Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1917 — WALSH WAS PECULIAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WALSH WAS PECULIAR

Forced Out of Baseball by Excessive Massaging. Big Wh’te Sox Hurter Was Called Upon to Work Often and Never Shirked, but He Did Insist on Having Arm Rubbed. “I see where Ed Walsh is not on the White Sox reserveligt- Excessl ve massage put him out of baseball two years ahead of the time he should have been through.” Thus spoke a well-informed man who has followed the destinies of the South side ball club for many years. Walsh was a peculiar hurler. He was called upon to work often. He never shirked, but he did insist on having his arm rubbed. Every day the trainer had. to apply the soothing lotion and the muscle kneading. Walsh insisted on it. He was rubbed before the game and after the game, and sometimes in between. Massage was his hobby, and he took It in the liberal portions that a man generally demands when the things he wants cost nothing. Fellow players remonstrated, but he knew. Wasn’t he the greatest pitcher

of his time? He was. Didn’t he dust the hostilities off the plate with great regularity and more effect than the o tilers? He did. So he had his arm rubbed morning, noon and night, so to speak. “Rubbing," says King Brady of the Cubs, “is only artificial exercise. A muscle becomes sore from overwork or from a sprain. The trainer rubs the sore. .§PQt.,tp stimulate ~the circulation of blood, which, of course, removes the soreness. The same effect could be obtained by proper exercise, but one resorts to massage to correct the une local fault. Exercise would.put a strain on other muscles which already are in shape. “If a player, such as a pitcher, has had his arm treated to excess he has submitted to just that much more artificial exercise, which in the long run •saps his strength: “In handling sprinters and ball players I have come to the conclusion that there is in each man just so much energy to be expended. When that energy is exhausted you are done. The spirit may be willing gnd the member may feel all right, but the zip is gone. Long rest in some classes may restore the expended vitality, but such cases are rare." Artie Hofman was a fine example, He tried a "comeback” with the Cubs last summer, but looked bad. Yet he was in prime physical condition.

Ed Walsh.