The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-06-28
HOW ANSON LOST
Manager Bancroft Tells About
Pitching Stunt Of J. Lee
Richmond.


''No-hits games?" unused Business
Manager Bancroft on one Of the Reds
idle days last week. says q writer IN q
Cincinnati paper did / ever see on
hear of Cy Young's feat being dupli-
Gated?
Well. not exactly, but mighty near
it-mighty near it.
"A little fellow by the name Of But
let me begin at the beginning lt was
in 10, when was managing NForcesIer
i'm the old international league. We
had struck one of those ruts that comes
to every team every once i'm SO ottel.
and had lost eighteen straight games.
The directors were for firing me anu
getting q new manager. But the stotn
holders stepped into the prfdch ana
saved my lie by giving me thirty Gays
in which to either make good or lose
my Job. The next day we were sched-
uled to play am exhibition with Eop
Anders0n's White Stockings. hdd
heard of a young fellow with the beau
tiful name of j. Lee Richmond, Win
the accent on the Lee, who was d4lHs
good work for the Brown university
team. I ran down to Providence thal
night and got the boy to come up 10
pitch the game against the ChleaEos-
]. Lee was a slightly built chap VINO
weighed not much over 135 pounds ana
certainly didn't look the part OF
pitcher.
Il also got Arthur Irwin-the IA
nous Arthur IrWin-then but boy
playing on the lots around Boston, now
manager of the Toronto Baseball cluD,
to come down and 80 in at short for
me. When / told the fans what had
done they gave me the laugh
" What? Come cut and see those
kids play the famous White Stock
ings? was the burden of their chante1
response to my invitation Tor lnel-
money. Not on your life.
Those who refused TO come out
missed one of the pretuest games that
was ever played on any diamond. j.
Lee Richmond shut out Arson ana ms
heavy hitters without HIT only one
man got to first, and ne on balls. lie
was thrown out when he tried TO steal
second.
'sAnson asked me If I had signed
Richmond and for once I'm my life
told a lie, But ] 'coppered' my taoti-
cation in what I think was clever
fashion. The dressing room Tor the
players was under the grand stand.
and it wasn't much shucks- 30 i hlieI
d carriage. and when the game was
over got young Richmond 10y me arm
and whispered in his ear
" Now. Mr.. Richmond used the
Mr.. because I wished to Doe diplomatic
there isn't much of a place for YOU
to dress down here, so I've taken the
liberty OF putting your street clothes lA
a hack II you would like I'll drive you
down to d hotel, where ] have reserved
a room and a bath for you. You can
dress there
He feu into the trap and hustled
him Oft to the tavern. There / had no
trouble signing him to a contract which
called for 500 "a month He was the
goods, too.
Here is a funny thing, though. He
had a stipulation i'm the contract that
allowed him TO 90 70 Brown and grad
uate On commencement day I'm PTOVi-
dence we had an ALFRED important
game boOked-we had broken into the
National League by that time. /
wanted Richmond to pitch, but he
stuck to his intention TO get all the
diplomas that We're coming to him
solved the difficulty by engaging a
special engine at the enormous cost OF
$50 as the shOwmen say, to haul thac
young gentleman from the festivities
at Brown to Worcester. I jumped him
in the engine as soon as he had his
armfW Of sheepskius and we had a
merry ride to Worcester. Arriving
there, we jumped into a hack and
bumped over the cObblestOues TO the
park When Richmond ran out on the
field the big crowd yelled.
" There he comes There he comes!
Now, weU win, sure
''But we didn't The other fellows
knocked eleven kinds OF kinks out OF
J. Lees benders and Won ia a walk.
The boy was carrying 20 much weight
for age in the shape of college hOuOr5
and excitement to win that game.
But when you get right down to
talking about pitching -feats, none of
these present day wonders OVeTtOp
those. of a decade and a half ago. Re
member old HOss' Radbourne, who
like that young fellow Richmond /
was speaking about, ended his diamond
career in this city, Do YOU recall
that he twirled twenty straight games
for me and won eighteen of theme
Well, he did, and Furthermore, he
pitched and won three games on the
same day, a thing never before nor
since accomplished 1t was on
Fourth of July We played at
o'clock i'm the morning in Worcester at
noon i'm Taunton and at 4 o'clock ln
the afternoon in New Bedford I UNI
piTed the game at New Bedford and
every bali was a strike, AT that time
was running q hotel in New Bedford
and some fellow in the gTaDds-and
yelled to me:
" Bancroft, We may be a pretty good
hotel keeper, but you're frost as an
umpire.
NO, no. The Old days Of real pitch
ing stunts are gone" concluded the old
warrior as he went TO the telephone
and told his wife that he would be
home at o'clock for supper.