Base-Ball Ballads/The Hold-Out League

by Grantland Rice

 

THE HOLD-OUT LEAGUE.

What has become of Bill Wiggins, the old star who passed up the game?
The three-hundred hitter who swore on his oath he would never return to the same?
He is still out of line as he promised, but suffering deeply with pain—
Poor Bill broke a leg when reporting day came in an effort to catch the first train.

Where is Pat Kelly, the slabman, who swore he had pitched his last ball?
Who tore up his contract and said with a roar he "was finished for good and for all."
When the Giants all meet at the depot, in vain Mr. Kelly they seek,
But they find on arriving in Texas that Pat has already been there a week.

"This dope I give out's on the level," said Mike in a hot interview.
"Just make it as strong as the paper will stand. I will never come back; I am through."
But when they arrived at the station, when the train to the training camp led,
They had to tie Mike to a telegraph pole to keep him from running ahead.

There is gloom in the camp of the Pirates—the Giants throw a fit of alarm,
For Matty and Wagner and Tenny have quite to take up a job on the farm.
But it's queer when you turn to the line-up at the "Opening Chorus of Bing,"
That the first guys to quit on the diamond each fall are the first ones at bat in the spring.