Baseball's Johnny Appleseed

THE NATIONAL ROAD. Cartwright's papers indicate that he traveled by the old National Road through Illinois to St. Louis, where he stayed a few days. Last summer the weather turned hot as well as humid, and baseball disappeared. Only in the gentle climate of early evening did children venture forth to play mixed games on pastures smelling of new-mown hay and shared with ponies.

"Tell them to wait until I make another hit," a lanky, gaunt-faced Illinoisan is said to have replied, back in 1860, when his turn at bat was interrupted. A delegation was waiting to tell him he had been nominated for the Presidency.

Six score and eight years later, dedication has died down somewhat. But on half a dozen local stations Harry Caray's cracking accent conveys excitement, militantly unsuppressed, to The Cardinal Baseball Network. Conversation pauses around Sunday dinner tables and porch swings cease squeaking so people can hear about the 3 and 2 pitch to Lou Brock. As is customary, St. Louis, one of the strongest baseball towns ever since its first organized game in 1860, beats the Mets 6-3 and 3-2.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. The purest baseball ambience in the length of the land is to be found here in Missouri. Come evening, the only staticky crowd noises bouncing off the ionosphere anywhere in this somnolent area come from KLIK, Jeff City, courtesy of Ku-Ku Drive-In. Nobody is tuning in St. Louis. The reassuring sounds are all there: the tock of the bat, the pauses, the pitcher penalized for going to his mouth, the comforting cadences of announcers speaking their liturgy of clich�s. But the familiar Saxon names of batsmen are in unfamiliar order. Not major league, certainly. Tulsa? Quincy? No, this is Republic playing Jefferson City, and the league is American Legion.

Save for a baseball doubleheader lasting into the small hours, the city is closed down tight at sunset. That late the stands out at the ball park are full of fans shielded by windbreakers from the soggy air and the clammy breezes that bend dark heavy trees out of the surrounding blackness into the light. They say oldtimey fan things like, "You ever seen those old catcher's mitts? Kid gloves give more protection."

The game—a taut, engrossing final of an invitational tournament—is won by Republic 4-3. Jeff City runs off the field yelling colorful ballplayer sayings like #X$%. The Republicans jump into each other's arms saying Wow.

At early breakfast the Republic team is celebratory, but Manager Doug Greene is solemn as a judge, which he is. "We have a lot of boys with active bodies and strong minds who might go sour if they didn't have something to occupy them," he says. "We scout for these boys all over southwest Missouri. Most come from real small towns without high school teams. The result is that some have gotten scholarships: our third baseman to Arkansas, the shortstop to Arizona State, the centerfielder to Kansas State. Jerry Carroll will be drafted this year, and my son Terry may be next year."

Players cheerfully agree that their home towns are little. "My town is so small all the street signs are on one post," an infielder says. "And mine," says a pitcher, "is so little it's only there three days a week."

FORT OSAGE, MO. From this point on there are entries in the Cartwright diary against which its accuracy can be tested. Cartwright's party came through here, not that there is anything to commemorate the visit. A plaque marks the beginning of the Federal Government's survey of the Santa Fe Trail, a westernmost U.S. fort constructed by William Clark of Lewis and Clark and the place where 82-year-old Daniel Boone rested on his last long hunting trip. Within home-run distance of the plaque, Little Leaguers play ball. They have all heard of Boone and the trail; not one has heard of Alexander Cartwright.

INDEPENDENCE, MO. Bruce Cartwright Jr.'s summary of the journal says, "A.J.C. Jr. and his friends joined a party under the leadership of Colonel Russell, an ex-Army officer and frontier character; wild, woolley and very dissipated as they afterwards found out. Under Colonel Russell's advice they moved to Boundary to rest up and got things in shape for their journey. They remained here a week."