March 22, 1923 Age 32
Ralph Davis The Pittsburgh Press
WILLIAM DOAK, the Knoxville boy who pitches salivated pitches for the St. Louis Cardinals, was for years a victim of the tobacco chewing habit, because he couldn’t get along without it in his business. He did not like the weed, but he couldn’t get a flow of saliva to make his twirling possible without it. Those days are past, and he’s mighty glad of it. Listen to his tale:
“THERE ARE times when a spitball pitcher finds his mouth as dry as the sands of the desert, and that is one of life’s tense moments,” said Doak recently. “I have been there and I know.
“THE AVERAGE spitball pitcher can’t get a break on the ball unless he has a free flow of saliva. The strenuous exercise on a blistering diamond in midsummer dries up this flow absolutely. Unless the twirler can start it again by artificial means the batters will knock those apples back at him so fast that he’ll be glad to run for cover.
“NOW FOR MANY years the only sure way I knew to have a supply of saliva in my mouth constantly while I was pitching was to stick a chew of tobacco on the inside of my cheek. I tried chewing gum, slippery elm – everything that anybody told me would do the trick. All failed, and I always had the plug in my hip pocket so I might sink the teeth into it when the moisture disappeared.
“THIS WAS torture for me. I hate chewing tobacco. It always made me half sick in my stomach. But the continuance of a semi-monthly pay check was greatly to be desired. Saliva on my missiles was just as essential as powder behind the shot in a shell. I chewed my tobacco – and suffered.
“ONE DAY I met Ed Walsh, the greatest spitball artist of them all, and I asked him how he kept a flow of saliva in his mouth. ‘Mix chewing gum with slippery elm.’ Walsh told me. I hustled to a drug store right off and bought my moisture producers.
“BUT TO MY great disappointment it didn’t seem to work. The gum and the elm wouldn’t mix right and I was compelled to return to the tobacco. Then one day when I had a large wad of chewing gum in my mouth, well masticated and stringy – all the sugar gone from it – I thought I’d try the elm. It worked fine that way. I threw my plug farther than I ever threw a baseball and never want to see one again so long as I live.”
How to get rid of flies and germs in your drain: Lye! 1923
