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Rough treatment
232 22nd Street, Northwest
Canton, Ohio
Mr. Frank Crowder
844 Park Street
Columbus, Ohio
September 19, 1898
Dear Cousin Frank,
I am sorry for taking so long to reply to your letter. I confess that I was waiting for better news to share with you, but as the season ended without any such news arising, I figured I better go ahead and write to you anyway.
I had a rough go of it with the Cantons this year. Perhaps my arm was tired, because I have never pitched so much in fast competition as I did this year. By my count I worked about 360 innings this year. I should be able to handle that much work, but for some reason I didn't pitch very well the last few weeks.
We only won two of the nine games I started after I came up to Canton, and we lost two of the last three I pitched for Canal Dover. It seemed like everything I threw up there got hit hard, and it seemed like every ball the other fellows hit found its way between the fielders.
Another of the pitchers, Tony Mendez, was giving me advice about how to pitch to certain hitters. His advice was good, but when I tried to put the ball where he suggested, I either missed the strike zone or threw the ball right over the middle of the plate. I suppose I have a lot to learn before I will be an effective pitcher at this level!
I will be going back home to Canal Dover in about a week. I have been invited to go fishing with Nick Hancock and Will Copeland, two of the fellows I played with this year. Then I plan to enroll in the Canal Dover High School again, if you can believe it!
Hopefully my Ma will be willing to come back home, now that my Pa has decided to stop playing ball. He batted .314 this year and he hit 23 doubles in 89 games, so he was still playing very well. I suppose he's giving up base ball for my Ma's sake. I know he misses her very much.
I hope you will be able to come up to Canal Dover sometime this winter. It seems like it has been a long time since we saw you.
Your cousin,
Charlie
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