Johnny Kling

The Matchless Catcher�

Until Babe Ruth placed baseball in the high income brackets, the game suffered in a social sense as well. The sport was played by men who were not acceptable everywhere. It was possible for illiterates like Joe Jackson to get by on their tremendous talent alone. Eccentrics like "Bugs" Raymond were permitted to pitch even if they did take too many drinks. (n those "good old days," which were not really so good, the teams traveled in buses and slept in poor hotels. Today the men are set up at the finest hotels in every major league city, and they are taught the niceties of life.

For example, fellows like Ted Williams, who were brash and confident, were taught to behave. When Williams first broke into the big time, he refused to wear a tie in the hotel. Because he was still young and perhaps overconfident, his manager sent him back to the bush leagues, with the admonition that he'd have to learn to wear a tie.

The day of the Ring Lardner type of player, dumb, uneducated but talented, is nearly gone. Of course now and then a wise-guy player may break in. His ability brings him up. But within a season or two he is taught to behave not like a foolish athlete, but like a public figure, a man who has his own sort of dignity and position to uphold.