"'Oh,' Robbie said. 'What are you kidding around for, Rube? I have to go out on the field and I don't have time to fool around.'
"'No,' I told him, 'I'm serious! McGraw is right here and he says he'll sell me for seven thousand five hundred buckaroos! Do you want to talk to him?'
"'Of course I do,' Robbie said. And right then and there I was traded from the Giants to the Dodgers.
"And, of course, we—the Dodgers, that is—won the pennant the next year, and I had one of the best years I ever had. I think I had an earned run average of about one and a half in 1916. And then we won the pennant again in 1920. So everything worked out pretty well.
"One day when I was pitching for Brooklyn, I pitched the first game of a double-header against Boston and beat them, one to zip! I was in the clubhouse during the second game, taking off my uniform, when the clubhouse boy came in. 'Rube,' he said to me, 'there's an elderly gentleman outside who wants to see you. He says he's your father from Cleveland.
"'He is not my father,' I said. 'My father wouldn't go across the street to see me. But you go out and get his autograph book and bring it in, and I'll autograph it for him.'
"But instead of bringing in the book, he brought in my Dad. And we were both delighted to see one another.
"'Boy,' said my father to me, 'you sure are a hardhead. You know I didn't mean what I said ten years ago.'
"'What about you, Dad?' I said. 'You're as stubborn as I am. I thought you never wanted to see me again. I thought you meant it.'
"'Of course I didn't,' he said.