Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-07-06
THE DIAMOND
ONE GOOD CAME
 ONE VERY BAD
Waterbury Defeated Bridgeport in a Fast Contest and Then
 Came a Fia.co.

There was one game of base ball yesterday and another game that could not really be classed as base ball, so 1t is simply designated as a
 funny house" contest between funny people. Yesterday had been selected as the day when double header with Bridgeport would be just the thing to take the kinks out of the players systems after the strenuous Fourth of July. The kinks certainly were smoothed out in that first contest, but how they did come back in the second bur lesque! But let us to the first game, for it was really the only game, and later we will discourse gently, but energetically nevertheless, on the fiasco which sent so many fans home disgusted.
 Lefty" Rogers was selected to do the honors on the slab in the first meeting with Bridgeport. and the wisdom of Manager Durant in re- taining this player, despite the calls to send him to the woods, when Lefty" was not making whole lot of hay, was very apparent in his work of yesterday. After the first inning he had the Bridgeport stickers baking at the gate and no manner of inducements could make them jump the barrier. That first inning, however, was a sorry one in many re- spects. Castle, the first man up, smashed the leather so hard that when he stopped running he was resting quietly on third corner. Lit tie Jimmy Walsh too care of O'Dell's foul on the third base line and then Mike McAndrews deliberately shirked Beaumont's rap, which could have been knocked down with any ordinary precaution. This sent Cas- tie home. HI Ladd popped one up to Rice which was captured, and then Bertwhistle rapped out double which sent Beaumont over the plate with Bridgeport's second and last run. After that Rogers twirled as he knows how to twirl, and the team be- hind him, with one exception, played base ball as it should be played. This one exception was Mike McAn- drews, we are sorry to say, who made one bad error and shirked his duty twice.
 There were some star features in the game, too, which brought thrills of joy to the hearts of the fans and set all their base ball blood tingling. Rogers was right in his element and tied the Bridgeporters into knots. lsailor made and otherwise. Walsh, Rice, Thackara and O'Hagan were eating them alive, no matter how they came nor where they came from. The outfielders were doing star stunts and two of those plays were of the phenomenal order. In the fourth inning with HI Ladd on sec ond base. after making two base hit and one man out, Jimmy O'Rourke the younger smashed a ball that went sailing on bee line for the left field fence. After it like Arthur Duffey went Eddie Swander. He'll never get it." said the fans. It was a race for life and just as the ball was passing him Swander reached out that one lucky hand of his and the ball stuck there like glue. Did the fans yell? We'll. Maurice Reed says they scared his cow, out of the pasture and he has not been able to find her since. When the inning was concluded and the fans were waiting to give our left fielder the applause he deserved for that great catch, Eddie hied himself to the rocks near the left garden and took a sun bath and allowed his modesty to slumber little longer. But that was not the only star play. Good old Arthur Nichols. the man who plays ball all the time, the best example of how a ball player should act and play, was there with his stunt. It happened in the ninth in- ming. Two men were on bases when Phoenix drove the ball like a streak to right garden. Tn like race horse came Nichols. and just as the ball was reaching the ground, out went his hands and few inches from the turf was the ball captured. Down went Nichols still holding to the ball and he practiced a series of somer- sauIts before he faced the grand stand with the ball still clasped to his bosom. So stupefied were the base runners that they did not at tempt to gain a base on the catch and the last chance for Bridgeport in this game had vanished. It was such playing as this that left good taste fin the mouths of the fans for inc second game. but that taste was ouieklv changed when the dyspeptic feast was served up to them In the -..~,a con.aa+ The score.