The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-04
Where they play Tuesday:
Fort Scott at Topeka.
Springfield at Joplin.
lola at Pittsburg.
Sedalia at LeavenWorth.

AS the fans are becoming acquaint-
ed with the new rule of this year, that
when the catcher. first or third base
man drops foul fly which is a pos
| sible chance, it charges an error
against him, they are looking about
| for a good reason or argum ent for its
| continuation. 1t cannot be denied un-
| der any circumstances that a foul fly
| is as a general rule a hard chance.
For the first or third baSeman it
| means either a backward running
catch, or turn and straight run
| without an opportunity for Judging
the descent of the ball. For the
| catcher it is still harder. He is handi-
capped by a catchers paraphernalia,
the mask and protector. By the time
he throws off the cage, rises from his
crouching position under the bat and
turns around, he has little time to
waste thinking about the way the
horSehide is falling. He simply takes
a chance and goes for the ball Every
fan has watched the manner in which
catcher staggers about under a foul
fly, and everyone knows knows that
this is caused by nothing else than the
lack of time to judge and the. extreme
difficulty of getting under the ball.
The rule applies of course to the right
and left fielders also, or any player
who gets under a foul fly with pos
Sible chance of catching. But with
the fielders the proposition is an
easier one. 1t means forward or
side running catch with them, and IL
the distance is a long one, the scorer
is always lenient- Now the very Iact
that it has been demonstrated that 1T
is possible to field these flies makes
the only argument for the establish
ment of this rule, That tells it all in
a nutshell. A little story IN conne tonnes;
ton with the dissemination of knowl-
edge regarding the existence OF the
rule is interesting. 1t was adopted
last winter but few ball players noted
the fact. The umD1res We're mace
cognizant by the league presidents and
a number of the scorers acquainted
themselves with it. One day in May,
lust shortly after the season opened,
Killing of Chicago dropped a Ioul ny
while behind the bat. The next morn
ing he saw an error chalked up against
himself in the official score He went
to the newspaper and protested Ihe
scorer told him OF the new RUE. h1lis
Immediately wrote to President Ban
Johnson about the matter He re-
ceived an answer that the scorer was
right That incident furnished tne
first general Information of the exist
ence of the rule. President ShlVeley
of the Missouri Valley league recent
Iv sent out instructions to the scorers
over the league to observe 1t Strictly
The lola Records statement ON the
relative position of the Gasl1ghters
and the Miners:
of had luck yet. Not a pitcher has
heen hurt, nor a player has been laid
out of the game, they are playing in
good luck and everything has broken
nicely for them. But they maven
against a hard proposition. They VIII
he about due for a little hard luck
when lola meets them and then we
will Dust them from the place they
got by luck
The Fort Scott papers are so dis
gusted with their ball team that they
have quit printing box scores or the
home games leave out the batteries,
and frequently do not even give the
score by innings
stinson pitched for Pittsburg again
on Saturday. Manager BALDWIN an
nounced Saturday a week ago that ne
had been released. odd Cy gave
them sc far as scoring was concerned:
He certainly is the cratic pitcher or
the Valley league.
Seabaugh seems to be demonstrat-
ing Baldwin's claim that he will finish
the season the best batter in the
league. Just now. Seabaugh is bat
ting over the 400 mark. He was out
of the game for over three weeks with
a broken leg. He went back Sunday
a week ago and in seven days had 2
hits charged up to his credit. Satur-
day he made three of these in the
game with Leavenworth.
There have been four bad accidents
in the league this year. and three of
these were in the Topeka team. The
chapter follows: Seabaugh, Pittsburg,
broken leg; LaFrance, Topeka, broken
leg; Bevis, Topeka, broken hand;
Olson. Topeka, broken nose. Further
than that the Saints had the misfor-
tune of having the only accident
which resulted IN knocking a player
unconscious. That happened to Linn
ing in the lola series week before last
at home