Evening star. [volume], August 14, 1955, Page 9, Image 106

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
BE A CHARACTER!
After a while me and Ducky Med wick,
Leo Durocher. Rip Collins, Kayo DeLancey
and Pepper Martin developed what you
might call a real knack for harmless high
jinks. They called us the Gashousc Gang.
Maybe you remember. Like that time in
Philadelphia, the Cardinals was camped
out at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, plenty
high-tone diggings. A fancy banquet was
goin’ on.
Right in the middle of the soup a bunch
of men in overalls walks in. They sets up
ladders and starts hammerin’ and sawin’
on the ceiling. The toastmaster screams
for the manager. He comes a runnin’. He
wants to know, “What’s the meanin’ of it?”
Well, them painters and carpenters was
Os Diz, Rip Collins and Pepper Martin.
The toastmaster was nice enough to invite
us to sit down to the rest of the dinner and
we did. It was a fine meal. Bat the real
meanin’ of it was that the newspapers carried
a lot of stones aboat it, and the ball park
was jam-fall up the next day.
When Babe Herman was playin’ for
Brooklyn he was a swell fellow and a great
man with a bat. But the sports writers said
he couldn’t held a soap bubble. Then one
day, so the story goes, a hot liner slipped
through his hands and he stopped it with
his head. The ball rolled ofT into his glove,
tame as you please. This taught Babe how
to use his head in fielding. The fans got a
good laugh. Everybody liked Herman
and next year he got more money.
Lean to Take It
Now, it's true that once in a while bein’
a character gets you in a jam. Still, if you
want to make something of yerself you got
to be willing to learn to take it. I remem
ber one time back in Houston I was
pitchin* a cool no-hitter. Then Al Todd
gets a nice, clean single. I got terrible
upset. Next time Al come up, my hand
was shakin’ so hard the ball whistles past
his head and he hits the dirt.
He give me a dirty look and says, “If you
do that again I’ll punch your nose!"
Well, I get even more nervous and the
next pitch bums his ear. Down he goes
again. He drops his bat and starts for the
mound. I walk in, ready with a good wise
crack. Every fight I ever been in, there’s
a lot of talkin' before the hittin’.
But Al fools me. He slugs me on the jaw
and I sec stars. 1 figured that the talkin’
would then commence, but he hits me
again. He never did do no talkin’, and I
never did get so tired of bein' knocked
down in my whole life. That’s what I
mean about being able to take It.
Tow Hood Confidence
It’s awful important to have confidence
in yourself. Babe Ruth hit a lot of home
runs, but the one people remember is the
time he pointed right where he was gonna
put it and then put it there!
Then there was Satchel Paige. He didn’t
get up in the major leagues much before
he was old enough to be a grandfather.
Otherwise he would sure of made baseball’s
Hall of Fame, like I. But Satch knew the
value of being a character. Many’s the
time in the minors a hotshot batter would
be standin’ up to him and he'd call in all
the outfielders and make ’em sit down
cross-legged on the ground. Then with
everybody on both teams and tlie managers
and the owners all pretty near ready to
faint, he would strike the feller out.
Back when St. Louis was playin’ Detroit
for the World Series, 1 told everybody that
me an’ my brother Paul together was gonna
win four games and the Cardinals would
take the Series. We did and they did. You
can be a crystal-ball gazer, too, if you
want. I will tell you how. All you got to
do is be willin’ to stick out your neck. If
you know your onions you are bound to
be right some of the time and when you
aren't, just don't remind no one.
Like me, last spring I picked the Brook
lyn Dodgers to win the National League
pennant and the Cleveland Indians to re
peat in the American League. It looks like
I'm sure to be half right anyway.
I make a prediction every year. When
I’m right I run around town sayin',
“Remember? Didn’t I tell you?” And
everybody says, “CM’ Diz sure knows his
baseball!” But when I'm wrong, I don’t
say nothin'. Most people remember your
successes and fergit your failures.
■ ” B
1 A little gesture that
helped win a large war
M K •
5 He had one other little “prop”
called the Empire State Building
8 Our top piano player,
till Liberoce took over
Os course, nobody can get away for very
long with bein’ a blowhard. That’s when
you got a big, ferocious windup and can’t
deliver nothin’ but feather balls. I once
knew a pitcher who never went out to the
mound without he said, “I’ll strike out the
whole side!”
Well this feller couldn't hit the side of a
hunnerd-cow barn with a basketball. He
weren’t funny. And pretty soon he weren’t
pitchin' neither.
Some Vliet
But if you want to make your mark on
the world, don't let no side-windin’ critics
discourage you from givin’ it a try. AU my
life I liked to sing. But some folks is un
kind. They used to tell me, “Diz you got a
pretty good voice —for a bobcat with the
aigue!” But after 25 years of gettin’ up
my nerve I just finished makin’ a record of
my favorite tune, “The Wabash Cannon
Ball.” Some say it ain’t music. But you'd
be surprised how many are buyin’ it.
You got to have faith enough in yerself
not to get rattled when you throw a few
wide ones. When I first went on the radio,
ail the schoolteachers in Missouri came
2 Even the stars bow to
this bonnet's splendor
BBk » .
6 One of five brothers who made
good. This is not a recent photo
9 It’s no microphone
it's a live hand grenade!
down on roe. They said I was sayin’ “ain’t”
and pretty soon all the school kids that
listened to me would be sayin’ “ain’t.”
I felt right humiliated, and I fixed things
up the best way I knew how. I advised the
children to stay in school and listen to their
teachers. Just the same I felt I had to team
them something, too.
“But don’t forgit,” I said, “a lot of peo
ple who ain’t saying ’ain’t’ ain’t eatin’!”
If you just tell yourself there ain’t a
person in the world without some kind of
ability, you’ll be makin’ the first step
toward success. Find your ability and learn
to make the most of it. Don’t bother puttin’
on no false front people always see
behind it. But people always think good
of the fellow who does a good job and
ain’t afraid to advertise it!
That’s the way I look at it. What I mean
is, if you learn how to aggravate your own
natural talents, you’ll get all the recog
nizance you got cornin’.
* * *
NEXT QUESTION: Elsa Maxwell, Amer
ica's most famous hostess, answers two in
triguing questions from readers next week
in, “People and Parties l'U Newer Forget
*. -
3 It hasn't dropped out
once in a 60-year career
n
7 These glasses turned out to be
history’s most penetrable disguise
w .. „>
10 His watches droop
but never his mustache
Td
4 This glass proved 50
million Frenchmen wrong
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Bf Tjßr J||
11 Some years ago this
chap up and quit his job
For answer* see page 23
9