Chicago, Ill. - (U.P.) - It was a day off yesterday for the Chicago Cubs in their helter-skelter dash for the National League pennant, but not for Paul Dominick, their 14-year-old, 150-pound mascot.
Paul looks like a well-rounded beer keg, or a slightly elongated medicine ball. He thinks he resembles Shanty Hogan, ponderous pachyderm of baseball, who scintillated behind the plate for the Giants in former years.
While the lighthearted Cubs pranced in a brief practise, Paul tailed Massa Charlie Grimm around, assisting him in keeping the Chicagoanis on edge.
"I got to be here," he explained proudly. "I was here when the fellas started knockin' 'em off, and if I wasn't here now they'd go stale, just like they'd if I wasn't here when they're playing."
With their dirty uniforms, the same they've worn since they started their 18-game winning streak. Paul has come to mean 'win' for the Cubs. He sat in the dug-out Sept. 4 when the Cubs started the streak and has sat there every day since.
School is one of the big worries of Paul's life. An incidental in his first love, the Cubs, it interferes a bit with his own desires and the collective peace of mind of Mr. Wrigley's young men.
"Gee, if I only didn't have to go in the afternoon," he mourned.
Every day for the first two or three innings, the Cubs are jittery, because their rotund pal is not on the bench.
Sharply at 3:45, the peps up and then everything is hotsy-totsy. His teacher drives him over to Wrigley Field as soon as school lets out at 3:30. When the Cubs see him on the bench, they "unloose," in the picturesque language of Massa Charlie.
"Boy, ain't they some outfit?" Paul asked as the two infield Bill's, Jurges and Herman, snipped through a double play to Phil Cavaretta on first. One of their famous double plays that are making Cub fans forget about "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
"Boy ain't he some mascot?" asked Herman as he sloshed about in a shower after the workout.
Paul's chief concern now is whether he'll be allowed to go to St. Louis Wednesday (the 25th) when the Cubs open for five games with the second place Cards. School officials, while they haven't committed themselves yet, probably will permit him to make the trip, most Cubs feel.
The chubby good luck piece confessed that his ambition, when he grows up, is to fill Gabby Hartnett's shoes behind the plate for the Cubs. His weight doesn't worry him.
"Look at Shanty Hogan," he said. "He was a big fella too, wasn't he? Besides, I got a lot of time to reduce."