St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-11

Did you ever see base ball game
In Minneapolis? If you never did,
take a. day off Monday and go over
to the little sardine box back of the
West hotel and see the game. Mime
apoIis players and the Minneapolis
public do not want the best of it.
They merely want the game. On
the way TO the grounds one meets
scores of little boys with basketfuls
of tin horns. Every Minneapolis man
buys one of these, and many buy
two, for fear there will be some
Flour City man in the enclosure
who has not bought himself one. As
soon as the clock strikes / every
man of these Flour City ''rooters"
sounds his 10-cent horn, and the UNI
pire calls 'Playr' The spectators
the umpire is hired to do up Mime
apolis, and a riot breaks out when
the first strike that a Minneapolis
player does not hit at is called. The
players all run up around the inof-
fensive gentleman who is called upon
TO make decisions, tell him he ought
to be shot on the spot, turn indig
nantly to the crowd, and the latter
bowls its Endorsement. The next
ball cuts the corner of the plate, and
should be called a strike, but the
poor umpire, remembering that it is
healthier to be a live coward than
a dead hero, calls, One BALI" and
the rioters shout their approval. a
little later the umpire, having re-
covered slightly from his perspira-
ton, calls a strike again. Then the
players, from "Bawling" Bill Wilson
to Pretty" Perry Werden, rush up,
boiling over with righteous indigna-
ton, and get another screaming in
dorsement from the rioters in the
bleachers. Poor umpire! He is be-
side himself with fright. He doesn't
know the day Of the week or the
state he is in any more. He wonders
if he has become insane, or is trou-
bled with strabismus.
The scene changes. The visiting
team takes a turn at bat. The UNI
pire calls One striker Things are
L
mighty shout of approval. The next
ball failed to go over the plate by
two feet, and the umpire calls it a
ball. This is instantly conceived to
be an outrage all around. The play
ers foam at the mouth, and the
riotous ''rooters" yell from bleacher
and grand stand: Hang him. Kill
the robber.'' He'll never get out of
here aliver The umpire looks in
amazement at the mad multitude,
and reasons that it is big enough to
enforce its mandates. He realizes
once more that it is sweet to live, and
concludes to live. He finds out in a
couple of innings what the Minneap-
oils rooters want-simply the game.
They care nothing for the minor de-
tails. The formula is very simple.
What is a ball when pitched to a
Minneapolis player is strike, and
= very good one, when pitched to a
visiting player. a ball pitched
squareIy over the plate waist high to
a Minneapolis player is not strike
unless the batsman chooses to strike
at it. Any ball, however, which goes
on the side of visiting player at
which he holds his bat is good
enough for him. and should be called
a strike. Any protest, even ever so
mild, by a visiting player, subjects
him to bowls of derision and shouts
of Put him out of the gamer AS
soon as the umpire discovers that
the Flour City people merely want
the game, and feeling every mo-
ment that he owes it to his family
that he keep his hair and head in
iuXtapoSition, he SurrenderS. He
calls balls and strikes to their liking,
calls out visiting players on the very
slightest provocation, and sends the
rioters home, where they eat raw
beef in preparation for the victim OF
the morrow. The wonder is not that
Minneapolis wins so many games
but that any other team ever wins
a game in Minneapolis.
The score sheet of yesterday 8
game shows that Minneapolis won
in hollow style. To a man who sat
exactly behind the plate, it looked
like a very plain case of theft. In
the first inning Frank was given q
base on balls, and Strauss hit a
grounder to short. The ball was
neatly taken, passed to Pickett and
sent on to first. Both men were
put by several feet, but Strauss was
called safe. So it ran along in al
most every inning. Mullane quit the
box in disgust at the end Of the
fourth inning, and Johnston took his
place. Everything was balls except
those the Minneapolis players struck
at In the sixth inning Johnston
pitched Frank and Strauss three
beautiful strikes each, but both were
given bases on balls and brought
home with a base hit. Before the
game was half over the st. Paul
players We're discouraged and dis
gusted. In the seventh inning two
balls were pitched Camp below his
knee, not eight inches from the
ground, and a third around his neck
All these were called strikes, and
the player sent to the bench. Draw
the veili Base ball in Minneapolis
is not what it seems on the score
sheet.