I was going in to and I told him I had an offer from the Stock Yards. So he said “How much do they offer for you on the hoof?”
Well we kidded along back and 4th like that for a wile and finely he said he was going out somewheres with Comiskey so I asked him if he wasn’t going to talk business to me 1st. So he said “I will tell you how it is boy. They have cut down the limit so as each club can’t only carry 21 men and that means we won’t have no room for bench lizards. But the boss says that on acct. of you haveing went to France and wasn’t killed why we will take you south if you want to go and you will get a chance to show if you are a pitcher yet or not and if you are like you use to be why maybe the Stock Yards will keep open long enough to take you when we are through with you and you can tell Armour and Swift and them that I will leave them know whether I want you or not about 3 days after we get to Texas.” So I asked him how about salery and he said “The boss will send you a contract in a few days and if I was you I would be satisfied with it.”
So it looks now like I was all set for the season Al and Gleason said I would be satisfied with the salery which is just as good as saying it will be $3,000.00 as I wouldn’t be satisfied with no less, so all I half to do now is wait for the contract and put my name on it and I will be back in the game I love and when a man’s heart is in their work how are you going to stop him a specially with the stuff I’ve got.
Friend Al: Well Al I am through with baseball for good and am going in to business and I don’t know just yet which proposition I will take that’s been offered to me but they’s no hurry and I will take the one that looks best when the proper time comes.
I suppose you will be surprised to hear that I have gave up the old game but maybe you won’t be so surprised when I tell you what come off today.
Well in the 1st place when the mail man come this a.m. he brought me a contract from Comiskey and the figures amounted to $2,400.00 per annum. How is that Al when I was getting $2,500.00 per annum before I went to the war. Well at 1st I couldn’t hardly beleive my eyes but that was the figure all right and finely I thought they must be some mistake so I was going to call up Comiskey and demand an explanation but afterwards I thought maybe I better run over and see him.
Well Al I went over there and Harry said the boss was busy but he would find out would he see me. Well after a wile Harry come out and said I was to go in the inside office so I went in and Comiskey was setting at his desk and for a wile he didn’t look up but finely he turned around and seen me and shook hands and said “Well young man what can I do for you?” So I said “I come to see you about this here contract.” So he asked me if I had signed it and I said no I hadn’t so he said “Well they’s nothing to see me about then.” So I said “Yes because I figure they must of been some mistake in the salery you offered me.” So he said “Don’t you think you are worth it?” So I said “This here contract calls for $2,400.00 per annum and I was getting $2,500.00 when I quit and enlisted in the war so it looks like you was fineing me $100.00 per annum for fighting for my country.” I said “Gleason said he wanted me and would send me a contract that I would be satisfied with.” Well Comiskey said “If Gleason said he wanted you he must of been kidding me when I talked to him but if he wants you bad enough to pay the differents between what that contract calls for and what you want why he is welcome but that is up to him.”
Well Al it was all as I could do to hold myself in and if he was a younger man it would of been good night Comiskey but I kept a hold of myself and asked him why didn’t he trade me to some club where I could get real jack. So he said “Well I will tell you young man I have got just 1 chance to trade you and that is to Washington and if you think Griffith will pay you more money than I will why I will make the trade.” Well I told him to not trouble himself as I was through with baseball any way and had decided to go in to some business so he said good luck and I started out but he said “Here you have left your contract and you better take it along with you because some times when you leave a contract lay around the house a few days the figures gets so big that you wouldn’t hardly know them.”
Well I seen he was trying to kid me so I said “All right I will take the contract home and tear it up” and I walked out on him.
Well Al that’s all they is to it and I am tickled to death that it has came out the way it has and now I can take the best offer that comes along in some good business line and can stay right here in Chi and be home all the yr. around with Florrie and the kiddies.
As for the White Sox I wished them good luck and beleive me they will need it the way Gleason and Comiskey are trying to run things and they will do well to finish in the same league with Boston and Cleveland and N.Y. but at that I don’t believe its Gleason that’s doing it and the way I figure is that this is his 1st yr. as mgr and he is a scared to open his clam and if he had his say he would give me the $2,800.00 I am holding out for. But its Comiskey himself that’s trying to make a monkey out of me. Well god help his ball club is all as I can say.
As for leaveing them trade me to Washington that would be a sweet club to pitch for Al where the only time they get a run is when the president comes out to see them and he’s libel to be in France all summer.
Friend Al: Well Al this is the last letter you will get from me from Chi for a wile as I am leaveing for Texas with the White Sox tomorrow night. The scheme worked Al and by setting pretty in the boat and keeping my mouth shut I made them come to me.
I suppose you will be surprised to hear that I am going to get back in to harness but wait till I tell you what come off today and you will where they wasn’t no other way out.
Well I went over to the stores this a.m. and when I come back the Swede said some man had called me up on the phone. So of course I knew it must of been the ball pk. so I called them up and the secty. answered the phone and I asked him if anybody wanted to talk to me. So he said no but Gleason was there if I wanted to talk to him.
So I said put him on the wire and pretty soon I heard Gleason’s voice and he said “Well Jack are you going along with us?” So I said “What about salery?” So he said “You have got your contract haven’t you?” So I said “Yes but it don’t call for enough jack.” So he said “Well if you earn more jack than your contract calls for you will get it.” So I said “If that’s a bet I’m on.”
So he told me to bring my contract along and come over there and I went over and there was a whole bunch of the boys getting ready for the get away and I wished you could of heard them when they seen me stride in to the office. Well Al they was hand shakes all around and you would of thought it was a family union or something.
Well the business was all tended to in a minute and I signed up and I am going to get $2,400.00 which is the same money I was getting when I quit and that’s going some Al when you think of the way they have been cutting salerys in baseball.
Well Al I am going to show them that they haven’t made no mistake and I am going to work my head off for Gleason and Comiskey and the rest of the boys and wile I hate to be away from Florrie and the kiddies, still and all they’s nobody on this ball club that lays awake all night crying for their bottle and if Texas don’t do nothing else for me it will at lease give me a chance to get a little sleep.