The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-10-11
Cincinnati Ennulrer.l

Cincinnati Enquirer.)
The papers told a story some time
ago, said HOme-run Haggerty. about a
bunch of religious folks out Chicago way
who frOwned on baseball because II was
full Of deception. In the games they
played they barred curve pitching, be-
cause that was deception, and stealing a
base cas- worse than cracktn' q safe, in
their eyes. The people I m about 20 tell
you Of were not only religious crazy, but
they were baseball crazy as Wei, and the
combination of that produced the biggest
house condition IN an otherwise harmless
people that you could imagine 1 know
tor was in the Domain Of Alkah and
saw il all.
Right plump in the middle of Texas is
this Domain OF AlkaH It's as big as Two
ordinary counties in an ordinary state,
ana there are couple of gOOd-sized
towns IN Il. AlkaH Is the capital They
have guy they call the high priest. and
a lot o other priests not quite as high
who administer the government and win
at every election. They're down on de-
ceptiou IN baseball but when was there
! heard that these priests had been known
70 turn trick or two Of their own at
stutfin' ballot boxes.
Altogether it was an interesting COM
mqnIty. because they carried their re-
hgion into everything they did. They
wouldn't stand for railroads. for there
was none @ them away far back In Bible
LmeS, ana they didn't use stoves and a
LOT other modern things in their houses
Tor the same reason. You'd think they'd
been piayin' ball under the rules Noah
but that's where you make a big error
lney had the 1901 rules down pat and
sfvefal improvements of their own that
they rung in to stop the sinfulness and
deception Of the game.
Josh Hapgood Gets Challenge.
"Of course we didn't know this. All we
knew was that Josh Hapgood had got
kind OF a funny letter challenging us to
q game, and offering our regular guar
antee, and he had took 1t up. We ar
ri A fNHsnN Taur L.. ar
a five-hour stage ride from town out
side the Domain, where the railroad had
LETT us. There was a big crowd of Aka
utes, Dig and little, male and female, TO
meet us. They weren't a bit hostile. only
Jolly us.
All went well till we reached the ball
grounds that Afternoon The Alkali play
ers were big. strappiuE SIX-fOOteTs. but
lively for all that and we saw we were In
for nice, hot time giVin EN- a beatin'.
knocked out flies, and both Reggie and
Dan Delaney warmed up, for the Aka
Htes looked so husky that we didn't know
what minute one OF our pitchers might
get his bumps.
Then the Alkali manager appeared. He
was also deacon or some sort Of Of
flcer in the church system that ran
through everything they did. from build
ing road TO sorting sprouts. he came
up to Josh HapgOod and said:
OF course you know that to play
basebaH according TO the regular rules
that are accepted in the outer world
would break the rules and tenets Of the
.. How SOP says Josh. DO they bet on
% Who says the deacon-manager like
ne Glqn L understand.
The tenants, SAYS Josh They'll get
broke sure if they bet against us BY the
way. want to put a little on the outside
yourseif2 and Josh pulled out a roll as
DIG around as piano leg
Strong Sermon Against Betting.
Right then and there / heard the
strongest sermon against betting that
ever happened. and Josh was promptly
rebuked. 1t appears that lie didn't want
% bet at all but wanted to ~eXplain
some change they'd made in the rules.
They were these, he went on to say:
No curve pitching. That is deceiv-
ing the batter.
No stealing bases. That is wicked.
N 10 throws to catch base runners nap
ping; no false motions to throw to bases:
no eoncealing the ball. They are all de-
"A batter must announce beforehand
where ne is going 70 hit the ball inffeld
or outfleld- and must specify the direc-
uOn-left right or center. Otherwise il
IS deceiving and gives the batter an un-
fair advantage over the fielders"
HOld on, says John Don't you have
to call what seam o. the ball you're goin'
70 mtg What happens when the bali
don't go where a man says il will?
You have to spot it and the next
man Shoots SAYS J.
No saws the deacon manager. You
are out. Thet's all there is to it
We'll, there was a whole lot of DOW
wOWing around and finally. against the
advice OF the whole bunch of us Josh
agreed TO play under their rules We
went to bat first.
Pinch Hobbs had the rules explained,
and he walked Up to the plate
" Left fieldl' hs,yelled. and landed on
straight one. IL struck hack Of second
and bounced over the center. fielder's
head.
"Pnich was digging for second when
the umpire stopped him.
You're out he said. for deception.
Go to the bench
pinch was mad. So were the rest of
us. A good two-bagger was wasted be-
cause of their bum rules.
Harrison Calls Wrong Ball.
Jimmy Harrison went up against it a
minute later. He called Left field. too.
and popped up a foul. The catcher