Baldwin High School - Piper Yearbook (Birmingham, MI)

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Swiss Evening Night's dark shades have almost Blanketed the countryside. At our feet a surging mountain Stream tumbles down, down, down, Disappearing at last into The growing darkness. Nestled deep in a valley, Between two verdant mountain Slopes, lies a tiny Swiss village. Its lights twinkle like hundreds Of friendly little stars, seeming To beckon, beckon us home. And above the sound of the torrent, From some wandering musician In the village below, drifts the Soothing refrain of a song, Borne to us on the wings Of the evening breeze. It is at times like these That men are glad to be alive. When they meditate upon scenes like This, they forget their cares And thrill to the beauty And glory of the Creator. -B. Averill -4- i J

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1 Take Life as it Comes E oldsters are always giving advice to you youngsters. Often we do so just to satisfy our own ego. It gives us a certain amount of self-importance to say, Now, I have lived a few more years than you, you really ought to sit at my feet and listen. You just can't know too much about this your- self. You aren't old enough. I don't want to do anything like that. I simply aim to reiterate perhaps just one rule of life which you and I in our personal chats and in the assemblies together have again and again considered. It is as much your philosophy as it is mine . . . You, as I, have watched some people meet what we call adversity and collapse and fall to pieces under it. The very same experience has occurred in the life of anotherg and it is taken, built upon, and the person becomes even stronger and more useful. From this you and I gather that educa- tion does nothing for us if it doesn't enable us to meet all phases of life. For example, it is a simple matter for a man to be happy and even useful when all of life goes his way. When a' man's salary is fairly large so that he can buy good clothes for his wife and children, shelter them in a fairly beautiful home and provide an extra car or two-well, most men can be reasonably happy under such conditions. But suppose such can no longer be provided because the salary has been reduced or lost entirely or dividends no longer paid. just how a man stands up under a barrage like this is really what counts. If he moans 1 ,J about the government or labor or the capitalistic sys- tem or his boss or any one of so many things that we can always find to complain aboutg if he feels that he personally has been unjustly treated and singled out by God for his misfortune, then education once gotten, wealth once possessed, family once happy won't help that man.' He must learn that all of life was intended to be met and that he fails where any phase of it completely knocks him out . . . For example, you as a student aren't doing well in your studies. How you react to this experience tests character. If you bemoan the fact that the Lord didn't give you brains to com- pare with those of the brilliant student in your class, or whine about the fact that the teacher doesn't under- stand you and 'has a grudge against you so that you cannot do your best, or that there are too many chores about the house for you to do so that you haven't sufficient time for your home work, or that there isn't a quiet place around the home where you can con- centrate-well, I don't need to reiterate, YOU ARE LOST! The test of life is just what you can do under even these adverse circumstances-if they do exist, for you must keep in mind that many of our adversities are really mental rather than actual as you'll soon discover from those morbid souls around you who are always painting so black a picture they frighten them- selves and others to the point of becoming ineffectual. Remember this always: You in life will never be called upon to experience that which has not already QContimu'd on Page 963 , -3-

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9 WITH F RED GOLDSHITII HI-Olsgf I-1Es!i4iUEKEHfUH,1QjA7 DISCOVER!! OF' THE CURVE S the last curve broke across the plate to retire the batter and end the baseball game, a very different scene was taking place in another section of the ball park. Fred Goldsmith, the inventor of the curve ball was being besieged by reporters and photographers. He had come to see a baseball game, a ball game as it is played todayg but his fame was too far-reaching to permit him his much desired peace. The ball game became a- secondary matter as news reporters proceeded to get their stories. This is the picture that came to our minds as we sat in a typical little Michigan farmhouse situated about fifty miles north of America's greatest baseball city. There we found eighty-two-year-old Fred Goldie Goldsmith, coiner of that famous saying, He's a sucker for a curve ball. - He greeted us warmly, and as soon as our mission was made known, a battered traveling case packed with clippings, pictures, and souvenirs was spread be- Photo by courtesy of International News Service BALL fore us. Everything we looked at had a story which our host eagerly related. Fred Goldsmith was born in New Haven, Connec- ticut, during the 18S0's. Throughout his youth, he was constantly using his playmates as backstops for his pitching efforts. When only eleven, he made the unusual discovery which later brought him fame and fortune. By holding the ball in a certain position and snapping the wrist in a peculiar manner, he managed to make the ball go in a curved path. This defied all the existing laws of science and soon aroused the interest of Henry Chadwick, president of the National League and greatest baseball editor of all time. Chadwick invited fifteen-year-old Freddie to come to New York and prove his claim. So before a crowd of 14,000 curious fans, he gave the first exhibi- tion of his wonderful discovery which was to revolu- tionize baseball. Upon his return home, the owner of the Tecumseh Club in London, Ontario, offered him a job at 300 dollars a month. Fred's father strongly opposed base- ball as a career, but with the fine salary which was offered, the chance seemed too good to miss. So in 1876, Fred Goldsmith joined the Tecumseh Club. During those three years in which I played with them, I pitched every game and we won the International League Championship three years in succession. In 1878 we challenged the Chicago White Stockings, the champions of the National League to a playoff series. In that series, I pitched and won three successive games to make the Tecumseh Club the First World Champions. , The following year saw me in a Chicago uniform under the management of Pop Anson. In the three seasons when I was with them, we won two World Championships. While with that team, we played a three-game series at Indianapolis. The first game, played in the morning, was called at the end of nine innings, a scoreless tie. After fourteen innings in the afternoon, the game was again called, another scoreless tie. The next day we won the third game by a score of 1-0, and I had allowed only one hit in the entire series. 4 While pitching against Boston in 1883, my arm suddenly went dead and began shaking violently. It CContinuea' on Page 982 -.5-..