The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-05
ANsE BEHIND THE BAT.
The Old Man Talks of Base Ball of a
Long Time Ago.
From the Chicago Tlmes-Herald.

AOAh NAS CAAlNdSO dlus
Washington, Aug 9O.-"Uncle Adrian"
Arson, who pulled stroke oar in Noah's
ark, is winding up the base ball season by
going behind the bat. The last nine games
played by the Chicago club, with one ex-
ception, have been caught by him, Sin
gularly enough, the Chicagos won nearly
all of them In the game with the Sem
ators yesterday the "old man. was be-
hind the bat. He will be there again in
two games tomorrow and Tuesday. The
captain sat on a leather-covered couch
this afternoon in the office of the Airing
ton hotel, where the colts are stabbed. A
Washington fan wandered in to see him.
"Anson." he said, you are the most YER
satile man l ever knew. 1 saw you catch
those hot balls yesterday. You made me
think of man with springs under him.
don't see how an old man like You can
do It."
I'm no old man." answered Arson.
Besides, it's no trick to catch ball"
But you have been catching now for a
week or more"
"Longer'n that; all my life" Arson re-
piled. I've never done anything else.
Though I've caught other things, it's my
business to catch balls. 1 put no store
by my actions the last week Donohue
has a bad finger. Kitridge has a bad arm,
and it looks as if 1 would have to tie
myself to that wind pad pretty often be-
lOiC 'lu6 Gnu VI inc S6dSOu.
Does it hurt your"
Hurt? No. My hands are like-what
do you call this stuff they put on the
sides of warships?"
''Harveyized armor?"
Yes, that's it. My hands are like Har-
veyized armor. The work of backstop
in these days is a snap, anyway compared
with the job of catchers when 1 started in.
Think of old Silver Flint. 'Silver's'
hands were battered into so many angles
that when spread out they resembled
pretzels. In viewing his bread winners,
you were as confused in locating the fin
gers as country cousin is in finding his
way through the contorted streets of
Boston, where we've just been. 'Silver's'
hands were one of the sights of the sport
ing fraternity sought when visiting Chi
cago."
Where was his mits?' the fan asked.
His mits!' said Arson, "well, his mits
were not born yet. You must remember
we didn't wear mits in the early days
of the game I've seen a man catch
balls until his hands were black and blue
| clean through. Even the hair on the backs
-here-they were blue, too. They would
begin to get blue at the roots, and each
time you caught hot drive they would
get blue little farther up"
Just the same 1 believe the game
ought to be played without gloves" chip
ped in Tim Donohue, who was sitting
near nursing his sore finger.
Il don't" said Arson, Whats the Use
Of taking punishment when you can lust
as well avoid it? There were no masks
or pads In Flints early days as a back
stop. We used to wear little gloves on
both hands with the fingers clipped or.
remember l wore them when l did nv
first catching. But they were of little
use. / knew then that the game would
some day be improved in a mechanical
way by the introduction of appliances.
such as masks and gloves as they now
exist. l got myself laughed at once for
predicting that the time would come when
catchers would be protected by gloves,
masks and pads"
When did the mask come IMP"
"Oh, after the gloves" said Arson 1.-THE
hurt was worse on the hands, and so they
were looked after first. remember catch
ing often and never thinking of a mask.
We used to wear piece of rubber hooked
IN our mouths to protect our teeth. The
idea was to prevent us from becoming
toothless before our time. This piece of
rubber was invented by a chap In Boston
The scheme was to insert the rubber in
the mouth on advancing to the position be-
hind the batsman. The inventor thought
II would resist the force of the blow in
case the ball hit the catcher in the mouth.
They weren't thinking of our eyes and
noses. We were supposed to save them
by dodging. The rubber was an awkward
thing and not a success. Shortly after 1t
was placed on the market l read in the
Chicago papers of a lad catching in an
amateur team who was almost choaked
to death with one Of those rubbers. A foul
caught him fun on the rubber and ram
med 1t down his throat
Did you ever get hit, captain" asked
a youngster. m
Yes. a BAN rolled up once and hit me
here in the throat--square on the apple"
said Arson. throwing his head back and
pointing TO an Adams apple about the
size Of Ben Davis
Then Arson and Donohue got into an
argument about the hardest work in a nine
Arson insisted that Il was all easy Dono-
hue claimed that the catcher got the worst
Of It. ITS no trick TO CATCH" he said, ~
you don't overdo It. But man can't catch
day in and day out His hands are bound
to get sore some time"