How do you get your shirt so black?
Your work is great and your work is clean;
You’re the likeliest youth I’ve never seen.
None of the points of a star you lack,
But how do you get your shirt so black?
Your first base play is a thing of joy
To look upon, and believe me, boy
You give the pill an awful crack;
But how do you get your shirt so black?
If you soiled your trousers sliding into third,
I wouldn’t think it worth a word,
But, up at the top of your handsome back,
How do you get your shirt so black?
You’re filling the shoes of old P.L.*
You’re fielding and hitting just as well,
Yes Vic, you’re there like a duck, quack, quack;
But how do you get your shirt so black?
(*P.l. was the nickname of Frank Chance, manager of the Chicago Cubs, who was dubbed the “Peerless Leader.”)
by Ring Lardner, who was sports reporter and author, who worked for a number of major newspapers during the teens of the last century. Lardner who was from Niles Michigan wrote this poem about the extraordinary baserunner Vic Saier who played for the Chicago Cubs. Saier was from Lansing Michigan and played minor league ball for the Lansing Senators. The poem was written about 1915-1917. Lardner was noted for writing in the vernacular and his book
