You Know Me, Al | Page 4

the recruts and shut the old birds out. I held them to one hit and that
was a ground ball that the recrut shortstop Johnson ought to of ate up. I
struck Collins out and he is one of the best batters in the bunch. I used
my fast ball most of the while but showed them a few spitters and they
missed them a foot. I guess I must of got Walsh's goat with my spitter
because him and I walked back to the hotel together and he talked like
he was kind of jealous. He says You will have to learn to cover up your
spitter. He says I could stand a mile away and tell when you was going
to throw it. He says Some of these days I will learn you how to cover it
up. I guess Al I know how to cover it up all right without Walsh
learning me.
I always sit at the same table in the dining room along with Gleason
and Collins and Bodie and Fournier and Allen the young lefthander I
told you about. I feel sorry for him because he never says a word.
To-night at supper Bodie says How did I look to-day Kid? Gleason
says Just like you always do in the spring. You looked like a cow.
Gleason seems to have the whole bunch scared of him and they let him
say anything he wants to. I let him kid me to but I ain't scared of him.
Collins then says to me You got some fast ball there boy. I says I was
not as fast to-day as I am when I am right. He says Well then I don't
want to hit against you when you are right. Then Gleason says to
Collins Cut that stuff out. Then he says to me Don't believe what he
tells you boy. If the pitchers in this league weren't no faster than you I
would still be playing ball and I would be the best hitter in the country.
After supper Gleason went out on the porch with me. He says Boy you
have got a little stuff but you have got a lot to learn. He says You field
your position like a wash woman and you don't hold the runners up. He
says When Chase was on second base to-day he got such a lead on you
that the little catcher couldn't of shot him out at third with a rifle. I says
They all thought I fielded my position all right in the Central League.
He says Well if you think you do it all right you better go back to the
Central League where you are appresiated. I says You can't send me

back there because you could not get waivers. He says Who would
claim you? I says St. Louis and Boston and New York.
You know Al what Smith told me this winter. Gleason says Well if
you're not willing to learn St. Louis and Boston and New York can
have you and the first time you pitch against us we will steal fifty bases.
Then he quit kidding and asked me to go to the field with him early
to-morrow morning and he would learn me some things. I don't think
he can learn me nothing but I promised I would go with him.
There is a little blonde kid in the hotel here who took a shine to me at
the dance the other night but I am going to leave the skirts alone. She is
real society and a swell dresser and she wants my picture. Regards to
all the boys.
Your friend, JACK.
P.S. The boys thought they would be smart to-night and put something
over on me. A boy brought me a telegram and I opened it and it said
You are sold to Jackson in the Cotton States League. For just a minute
they had me going but then I happened to think that Jackson is in
Michigan and there's no Cotton States League round there.
Paso Robles, California, March 9.
DEAR FRIEND AL: You have no doubt read the good news in the
papers before this reached you. I have been picked to go to Frisco with
the first team. We play practice games up there about two weeks while
the second club plays in Los Angeles. Poor Allen had to go with the
second club. There's two other recrut pitchers with our part of the team
but my name was first on the list so it looks like I had made good. I
knowed they would like my stuff when they seen it. We leave here
to-night. You got the first team's address so you will know where to
send my mail. Callahan