EDDIE WELLS: I never had no trouble signing. I was just a little fella. What I got for breaking in then was four hundred dollars a month. Ten years later, when I was with St. Louis, we had one starting pitcher making four hundred dollars a month. That's right.

Now take the Yankees. When I was there, Babe made $80,000. Well, he was worth a lot more than that. Gehrig made $45,000. Then it dropped way down. I think the rest of us were making about $10,000 to $12,000. Most I ever made was $800 a month. Frank Navin wasn't paying much money. Heilmann was a star, man, you know he was. He made $15,000. Cobb, I think, made $50,000 to manage. All us other players, we didn't make much. Poor ol' George Dauss, he didn't make much money. He was a star pitcher for years up there. But nobody was making any money then.

We had one left-hander by the name of Dutch Leonard. Ever hear of him? Ol' Dutch had a peculiar ball. It wasn't a slider, it wasn't a slow curve, it was something. Anyway, I was talking to Cobb one day about that. He said, "Eddie, Dutch is down there in the bullpen warming up. You go down there and ask him how he throws that ball."

Well, I did. You know what Dutch told me? He said, "What do you think I am, crazy? Let you take the bread and butter out of my mouth?" That's the reception I got from him. That's ol' Dutch. He was tough. He had a lot of bad luck after Cobb let him go. House burned down, wife died. He's the one who told Landis that Cobb bet on ball games.

See, Leonard was mad at Cobb, because Cobb let him go [in 1925]. In other words, he'd fired him. So Dutch got mad and brought that up to Judge Landis. Landis called Cobb and Tris Speaker into his office and he didn't do nothing with it. Cobb left Detroit after 1926. Cobb and Speaker went to play for Connie Mack in Philadelphia. Both those fellows broke in about 1906, something that. That was way before my time. I can't tell you what took place on those ball clubs. They tell me these boys used to bet on themselves. I don't know. They say they did. I imagine they did. I know that when I hit the big leagues none of that was going on.

Well, I never did do much with Detroit. In 1925 I won six ball games, lost nine, and had a 6.19 ERA. In 1926 1 had a thirty-three-inning scoreless streak with Detroit. Led the American League with four shutouts. I won twelve and lost ten. The next year, we were training down in San Antonio, and the first day of spring practice I hurt my arm. I threw the ball and, I don't know why, but my shoulder killed me. George Moriarty was the manager that year. He kept me until the middle of July, then they sent me to Washington. Washington sent me to Birmingham. I had tendonitis, is what I had. As soon as I hit Birmingham, that hot weather did it. I pitched the day after I reported. I lost, 4-3, but then I won thirteen straight and my arm ain't hurt since.

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