I'm not trying to pretend that ballplayers have any altruistic mission in life. Frankly, we play baseball for a living. It's our job. Yet, I do think we accomplish more than just our own selfish purposes. I do feel we contribute to the spirit of the country and its mental attitude towards life.
I can remember the reactions of a sweet little old lady I happend to meet in a St. Louis railroad station. As we got off the train, a lot of people recognized our players and stopped to stare. This lady touched me on the arm and asked if I knew who all these men were that everyone was looking at.
"Why, yes, lady, those are the Yankees," I said. She said, "The Yankees? What do they do?"
I said they played baseball.
"Is that all?" she said, and when I nodded she said, "Tch, tch, they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Big, strong men like that, playing games. They ought to go to work."
Well, maybe she was right. But it seems to me there's all kinds of work in this world. It would be a dull place if everyone was a salesman, a contractor, or a politician. And how dull it would be without the movies, the theater, the swing bands, even without the funny papers.
I think baseball plays an important part in keeping this country out of trouble that it might otherwise be in. When the public is busy discussing pennant races and speculating on who is going to win the World Series, they don't have to work out their natural instincts for excitement by starting a war.
As long as the country can work up such enthusiasm about a game there's no immediate danger of it having much enthusiasm for much less healthy matters.