{"id":7555,"date":"2021-10-09T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=7555"},"modified":"2021-10-09T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T05:00:00","slug":"old-matty-still-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/old-matty-still-a-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Matty Still a Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the <\/em>Evening Star, October 9, 1913<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His feeble form was bent with years; his eyes were dull and dim;
The inroads of advancing age had made a wreck of him.
He slowly hobbled to the box, while forty thousand men
In pity murmured, \u201cPoor old guy; he\u2019ll never pitch again.
Tell John McGraw to take him out\u2014John oughta have a heart!
A broken-down old chap like that should never even start.
We want to beat a live one, so\u2019s we\u2019ll know we\u2019ve earned the game.
To knock about that doddering wreck is just a crying shame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old Matty shuffled to the box and stroked his wrinkled brow;
The dank wind swept through his thin locks with many a mournful sough.
He clicked his loose and scanty teeth, he flexed his palsied arm,
And smiled a space at Connie Mack to show he meant no harm.
One pleading glance at John McGraw he cast, as if to say,
\u201cWhy must you show me up in this humiliating way?\u201d
He read no pity in that face, no mercy, no compassion,
So he proceeded to blow up in this distressing fashion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spiral ball he wound around the end of Baker\u2019s bat,
And when that Titan savagely upon his digits spat,
And swung to drive the pellet toward the cloud-bespangled blue,
The umpire in a thin, small voice observed these words: \u201cStrike two!\u201d
To crib a classic, one more ball: \u201cAh, somewhere, children shout,
But here in Phil delight is nil\u2014great Baker has struck out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nine long rounds he let \u2018em hit, provided they would drop \u2018em
Around in those localities where sundry G\u2019ints could stop \u2018em.
For nine long rounds, when dawned the hope that some one\u2019d make a run,
He added just a pinch of dope and fanned \u2018em, one by one.
Sometimes they\u2019d whiff; sometimes they\u2019d bunt; again he\u2019d let \u2018em clout;
But ere they cantered forth from third he passed and put \u2018em out.
And even weakened Quakertown repressed its thirst for rage
And owned that he\u2019d done fairly well, considering his age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, in the books which we have read we oft have noted that
One thing is true beyond dispute\u2014a pitcher cannot bat.
And so when our poor senile friend, nine innings being o\u2019er,
Stepped to the rubber in the tenth we shuddered to the core.
\u201cMcGraw should spare him this,\u201d we wailed, \u201che\u2019s kept alive somehow,
He\u2019s even fluffed E. Collins twice, so why disgrace him now?\u201d
But ere this tense and troubled trial of thought had well begun
He slugged a sizzling single and brought in the winning run!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor, senile, broken-down old man! We knew he couldn\u2019t last!
His part should be to sit and mourn the misty, vanished past.
To pile in shrill and trembling tones about that ancient day
When he and Anson used to teach the youngsters how to play.
We thought he\u2019d sit upon the bench and watch with rheumy eye
The game, and tell us of the curves he pitched in times gone by.
But now our eyes turn forward, and we wonder with a thrill
If in the fall of \u201933 we\u2019ll see him winning still!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Evening Star, October 9, 1913. His feeble form was bent with years; his eyes were dull and dim;The inroads of advancing age had made a wreck of him.He slowly hobbled to the box, while forty thousand menIn pity murmured, \u201cPoor old guy; he\u2019ll never pitch again.Tell John McGraw to take him out\u2014John oughta […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evening-star","category-newspapers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}