lub of which I was a member,
still I realized that they were pretty evenly matched, and I so stated.

He then remarked in sneering tones, "Oh, I don't know. I guess they play
to win or lose as will best suit their own pockets."

I informed him that if he meant to insinuate that either one of them
would throw a game, he was a liar.

He gave me the lie in return and then I smashed him, and I am not
ashamed to say that I would do it again under the same circumstances.

I have heard just such remarks as that made even in this late day,
remarks that are as unjust to the players as they are uncalled for by
the circumstances. Lots of men seem 'to forget that the element of luck
enters largely into base-ball just as it does into any other business,
and that things may happen during a contest that cannot be foreseen
either by the club management or by the field captain.

An unlucky stumble on the part of a base runner or a dancing sunbeam
that gets into a fielder's eyes at some critical time in the play may
cost a game; indeed, it has on more than one occasion, and yet to the
man who simply judges the game by the reports that may read in the
papers the thing has apparently a "fishy" look, for the reason that
neither the sunbeam nor the stumble receives mention.

If every sport and business man in this world were as crooked as some
folks would have us to believe, this would indeed be a poor world to
live in, and I for one would be perfectly willing to be out of it.

The real truth of the matter is that the crooks in any line are few and
far between. That being the case it's a pretty fair old sort of a world,
and I for one am glad that I am still in it, and very much in it at
that.

CHAPTER IX. WE BALL PLAYERS GO ABROAD.

The first trip that was ever made across the big pond by American ball
players and to which brief reference was made in an earlier chapter,
took place in the summer of 1874. London was, as a matter of course, our
first objective point, and I considered myself lucky indeed in being a
member of one of the organizations that was to attempt to teach our
English cousins the beauties of America's National Game.

The two clubs selected to make the trip were the Bostons, then
champions, and the Athletics, and the players who were to represent
them, together with their positions, are given below:

BOSTON POSITIONS ATHLETIC
Catcher John E. Clapp