'I don't know them. But some day I'll be playing with
them, or against them, because I'm going to get in the Big Leagues.'
"'Where are you going now?' asked the firemen.
"'Back home to Cleveland,' I told them.
"'Have you got any money?' they asked me.
"'No,' I answered. I had to be honest, after all.
"So they got up a little pool of about five dollars and said, 'Well, on
your way. And use this to get something to eat.'
"I thanked them, and as I left I told them that some day I would be back
again. 'When I get to the Big Leagues,' I said, I'm coming out to visit
you when we get to Chicago.'
"And home I went. I played around home all the rest of the summer, and
then the next summer--that would have been 1907, if I recall correctly,
even though I'm remembering things that have yet to happen and I'm
remembering them backwards--I took a job with an ice cream company in
Cleveland. I made twenty-five dollars a week: Fifteen for checking the
cans on the truck that would take the ice cream away, and ten dollars a
Sunday, when I pitched for the company team. It was a good team. We
played the best semipro clubs in the Cleveland area, and I beat them
all. I was only seventeen, but I hardly lost a game.
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