The Durable Hypochondriac

Every American League pitcher has had to get acquainted, early in his big-league career, with a droopy, lackadaisical figure who plays shortstop for the Chicago White Sox and who comes up to the plate, sometimes limping, as if he had been called on to move a locomotive with a crowbar. The name of this apparition is Lucius Benjamin ("Luke") Appling. Droopy Luke spits a casual stream of tobacco juice, chats in a friendly Southern drawl with the umpire and opposing catcher, and usually complains that he is feeling just terrible. His symptoms may range from an upset stomach to "double vision." Once after a ferryboat ride, he dolefully announced he was seasick.

Opposing batteries have plenty of respect at all times for Luke, who led the American League's hitters in 1936 and 1943, has a lifetime batting average of 312. But they are wariest when he complains loudest about his health, for it is a long-established fact that he plays best when he feels worst.

The only "20year man" now playing in the majors, Luke Appling came up to the White Sox in 1930, and has been with them ever since (except for 1944 and most of 1945 when he was in the Army). Last week in a series with the Senators at Washington, he played his 2,154th game as a major-league shortstop, breaking the record previously held by the National League's Walter ("Rabbit") Maranville.*

In ceremonies the night before, when Appling tied the Rabbit's record, Maranville-was on hand to congratulate him, Senator Clyde Hoey of North Carolina (Appling's native state) made a speech, and the White Sox management presented him with an envelope containing a blank slip of paper, in lieu of a bonus check for an" unnamed amount which the management promised to pay him later. Luke celebrated the occasion by rapping out two hits in four times at bat and handling his three chances in the field perfectly. The White Sox won the game, 4-1.

Bad-Hop Wizard. Appling has been celebrating his 40th birthday for several years now. The evidence indicates that he was born in High Point, N.C., some 42 or 43 years ago, moved with his family to Atlanta, played shortstop at Fulton High and at Oglethorpe University (where he also played football). He left Oglethorpe after two years to play baseball with the Atlanta Crackers, and the White Sox snapped him up during his first season.

He is the only American League shortstop who has ever led his league twice in batting, and his 1936 average, .388, is the best figure for any big-time shortstop in modern baseball history. Appling makes more errors than a star infielder should, but he has led American League shortstops seven times in number of assists, and he is a wizard with bad-hopping grounders. He has made a crack double-play man out of the Sox's young second baseman, Cass Michaels, with whom Appling rooms on the road.

Like other clubs, the White Sox management does not announce players' salaries, but Appling is the highest paid performer on a sixth-place club that is going nowhere this year, and it is generally believed that he gets about $25,000. His pretense of laziness is an affectation. He is full of hustle and hates to lose a close game. Once, after the Sox lost a 1-to-0 heartbreaker, Luke brooded through his dinner and threw it up afterward. This year he has been evicted from four games for arguing too strenuously with umpires.

"A Little Thing Here ..." Off the diamond, Luke likes flashy ties and clothes (last week he appeared in a green gabardine number), fat black cigars and dry Martinis. Balding and somewhat spavined but not fat, he has a wife and three children, an eleven-acre place in Georgia where he keeps in shape during the offseason and where he expects to "relax" when his baseball days are over, whenever that may be.

Two years ago, on "Appling Day" in Chicago, his fellow players gave him a watch inscribed: "To Old Aches & Pains--from the Boys." Luke spends an hour or so on the rubbing table before every game. He had no injuries and few complaints in 1942 and his batting average that year skidded to a feeble .262. Next year his aches & pains, real and imaginary, were up to standard and his average soared to .328. Trying to explain his hypochondria, Luke says: "You get a little thing here & there, up & down, something that don't look so bad at first, and first thing you know it's really bad. I just don't take any chances. We got a lot of good trainers around here and I like 'em. Sort of like to have 'em work over me."

* The majors' most distinguished record holder: Outfielder Tyrus Raymond Cobb, who played in 3,033 games in 24 years, quit at 41 with a record lifetime batting average of .367, a record of 892 stolen bases. * Since 1944, director of sandlot baseball for the New York Journal-American,

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