Well Ty, you faced Walter Johnson's past when he had more smoke than a burning oil well.
Now you're facing the mic.
Which team's the easier?
Well I think I'll take a chance on Walter.
This mic kind of gives me stage fright.
Well Ty, you've asked me not to make this too personal, but you have played in more
ball games, you have made more hits, you have stolen more bases, and you have scored more
runs than any player that ever lived.
A record like this is a personal matter with a good many million people.
First of all, I would like to ask you the biggest thrill you ever got in any one game.
Well Gretlin, I've played in over 4,000 ball games in the last 25 years, and the biggest
thrill I ever got came in a game against the Athletics in 1907.
I was only 20 years old then, not quite 21, and it looked as if this game meant the pennant.
The Athletics had us beaten with Rue Baudel pitching.
They were two runs ahead in the ninth inning when I happened to hit a home run that tied
The score.
This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later we clinched our first pennant.
You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great
Rueb in a pennant-winning game with two out in the ninth.
Boy, I suppose you've missed the old game a lot, Ty, all the frills and crowds and the
headlines and all.
I thought I would miss it a lot, Graham, but I haven't.
It's a great old game, but I've almost felt like a prisoner who was set free.
What do you mean, Ty?
Baseball to me was more work than play.
In fact, it was all work.
You see, I was lucky enough to lead the league when I was 20 years old.
After that, I wanted to lead it every year.
I never thought I was in a genius, so I gave up my life to the game for 25 years.
I suppose I was in nearly 30,000 plays, and I at least tried to think about every play
and how it should be made.
Here is one example.
I figured out one play to use against Hal Chase.
He used to snap the ball over to third to catch me rounding the bag.
I'd always slide back.
I had to wait two years for the right time to work it, but one day I just kept on going
and managed to score the winning run.
Did you have any set system to work on, Ty?
Yes.
My system was all offense.
I believed in putting up a mental hazard for the other fellow.
If we were five or six runs ahead, I'd try some wild play, such as going from first to
home on a single.
This helped to make the other side hurry to play in a close game later on.
I worked out all the angles I could think of to keep them guessing and hurrying.
Every play was a problem of some sort.
That's what I meant by the strain and grind of 25 years.
Who was the best pitcher you ever faced, Ty?
Walter Johnson had more stuff, although Ed Walsh in his prime was a wonder.
But the ones who gave me the most trouble were pitchers like Moegridge, Carl Wildman,
and Carter, all left-handers who depended more on slow curves and dinky dinks.
They bothered me more than speed or fast curves.
Well, who was the hardest hitter you ever saw?
Well, you can't beat the babe.
Ruth is one of the few who can take a terrific swing and still meet the ball solidly.
His timing is perfect.
Lazioey was the hardest line-hitter I ever saw, and I'd like to see Sam Crawford, Joe
Jackson, and Frank Schulte lay against this modern ball.
But none of them had the combined eye and power of Ruth.
There's one thing, Ty, I've always wanted about, and so have many others.
How did your legs ever stand the strain of more than 4,000 ball games and more than 4,000
hits when you were always at top speed?
Well, in the first place, I always tried to keep in condition.
And I can tell all the boys that means everything.
For instance, I only ate two meals a day.
I built up my legs in two ways.
I hunted all through the winter, frequently walking all day long.
I almost lived on my legs.
In addition, I always hunted in heavy boots.
When the training season opened, I fixed a piece of lead to my shoes.
I took the lead off when the pennant race opened, and I felt as if I could run faster.
I lost some of the old spring in the last year or two, but my legs today are as strong
as they were.
If you want good legs, you have to put them to work.
I never gave mine any holidays.
How did you steal so many bases, Ty?
There were others just about as fast.
As I said before, you had to do more thinking in the old days when home runs were fewer.
Games were close, and every play counted.
The two most important things in base stealing are getting the jump on the pitcher and making
your slide away from the baseman.
On stealing bases, I always watched the baseman's eyes to know where the ball was coming.
His eyes had to watch the ball.
I didn't have the time for this, but his eyes told me, and then I knew where to throw my
body away from the baseman.
I am pretty sure, Ty, everybody would like to have you pick the next two pennant winners.
For any good pennant-winning ball club, the second year is the easiest to repeat.
The athletics and the Cubs were both good teams, and I think they will be fighting it out again
in the next World Series.
That's my pick anyway.