Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) RIGHT OFF THE BAT _BASEBALL BALLADS_ By WILLIAM F. KIRK ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. B. MARTIN G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK (These verses originally appeared in the New York Evening Journal, and are here reprinted through the courtesy of the National News Association.) COPYRIGHT, 1910-1911, BY NATIONAL NEWS ASSOCIATION COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY _Right Off The Bat_ TO JOHN J. McGRAW THE SCHOOLMASTER OF BASEBALL CONTENTS PAGE John Bourbon, Pitcher 7 Sunday Baseball 9 The Big League 11 The Ballad of the Minor Leaguer 13 Ballade of a Substitute 15 Casey on a Bat 17 The Pitcher's Soliloquy 19 Blessed Be Baseball 21 Raymond's Ride 23 Four Conversations 25 "Inside" Baseball 27 The Difference 29 Cricket and Baseball 31 The League of Long Ago 33 The Longest Hit on Record 35 The Umpire's Home 37 "Yellow" 39 The Umpire 41 "Choosing Sides" 43 Ode to a Georgia Gent 45 Life and Baseball 47 What Happened to Hilo 49 I Was with Clarke 51 "Home Folks" 53 The Outfielder's Dream 55 The Law of Averages 57 A Converted Rooter 59 To the Lady Bugs 61 Polo in Arizona 63 The Laddies' League 65 The $11,000 Beauty 67 The Lay of the New York Fan 69 The Old Rooter 71 "If" 73 Right Off the Bat JOHN BOURBON, PITCHER They tell me that Matty can pitch like a fiend, But many long years before Matty was weaned I was pitching to players, and good players, too, Mike Kelley and Rusie and all the old crew. Red Sockalexis, the Indian star, Breitenstein, Clancy, McGill and McGarr. Matty a pitcher? Well, yes, he may be, But where in the world is a pitcher like me? My name is John Bourbon, I'm old, and yet young; I cannot keep track of the victims I've stung. I've studied their weaknesses, humored their whims, Muddled their eyesight and weakened their limbs, Bloated their faces and dammed up their veins, Rusted their joints and beclouded their brains. Matty a pitcher? Well, yes, he may be, But where in the world is a pitcher like me?