Orator O'Rourke
I've come across quite a few quotes from Orator O'Rourke during the course of my research on his career. Here are a few of them.
When Jim O'Rourke was asked to compare the players of the past (1870s and 1880s) to the players of the present (1910) he said:
“Someone asked me yesterday if I didn’t think the players of today were more cunning than the old players and I answered: Indeed they are, especially when getting out of playing the game by claiming they are ill or that they have lame salary wings.”
"There was no paraphernalia in the old days with which one could protect himself. No mitts, not even gloves; and masks, why you would have been laughed off the diamond had you worn one behind the bat. In the early days the pitcher was only 50 feet away from the batsman, and there was no penalizing him if he hit you with the ball."
"The roughness of football in those days was nothing compared to the brutality of baseball during the constructive period. In those days there were few players who were not scarred. It used to be part of the pitcher's duty to try to hit the batter with the ball. I have seen men knocked senseless many times. My head has been so sore from being hit that I could not think and my hands so sore from catching that I could not hold an orange tossed from a distance of six feet."
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