The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-04-24
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hitting outielder. It's a dangerous
practice. All baseball history goes TO
SNOW that the less responsibility a
man has I'm a ball game the better he
can play But if he's thinking of catch
ing trains at the end of the game. or
wondering whether his best pitcher is
drunk or sober, then ne amt worth
shuckS-as a player. / mean. He may
be conserving his employers interests
IN looking out for the booty pitcher,
but what does IL profit a manager to
Keep a tWirler straight for Thursdays
game If he loses Wednesdays himself
Just through thinking. about it?
II the baseball magnates of the
present had the experience / have had
with that bifurcated manager player
system they'd never sign a man as
manager. who wanted 10 play, or a
man as player who had the manager
ical bug. The places should be sepa-
rate and distinct.
There's just one step beyond the
mdnager-c0ptain-pl player business, and
that's TO have the big club owners
learn the game themselves and break
IN. Then we'd have Magnate- Mana
-Shortstop John T. Brush
Min the air at the Polo grounds full
q dents, or President Manager Cap
tain-Left Fielder Garry Hermann
PANAAAA AlANS tAA NllE ltllIt w DNAlENEl L
see Manager Captain Pitcher Clarke
Griffith or Manager Captain-Left
Fielder Joe Kelley mentioned in the pa
pers my mind harks back to the I'M
timely fate of Manager Captain Riley
Pike of the old Alfalfas and |. shed a
tear History may serve as a warning
To ambitious players who want TO man
age, captain, play and do a general
I-am-it act with the mines.
Riley Pike was a gOOd-lOOking guy
with strong pitching arm, "a fine line
OF interesting stories about ball games
he had played and won. and a con-
Stunning desire to be a manager. Mere
captain didn't suit; he had to be the
complete boss. AS a player he was
very good. and of the earnest, never
say-die kind. He got the good will of
the management for this, and finally,
after a season or two, he got his wish
and was made ager-captain of the
Alfalfas, with full control Of the play
ers- But then, when he seemed on
the very pinnacle Of fame. he found
his troubles had only just begun, for
all the players, except me and Pete
Brown and Pinch Hobbs. banded to-
gether against him They were jea-
lOus. They threw him down every
chance they got, and claimed that his
promotion had given him a big head.
Maybe it had. ! won't deny that. But
Il was his quick temper that led him
into the extraordinary proceedings I'm
going to tell you of.
We were TO meet the CIoverdales
who had been carrying everything
before 'em, in the first series of the
season, and Riley picked himself out to
pitch, That. of course. made Reggie
Van Rensselaer, and Lamp Hymes and
Dan Delaney sore. and they went UP in
the grandstand in citizens clothes and
wouldn't have anything to do with the
game.
well. I could see that Riley was
nervous and irritable at the start. and
set the sqUall signal for the boys. The
squalls came quick. The first Clover
dale batter sent a sizzling grOunder to
Jim Harrison at third, Jim generally
''et' those kind. but he somehow fell
down on this. and fumbled it, and
then couldn't pick il up. and finally
ended by tossing the ball TO Riley
without even trying for his man at
first. The audience groaned and Riley
broke out:
why, you good for nothin' Job
ster,' he yelled getting as red as
lobster himself he was so mad. That
last fall you had on the water wagon
must 4 jOlted your nerves Back to
the bench. ia ruther have a good,
lively fence post on third than YOU.
Your place Is in an art show, anyhow,
you good-iookin' dub
with that he stalked back 10 The
box leaVin' third uncovered. for with
our pitchers gone there were no extra
men. l called his attention to II. Dut
he waved me off, and l made up my
mind 10 save my breath. on the next
ball pitched the fellow that had got
first on Jim'S error started for sec
ond. and Johnny Harrison took my
throw. / got il down hard and he
made a clean muff.
Get back 10 that bench, too. yoIl
butter fingered gutter says Riley To
Johnny. running 10 second. No
brOtherly sympathy acts when IN
runnin' things. I'll go without play
eTs ruther than let EN- have the salts
faction of doing me-
The next batter, seeing SO much
territory hare at third, swung around
TO put it down the alley. lie did it all
right. but got "a little high and
Hennessy came in from left like a
racehorse for it, It's "A hard catch,
that meeting a ball on the dead run
about two feet from the ground, and
Heunessy dropped it. But he held
the batter on first, and the man who
had been at second stopped al third.
But it didn't suit Riley. He piled
into Hennessy ON all tours.
Cit out the game, you prayer
singing tarrier.' says he. Nobody s
goiu' 10 throw me down twice Git
out"
"Hennessy gave him some sass
about gettin no credit for a hard ef-
fort but finally Joined Johnny and
Jimmy on the bench.
The next batter popped up a hish
fly right over Pinch Hobbs head al
short. Pinch steadied FOR it, and just
then there was a yell and a crash and
Riley Pike had bunked into him. The
ball went spinuin' over into right field
and three men were perched on the
bases. nobody out and Pinch was stag
germ around with his hands 10 his
head wonderin' what had hit him.
For the love of Gosh. Hobbs says
Riley. don't YOU know enough not 20
interfere when I'm after ball?
That was nonsense, for the ball
was Pinchs all right But Pinch
went 10 the bench, bein' too dizzy 20
stand.
well. that left Pete Brown on first
as the only inhelder. Sam Merritt
and Billings had spread out TO cover
three Fields. but. big as Pete Brown is
he couldn't stretch from first TO third
end cover short besides.
Riley put in three fast drops on
the fourth man up and sent him to
the bench. He struck out the mex;
man In three more balls and got q
great hand. The audience recognized
that Riley was attempting an unusual
feat and was helping him on. The
third man drove out a fly to Billings
He dropped il, two runs came IN, and
billings went out the game. Thai
left only myself one Outfielder, one in