The Washington times., 1905-09-03

l went to a National League game the
other day and the pitcher on one team
cert'nly had it on the other bunch No
matter how ha passed 'em in, slow or
fast. no one could get one safe on him.
OF course his hackers went crazy with
excitement. and just after he struck the
side out In one inning big juy jumps
up and yells:
'"rhat-a boy, Amesy. Put the indian
sign onto 'em,'
Now will any boy in the class who
knows what the Indian sign is raise his
hand? / thought so. Nobody knows
Well. I'll tell you. II is a cross-eyed
Indian pitcher. Whenever team gets
UP to the bat and grcpes for the ball
and swipes low at high ones and high
at low ones and lodges from outshoots.
they are like the famous Alfalfas were
the time they went up against Solar
plexus. Tim McGinnis' Indian twirler,
with the twisted lamps. That is why
they call II the Indian sign.
And IL wasn't because he was an In
dian. or because he had big curves or
tremendous speed, or toed in or filled
UP on fire water on his day on IL
wasn't none of these. IL was because
he was ross-eyed-nothing more or less
than that When he got in front of you
in the box and raised his arm you fol-
I lowed the gaze of one OF his eyes 10 the
| left field bleachers and the other some
where's around the right field foul flag
And then he'd raise his arm and swing
around, and one lamp would be glued
! on the second baseman and the other
! one on the grandstand with It's breath
less thousands. And just as you had
made up your mind that the red devil
had two basebans in each hand and was
going 70 throw one handful at the first
! basenan and the other handful at a
guy he didn't like back OF third base.
his arm would come over and white
streak would shoot across the plate
and the umpire would say. ''Str-r-r-ike
one.'' Just three o. those would send
YOU back TO the bench with headache.
Pinch Hobbs Plan.
1 Solarpiexus strung us through two
games of an important series and we
! didn't get hit or run in either Then
| little old Pinch Hobbs. the greatest
| shortstop that ever lived, he stayed UP
all night one night and thought out the
| scheme that brought us back 10 earth
| ! woke up about O'Clock in the morn
ing and found him painting a pair OF
blue specs that Hennessy used when
he played the sun In left field in Clover
dale. And on those specs he was
paintin' two o. the horriblest crossest
eyes you ever looked at. Talk abou;
your tangled lockers.
| "Hag" said Pinch. Il have got the
little game that beats this aborigine
| TO one short frazzle."
| THE wot p" says /.
| ss,r1,a mo that nut this child a the
plains. this natures nobleman with the
nonsuited focus. on the edge"
"Wot you goin' TO do?" says J.
slaughter him with a bat?'
Never" says Pinch But we'll just
apply the well-known principle thai
like cures like. When you git poisoned
YOU take more poison for nanny goat
| think that's the word. Wen you ge
diphtheria they squirt lot o. the same
germs you got into your skin TO coun
teract 'em. Now, when you're uI
against a cross-eyed guy sling cross
eyedness right back at him."
Were Artistic.
How'll you do that?" says l.
by wearin' these glasses here wlcl
are somethin' artistic. Wen you ge
these on the cross-eyed guy won't know
[
than you know whether he's lookin' a
you or way down In old Indiana.
tell you. it's great scheme. Dog ga
dog. When Greek meets Greek, the
comes the tug o war"
Sounds nice" says I. but how yo
goin' TO see through these here painte
> specs? How would you dodge if h
passed you inshoot against your ear
Pinch fixed that by cutting hole
the middle of each glass with Reggie
diamond. an when he trotted 10 bat
the first innin' that day an SolarpleXu
seen them phony lamps turned on hiI
he was the most lost-loOkin guy yo
ever sec. He throwed one ball at fir:
I Pinch's feet. an another near killed Il
Alfalfa Citizens baseball reporter in IL
grandstand. Pinch got four balls al
give the glasses TO Sam Merritt, WI
s batted second. Sam stung one that caiI
| within reach for a double. Pete Brow
: got base on balls, an | put on Il
phony lamps an cracked one over II
I fence. Wen we'd got nine runs Mech
mis- hauls his find out an Solarplex,
q went TO the stable frothin' al the mout
That killed him and he took the boo;
% route. for all the clubs I'm the leagl
batted against him with cross-ey,
h lamps. That was easy. He gave
some trouble. but we solved him. tt
tnastru ,,ttrbop Tiy., R,,rrtlt 40 70.