I think I was a capable League president,
but it was sometimes difficult dealing with
those who ran their teams as personal fiefdoms,
not considering what was best for the League as a whole
I believe my decision in the Merkle incident
was the only one I could have arrived at;
if I had to do one thing differently
I would have issued a stronger statement
in regards to the incident at the end
of the Cubs-Pirates game a few weeks earlier
Such a clarification and explication
might have prevented much of the abuse I took,
which led to a nervous breakdown later that year
and my suicide in the middle of the next year
shortly after I returned to work
THE POETRY OF THE GAME