The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-06-12
lIiF there's anything ! don't Ike TO

"
hdu Ine game won only for big dub
on the other team who made a home
run In the last half OF the NINTH or
how their own heavy hitter struck out
with the bases fun when they were
only two runs behind, or how their
pitcher held the other side down 10
no hits and no runs for eight innings
and then fell in a fit in the last. All
over this wide land, wherever the great
national game is played, you'll hear
these tales, and I've heard 'em so often
that they make me tired.
u once heard the baseball reporter
OF "A Missouri paper tell a story that he
said took the cake Tor pure hard luck
over anything he ever saw. IL was
about a game in which the score was
10 j In the ninth, when heavy hitter
belted the bah so haEd il broke in two.
Half OF it fell i'm front OF the home
plate and the other halE went over the
fence. The umpire decided that he
was entitled 90 half "a run, and he gave
the game to the slugger's side, one and
a half 10 one.
cot course sou don't have to believe
everything these guys who write base
bali for the papers, say. L don't The
story that fellow told Isl an Old one.
but there probably was some truth IA
It, There may have been a BAN game.
But the first year I played with the
before Josh HapEOOd came to manage
us and set together the strong aggre-
CATION that captured the Dennant three
times hand-ruuuing, I ran up against
"a proposition that made me mark back
10 that Missouri reporters yarn.
There's more than a tiuge of hard luck
I'm IT, and IT'S all true-Piucn Hobbs
VIII swear to it. and so viii Dan De-
lauey. So 7 think it beats the other eX-
perlence by "a little over a block.
ION the kussetVilie nine that year
was a young pitcher just breaking In
by the name of Harold Clivedan. He
was tail yelloW-haired and very sleu-
der when ne first signed but after a
month on two of hard, steady work he
got thinner. Then he fell i'm love with
a Russetville girl and she didn't love
him back, and the plulng and signing
he did for her made him fairly shrink
up with thiuue5s Then he went OFF his
feed entirely from lOVesicIuess and
got CHASTITY. He was SO thin that
when he got ian the box you could see
half of second base on each side of him
lu the background. When he raised
his ahaud 90 throw you'd see his hand
and the bail. but no arm connecting
them 10 his body his eEtremitIes were
so like pipe stems. He really should
have been on exhibition. But he could
pitch good bah for all his tainuess,
and so the Russetyiles wouldn't hear
of his quitting.
Well Harold got toned down so
they took 10 calling him Shadow and
silver and the Russetville manage
meut bought a case of cod liver oil and
a lot o. these patent sawdust foods TO
bring him back TO his natural weight.
They We're afraid he'd dissolve iu thin
air If he got any simmer and it would
have been hard to imagine him any
more invisible without losing sight of
him entirely. Harold would have well
coined melting away with a warm
heart he was so doggone morose at
the unrequItel love that he placed at
his lady loves feet. Tt was whispered
round that he'd tried 10 commit sui
eide and shot at himself and missed
with all six chambers of a .44-caiiber
revolver. Any man that could have hit
him would have been a crack shot, so
1 didn't doubt the story.
Now, the reason Harold couldn't
win his girls heart was because Reg
mald Van Rensselaer,. second, our
Harvard pitcher, had made a clean
steal OF 10 the season before and she
hadn't forgot him. Why Reggie had
printed ON them little cards o. his'n
Second I never could ind cut. He
was no secondhand guy, or second
rate pitcher and he never played Sec
oud base iu his life. He liked Dotde
Watkins most as much as she liked
himi la fact. / guess the only thing
that KEEP 'em from EeLtiu' hl-Ched up
long before Harold came along was
because Reggie pitched for the Aifal-
fas and D0tJie was a Tooter for Rus
SEVILLE to win the penuaut.
Yes, she was rOOter. i never
knUwcd a girl before or since that
could ten a thTee-bagger from the
TiEht field foul flag. but she could. Tt
was q liberal education TO sit near
where she was i'm the graudstuEd, her
eyes sparkliu' and her gloves busted
from applaudius, and her voice mebbe
a little husrsa trCm hoLerlu' at good
plays. an hear her coach her own nine
am josh the other guys.
90 Git away off there, jim shed yell
90 one o. the BussetVilles that had just
took first on four balls, say I knew
that pitcher couldn't put it over. You
amt tied TO that bag. Get away ol
Get up on your tOes-Samu sting il in
a minute. Never mind sammy 81 only
takes one TO hit 1T. All together now
give that shGTtstOp the spikes if he
gets ON the base Eue-Cout hit so slow,
Sam-thaJ one was by before you
swung There's a straight 0ue-lam-
haste 1T, Wow.
And then she'd get mp am wave her
hands beckOuiu' to Jim 90 come home,
am hoIleriu' TO sam to 90 am take
second ON The thToW-iu, am the OPP
UOsu' felieTs'd sit so ratified at the idee
of a woman KNOWN how the game Is
PLAYED lhat they'd make errors and
wild throws tryiu' TO watch her snap
PIN eyes instead o. the bah.
'Dottie was wrapped up iu the Rus
setviuas not because She was stuck on
any member OF the team, but because
she lived in Russetvllle and was loyal
90 it For that reason she admired
Harold because he was "a good pitcher.
am she'd get on the front row in the
implore him go strike out the opposing
fefIer-. am cali him Harry boy when
he famed "a eood hitter but that was
as FAR as Dc went When the game was
over and Harold meboe walked home
with her am tried 90 say goodbye 10
her i'm q way behttiu' am admirer, she'd
back Oft from The plate am say.
'Sirr-r-5 Don't try none % your out
curves ON me" en- otherwise subdue
him. But when Reggie was I'm town
with the Alfalfas. even it he aid beat
the home team. they'd walk home. am
Reggie could make triple plays ou her
blushiu' cheeks, am shed lay her head
on his big shoulder an say If you
only pitched for RussetviIle, am
throw a lougsdistauce look at him.
THE hull thing TO it was that Dottie
was waverin between love an duty
she wanted the home team to win the
peuuauL, ana vet she liked Reggie. III
there hadn't been mo- RussetV.le nine
she'd pTOb'iy a married Reg; am IL
there hadn't been no Alfalfas am Reg
gle was back i'm Harvard, never haVin'
been druv to the west an ball playiu'
Tor pOurIu' Carriseue on professors
WhiskeTs and lghtin' 'em. she'd prObly