You Know Me, Al | Page 5

goes with us and Gleason goes with the second
club. Him and I have got to be pretty good pals and I wish he was
going with us even if he don't let me eat like I want to. He told me this
morning to remember all he had learned me and to keep working hard.
He didn't learn me nothing I didn't know before but I let him think so.

The little blonde don't like to see me leave here. She lives in Detroit
and I may see her when I go there. She wants me to write but I guess I
better not give her no encouragement.
Well Al I will write you a long letter from Frisco.
Yours truly, JACK.
Oakland, California, March 19.
DEAR OLD PAL: They have gave me plenty of work here all right. I
have pitched four times but have not went over five innings yet. I
worked against Oakland two times and against Frisco two times and
only three runs have been scored off me. They should only ought to of
had one but Bodie misjudged a easy fly ball in Frisco and Weaver
made a wild peg in Oakland that let in a run. I am not using much but
my fast ball but I have got a world of speed and they can't foul me
when I am right. I whiffed eight men in five innings in Frisco yesterday
and could of did better than that if I had of cut loose.
Manager Callahan is a funny guy and I don't understand him sometimes.
I can't figure out if he is kidding or in ernest. We road back to Oakland
on the ferry together after yesterday's game and he says Don't you
never throw a slow ball? I says I don't need no slow ball with my spitter
and my fast one. He says No of course you don't need it but if I was
you I would get one of the boys to learn it to me. He says And you
better watch the way the boys fields their positions and holds up the
runners. He says To see you work a man might think they had a rule in
the Central League forbidding a pitcher from leaving the box or
looking toward first base.

I told him the Central didn't have no rule like that. He says And I
noticed you taking your wind up when What's His Name was on second
base there to-day. I says Yes I got more stuff when I wind up. He says
Of course you have but if you wind up like that with Cobb on base he
will steal your watch and chain. I says Maybe Cobb can't get on base

when I work against him. He says That's right and maybe San
Francisco Bay is made of grapejuice. Then he walks away from me.
He give one of the youngsters a awful bawling out for something he
done in the game at supper last night. If he ever talks to me like he
done to him I will take a punch at him. You know me Al.
I come over to Frisco last night with some of the boys and we took in
the sights. Frisco is some live town Al. We went all through China
Town and the Barbers' Coast. Seen lots of swell dames but they was all
painted up. They have beer out here that they call steam beer. I had a
few glasses of it and it made me logey. A glass of that Terre Haute beer
would go pretty good right now.
We leave here for Los Angeles in a few days and I will write you from
there. This is some country Al and I would love to play ball round here.
Your Pal, JACK.
P.S--I got a letter from the little blonde and I suppose I got to answer it.
Los Angeles, California, March 26
FRIEND AL: Only four more days of sunny California and then we
start back East. We got exhibition games in Yuma and El Paso, Texas
and Oklahoma City and then we stop over in St. Joe, Missouri, for three
days before we go home. You know Al we open the season in
Cleveland and we won't be in Chi no more than just passing through.
We don't play there till April eighteenth and I guess I will work in that
serious all right against Detroit. Then I will be glad to have you and the
boys come up and watch me as you suggested in your last letter.
I got another letter from the little blonde. She has went back to Detroit
but she give me her address and telephone number and believe me Al I
am going to