15. Chicago Daily News, November 23, 1917.
16. Chicago Tribune, November 22, 1917.
17. Chicago Tribune, November 23, 1917.
18. Chicago Tribune, November 25, 1917.
19. Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1918.
20. Chicago Tribune, March 24, 1918.
21. Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1918.
22. New York Times, June 5, 1929.
CHAPTER 4
1. Boston Globe, March 23, 1918.
2. This section is a tribute to Boston Globe reporter Ed Martin, one of the funnier writers on any baseball beat, whose spring training stories were especially witty. Many of the Barrow stories here come from Martin’s coverage of the spring of 1918. He wrote on March 23 that “Leonard had his first workout today. He wore a rubber shirt, as he has some poundage to leave here.” The March 21 edition of The Sporting News commented, “A rubber shirt is said to induce perspiration. Some knocker who has studied physics and physiology may contend that the rubber shirt merely prevents evaporation, but a ball player who wears one knows a whole lot better.… For the information of the young and uninformed, it may be explained here that a red flannel undershirt keeps away rheumatism. There is something in the color that does it. A white flannel undershirt doesn’t do the work.”
3. According to the March 24 edition of the Boston Globe, Ruth, “gave a party” on the train and sang that song.
4. Boston Post, March 25, 1918.
5. Boston Globe, March 25, 1918: “Every ball player in the park said [the homer] was the longest drive they had ever seen.”
6. Boston Globe, March 25, 1918. Barrow told Mays not to throw hooks, “but Carl declared he could not resist the desire to bend a few.”
7. Boston Globe, March 26, 1918. Leonard’s exact words, though not spoken to Barrow.
8. Boston Post, March 13, 1918.
9. Boston Globe, March 27, 1918. “As manager Barrow was walking in,” Martin wrote, “a car full of athletes passed him and shouted, ‘You are good for a couple more blocks.’”
10. The Sporting News, February 21, 1918.
11. Boston Globe, March 20, 1918.
12. Boston Post, March 14, 1918.
13. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, p. 243.
14. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, p. 144.
15. Boston Globe, March 25, 1918.
16. Chicago Daily News, April 11, 1918.
17. The Sporting News, March 7, 1918.
18. Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1918.
19. Chicago Daily News, April 5, 1918.
20. Chicago Daily News, April 6, 1918.
21. The interview is part of the Asinof papers, held by the Chicago History Museum.
22. Maharg’s links to the Phillies are explored at philadelphiaathletics.org/history/linktocubs.htm.
23. Veeck, The Hustler’s Handbook, p. 263.
24. Chicago Tribune, July 22, 1921.
CHAPTER 5
1. Alexander would later call Hornsby the greatest batter he ever faced.
2. Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1918.
3. This was standard soldier’s pay during the war. A photograph of Alexander ran in the May 9, 1918, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, showing him in his uniform looking over his cot and blankets, under the headline “Private Alexander Taking First Slant at ‘Props’ of New $30 Job.”
4. Chicago Tribune, March 21, 1918. Alexander and Wrigley “went to the home of Douglas Fairbanks to appear with the movie star in some pictures for the benefit of the submarine base at San Pedro.”
5. This was an actual Red Cross poster, one of many wartime posters that hung on posts around the country.
6. Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1918.
7. New York Times, April 14, 1918.
8. Lincoln [Nebraska] Daily Star, April 6, 1917.
9. New York Times, April 6, 1917.
10. Chicago Daily News, April 6, 1918.
11. Willmott, World War I, p. 161.
12. Chicago Daily News, April 6, 1918.
13. New York Times, August 23, 1918.
14. Farwell, Over There, p. 134.
15. Boston Globe, April 7, 1918.
16. Chicago Daily News, April 12, 1918.
17. Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1918.
18. Chicago Daily News, April 23, 1918.
19. Chicago Tribune, April 25, 1918.
20. The Sporting News, May 2, 1918.
21. Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1918.
22. New York World, June 10, 1930.
23. New York World, June 10, 1930.
24. Letter from Frick to Landis, in Alexander’s Hall of Fame file.
25. The Sporting News, November 15, 1950.
26. New York Herald Tribune, January 20, 1939.
27. The Sporting News, February 22, 1934.
CHAPTER 6
1. The Chicago Tribune reported on April 19, 1918, that Flack was ailing. According to the Daily News, he had a fever and the flu.
2. After returning from the war, John Flach also moved to Chicago and got a job with McCarthy and Fisher music publishers. When the publishers would come up with a new song, John would test it out as an opening act at the Thalia Theater.
3. According to the May 22, 1918, edition of the Belleville News-Democrat, Jack Flach left for Jefferson Barracks, and before he departed, he was given a farewell gift watch by the courthouse employees. Judge George A. Crow made the presentation, and Jack, the silver-toned tenor of the courthouse, sang “Joan of Arc” to express his thanks.
4. Belleville News-Democrat, April 13, 1914.
5. Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1918. Writer James Crusinberry noted that the Cubs would have won the game had Max Flack, who was as sure on a fly ball as any of them, not dropped one in a most critical spot.
6. Chicago Daily News, June 5, 1918.
7. Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1918.
8. Chicago American, July 31, 1918.
9. Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1918.
10. Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1918.
11. Chicago Daily News, June 14, 1918. The bill did not pass, but the committee that slipped it in obviously saw alcohol as a matter of conserving agricultural resources.
12. Chicago Tribune, March 10, 1918.
13. Chicago Daily News, April 6, 1918.
14. Farwell, Over There, p. 131.
15. Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1916.
16. Chicago History Museum website: encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/352.html.
17. New York Times, October 16, 1916.
18. Kennedy, Over Here, p. 186.
19. Alcott quote is from PBS’s online version of Murder at Harvard. It can be found at pbs.org/wgbh/amex/murder/peopleevents/p_immigrants.html.
20. Boston Globe, April 21, 1918.
21. Boston Post, August 15, 1918.
22. Ellis, Echoes of a Distant Thunder, p. 363.
23. Boston Globe, April 21, 1918.
24. New York Times, April 23, 1918.
CHAPTER 7
1. The February 5, 1918, edition of the Boston Globe reported, “The California papers say that when ‘Dutch’ left there a week ago yesterday, he made the announcement that he was going East to enlist as a yeoman at Charlestown Navy Yard. It is known that before the close of the baseball season he made tentative plans for enlisting, but put them aside because of the illness of his wife.”
2. Leonard’s World War I draft card can be seen on ancestry.com.
3. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, p. 301.
4. The Sporting News, June 27, 1918.
5. Boston Globe, May 22, 1918.
6. Boston American, May 11, 1918.
7. Letter from Harry Hooper to writer Lee Allen, dated May 10, 1963. Located in Hooper’s file at the Hall of Fame.
8. Boston American, May 11, 1918.
9. The Sporting News, May 23, 1918.
10. American Journal of Clinical Medicine, 1914, p. 435.
11. Boston Globe, May, 24, 1918.
12. Montville,
The Big Bam, p. 72.
13. Boston American, July 20, 1918.
14. Boston American, May 29, 1918.
15. Chicago Tribune, June 12, 1918.
16. Baseball Magazine, August 1918.
17. Jones, Deadball Stars of the American League, p. 456.
18. Boston Globe, June 17, 1917.
19. Chicago Tribune, June 18, 1917.
20. Boston Globe, August 31, 1915.
21. Chicago Daily News, May 29, 1918.
22. Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1918.
23. The Sporting News, December 26, 1918.
24. The Sporting News, June 6, 1918.
25. The Sporting News, December 26, 1918.
26. Asinof, Eight Men Out, p. 14.
27. Nowlin, When Boston Still Had the Babe, p. 76.
CHAPTER 8
1. Baker won plaudits for his visit to the front and his willingness to see the war firsthand. His travels were detailed everywhere he went, and he did, indeed, visit trenches and see a bomb explode yards away from his transport. When he returned, in a speech called, “At the Front,” he described the story of the Frenchwoman.
2. Chicago Tribune, May 24, 1918. With the rainout, the Giants reportedly stayed at their hotel and collected news about the work-or-fight edict.
3. Washington Post, May 24, 1918.
4. Chicago Tribune, May 24, 1918.
5. Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1918.
6. Douglas was a well-known alcoholic. Mann, meanwhile, was something of a health nut, and nuxated iron was a common blood-enhancing supplement. The Mann-Douglas relationship would prove to be fateful, as we’ll later see.
7. The Sporting News, November 20, 1919. Tyler would go to the Mayo Clinic in 1919 and be found to be “in perfect health except for very bad teeth.”
8. New York Times, May 24, 1918.
9. Chicago Daily News, May 23, 1918.
10. Chicago Tribune, May 26, 1918.
11. Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1918.
12. Chicago Herald Examiner, May 27, 1918.
13. Chicago Tribune, May 28, 1918.
14. Chicago American, July 31, 1918.
15. Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1918.
16. Chicago Daily News, June 10, 1918.
CHAPTER 9
1. New York Times, June 4, 1918.
2. New York Times, June 5, 1918.
3. New York Times, May 23, 1918.
4. New York Times, June 6, 1918.
5. The text, and an audio recording, of Gerard’s speech can be found at firstworldwar.com/audio/loyalty.htm.
6. New York Times, June 2, 1918.
7. Boston American, June 7, 1918.
8. Chicago Daily News, June 8, 1918.
9. Farwell, Over There, p. 127.
10. Holli and Jones, Ethnic Chicago, p. 102.
11. Chicago Daily News, June 1, 1918.
12. Boston Globe, June 6, 1918.
13. The Sporting News, June 13, 1918.
14. Boston Globe, June 7, 1918.
15. Boston American, May 5, 1918.
16. Boston Globe, June 14, 1918.
17. Boston American, June 23, 1918.
18. New York Times, June 12, 1918.
19. Boston American, June 16, 1918.
20. Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1918.
21. Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1918.
22. Boston American, June 29, 1918.
23. Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1921.
24. New York Times, September 27, 1920.
CHAPTER 10
1. Duffey wrote in the Post, “Several of the players are following the movements of the Allies by means of maps clipped from various newspapers and every evening a Board of Strategy including Hooper, Walter Mayer, Strunk and a few more gather after dinner to just see what improvements the day’s doings have produced in the situation over there.” He joked about the players’ mispronunciations.
2. The New York Times reported that the capture of Vaux Village on July 2, was, for the Americans, “the most important military operation they have so far executed.”
3. Zingg, Harry Hooper, p. 39.
4. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, p. 139. Hooper worked for Western Pacific railroad while playing for Sacramento and explained, “I played with the Sacramento club mainly because they promised to get me a surveying job.”
5. Jennings did say this—and more—about Hooper in 1913. The quotes are in Hooper’s file at the Hall of Fame.
6. Sports Today, August 1971.
7. Letter from Harry Hooper to writer Lee Allen, dated May 10, 1963. Located in Hooper’s file at the Hall of Fame.
8. Boston Globe, July 4, 1918.
9. Letter from Harry Hooper to writer Lee Allen, dated May 10, 1963. Located in Hooper’s file at the Hall of Fame.
10. The Sporting News, July 11, 1918.
11. Boston Globe, July 5, 1918.
12. Boston Globe, July 5, 1918.
13. Sports Collector’s Digest, November 3, 2000. Thomas acknowledged that joining the navy with diabetes wasn’t the smartest thing. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he said, “but I did.”
14. Boston American, July 13, 1918.
15. Boston Globe, July 10, 1918. Mrs. High was typical. Baseball wives frequently pressured their husbands to join the shipyard so they could make money and avoid the war.
16. Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, p. 145.
17. Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1918.
18. Boston American, July 9, 1918.
19. Washington Post, July 20, 1918.
20. Washington Post, July 21, 1918.
21. Boston Globe, July 21, 1918.
22. Washington Post, July 23, 1918.
23. Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1918.
24. Zingg, Harry Hooper, p. 154.
25. Boston Globe, July 27, 1918.
26. The Sporting News. November 11, 1920.
CHAPTER 11
1. Allen, The National League Story, p. 160.
2. Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1920.
3. Boston American, July 28, 1918.
4. Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1918.
5. Chicago Tribune, July 31, 1918.
6. Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1918.
7. Ruether’s letter is part of the Chicago History Museum’s Asinof papers collection.
8. The Department of Labor features an “inflation calculator” at bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
9. Evenden, E. S. Teachers’ Salaries and Schedules in the United States, 1918–1919, p. 109.
10. New York Times, August 28, 1918.
11. Boston Globe, July 26, 1918.
12. The Sporting News, August 13, 1942.
13. New York Times, September 22, 1910.
14. Lieb, Baseball as I Have Known It, p. 98.
15. The Sporting News, June 6, 1918.
16. From writer Lawrence Ritter’s interview with Roush, available on compact disc at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
17. The Sporting News, August 15, 1918.
18. The Sporting News, April 23, 1947.
19. Dewey and Acocella, The Black Prince of Baseball, p. XII.
CHAPTER 12
1. The East Coast experienced a brutal heat and humidity wave in early August, and the New York Times reported on August 6, 1918, “that some 400,000 persons were at Coney Island and the nearby resorts.”
2. The details of Jacob Hollocher’s early life can be found in census data on ancestry.com. He did grow up on a farm, began working for his brother (who was 24 years older than he was), and settled into life insurance thereafter. When Charley was young, Jacob pushed him into baseball.
3. Charley’s brother, Louis Milton Hollocher, did have a middling minor-league career as a second baseman, batting .217 in a brief stint with Spokane in 1918 and then returning to the game after the war from 1920 to 1926, primarily for Terre Haute in the Three-I League. In the October 1918 edition of Baseball Magazine, Hollocher told of his brother’s enlistment and the letter he’d sent from Parris Island. According to cen
sus data, Milton also got married before joining the marines.
4. On August 3, 1918, the Chicago Daily News reported, “Hollocher was given a box of cigars for getting the first hit of the game. The smokes were presented by a naval officer. Hollocher said, ‘Thank you,’ for the gift, but, as he did not use tobacco, passed them to the sailors in the stands.”
5. Chicago Tribune, June 10, 1918.
6. Chicago Tribune, August 6, 1918.
7. Chicago Daily News, August 23, 1918.
8. Chicago Tribune, August 3, 1918.
9. Boston Globe, August 4, 1918.
10. Boston Globe, August 11, 1918.
11. Chicago Tribune, August 5, 1918.
12. Chicago Tribune, April 3, 1918.
13. Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1918.
14. Chicago Tribune, April 14, 1918.
15. Chicago Tribune, January 20, 1918.
16. Chicago Daily News, August 10, 1918.
17. Chicago Tribune, August 18, 1918.
18. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 26, 1933.
19. Chicago Tribune, August 5, 1923.
20. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 15, 1940.
CHAPTER 13
1. In November 1920, Carl Mays opened up to Baseball Magazine about his history of unpopularity, which followed him wherever he went in the game. Notes 1–3 are taken almost verbatim from quotes of Mays’s in the Baseball Magazine interview. This exact quote went: “There is such a thing as popularity. We all know people who are popular without being able to explain why they should be. We also know people who are not popular, and yet they may be even more deserving of respect. Popularity does not necessarily rest on merit. Nor is unpopularity necessarily deserved.”
2. Baseball Magazine, November 1920.
3. Baseball Magazine, November 1920.
4. Boston Globe, August 11, 1918.
5. Nowlin, When Boston Still Had the Babe, p. 81. Mays is described as having “the disposition of a man with a permanent toothache.”
6. Baseball Magazine, November 1920.
7. Baseball Magazine, June 1918.
8. The Sporting News, August 22, 1918.
9. Baseball Magazine, October 1918.
10. Chicago Daily News, August 29, 1918.
11. The Sporting News, August 22, 1918.
12. Chicago American, August 16, 1918.
13. From the diary of 89th Division soldier Andrew Oleson, at olesons.com/diary.htm.
14. The Sporting News, September 12, 1918.
15. Boston Globe, August 30, 1918.
The Original Curse Page 26