The Washington times., 1905-08-20
Wireless Tip to Mars
Broke Up Great Game
Homo Run Haggerty Tells How the SpitefuI-
ness of Gonfalon Kelly PreCipitated
Riot and Routed AIfaIfas.

Years after our trip to Mars Pete
Brown an Pinch Hobbs and the others
of our alfalfa bunch used to bust out
laughing when Reggie pitched any very
wide curve. an they'd say: THAT dunn
balls bewitched. Dumf it amt
And then they took to calling Reg the
hewitchin' pitcher, which didn't get
them anything. for you nights well try
10 kid a boiled egg as Reg. That big
guy is the limit for keepin' his nerve in
a hard place
Which is what Hittsburg. up In Mars.
is They won the Mars pennant three
years in succession, an nothin' was too
good for the Hittsburg nine. If they
ordered wine, the town said. This is
on us" If they wanted cabs to RAE
round in, the town furnished EN-. If
they wanted smokes. q dozen boxes of
the best that Mars caaild produce came
round the next day. TheSbau nine had
Hittsburg by the ears If a stranger
set in the grandstdnd. an one o their
players made q .mun an the stranger
observed it was rotten, four or five guys
I'D soak him an then ask him wot he
meant by r.nnin down the best a gre-
CATION ttsat ever played ball. If he
showed fight mss get his, good and
proper.
Same way in the hotels and barber
shops. If d fellow uttered a peep
against the champeen team he was In
vited outside And any empire that
gave a close play TO visitin club-why,
the thing was unheard of. It's hard TO
tell what would have happened to him,
but probIy he'd a been tarred and
feathered, If net strung up.
Loyal Rooters.
Hittsburg wanted the best Of every
thing. Hittsburg was a three-time win
ner and deserved it, Hittsburg pitchers
were the only ones in the business who
knew a straight ball from a curve;
Hittsburg batters were all sluggers-
when they struck out they were only
fooIin. or wanted to give the other side
a show. The Hittsburg manager was
the cleverest ever. an the Hittsburg bat
boys carried bats better than anyone
else.
1t was into such a town as this that
the Alfalfas bumped after trimmin the
PlantviIies In that last memorable game
where me an Pieiades Peterkin' got
melted together, and they had a hard
Job sawin us apart. II was only our
legs. and we got all right soon. but III
the meantime our fsllers couldn't play
/ cause they had no ketcher and the
| PIantvilles had no first baseman. So
everybody was glad when got into har-
ness again. an we took the road to
Hittsburg.
Pleiades had filed us so full o stories
about wot q hard deal you got there an
how no Mars team had ever beat 'euT' on
their own grounds. and how they broke
up games when they seen you winnin'
that 1t made Josh kind o nervous. He
said he didn't feel like runnin' any risks
FIN flynn beer bottles with the greatest
batter In the business Chat waG me-,
an the greatest shortstop that ever
lived Chat was Pinch. an the original
sweat ball artist Chat was Reg, and
six or seven other star ball tossers. I
went after him this way :
Josh, what are we Iookin for up here
IN Mars?" says I. What are we ex-
plorin' for, anyway"
Looking for Adventure.
Josh allowed it was glory an money
an adventures.
Yes" said Reggie. breakin' in.
Were lookin' for adventure-somethin'
to bust up the dreadful ongwee Of base
ball, an keep us f m gettin' blassay-"
And if it's glory you want. what more
can you get, than by beatin' a team on
it's own dunghiIl that's never been trim
med there?' says 1.
When we all got at Josh that way he
had 20 give in. so We hit Hittsburs one
morning about Il o'clock an found
trouble at the start.
BE you the Alfalfas?" says the sta
ton agent 20 US as he give US the checks
for our grips. Have you had the nerve
10 come down here on purpose to beat
our boys?"
Delayed in Transmission.
We allowed we'd come I'm further
than PlantviIe. We had. Wed come
from Alfalfa, Sunshine county. Kansas,
L. S. A. the Earth. We said we'd
come up expressly 10 trim the Hits
buFgs.
I'm sorry for YOU" says he. They're
greasin' the wheels on the ambuiances
at the horspital and the patrol wagons
gettin' ready"
why are they so afraid of u.s." says
T. "A team that amt never been licked
-, hr,,. shoufdr,tt ba afraid of y,s who