Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-26
GREAT GAMES ON
THE HANKY-PANk
The Umpire is Apologize or the
Girls Hand 1t Out to
Rueben.

players rarely belong to the cities with
whose clubs they play. In the Uncle Tom
leagues the players with the home clubs are
mostly local boys. The folks who attend
the games have seen Hi and Cy and Zeb
and Zeke grow up, so that, when they
glimpse 'em in sure-enough bali-piayIng
uniforms they just naturally can't help
swelling up like cantaloupe-fed garden
patch terrapins. The boys and girls all
know the players by their nicknames, and
you can't imagine how much that helps till
you've seen one of those hay-belt games
Il saw one of those games one afternoon
last week. in town of 1500 population.
L he town wasn't as far from Washington
as the planet Saturn, at that The town be-
longed to a league composed of neighbering
towns of about the same size. The game
was played on a skinned Tot, of course. The
lot was screened by pieces of canvas stretch
ed on poles, which, from the outside gave
1t a sort of g-and-pony circus effect. The
price of admission for male creatures was
two hits; females, dime The grand stand
accommodated all of $50 people. 1t was fill
ed with mighty appealing-looking girls,
mostly in white dresses and with big ribbon
bows in their back hair, on the day 1 at
tended the game The men and boys most
ly sDraddled themselves around on the grass
outside the foul lines. All around these side
lines, too. were the vehicles of the folks
who drove in some cases as high as fifteen
miles to see the game
Not Punk Game.
at wasn't such punkerino game of ball,
either-I've seen just as bad in both of the
big stick leagues on off days. But the neigh
boriiness of the affair, the all-atoun un~
conventionality of the proceedings, as 1t
WERE won me. That bunch of girls in the
grand stand sure had heavy clutch on the
situation The home players seemed to be
apologizing to the girls all the time. One
of the local players swung Vainly at three
pippins all of them right over, and the UNI
pire called him out on strikes.
:" oh, Jed, amt you awful one of the
girls called out, sadly, to the whittier as he
| SUNK back toward the bench, which was
directly beneath where the girls sat
" Aw, the umpire's blind. Jen, the player
replied, looking up at her beseechingly.
| Them three was ali up around my neck.
He can't see, that's all
90 But you could "a got two boys home,
said Jen, mournfully.
"Howm l goin' to be the umpires eyes,
Jen?' inquired the whitfield one, imploringly,
and he sat down on the bench with a dis
NAL thump, Jen's reproaches plainly weigh
| ing heavily upon his spirit
Another of the home players, trying to
steal second, made a bad slide for it. and
was out a mile. He was standing on the
bag, busting off his Knockers, preparatory
to walking away. when girl In the stand
"'You Joe Cornhusk, you stay right
where you are! You amt out!
Thus encouraged from this surprising
quarter, Joe sat right down on the bag
AMI began to nurse his knees.
Come out o that, said the umpire,
waving Joe off the sack. 'Batter's up
Joe stood up and made a funnel Of his
hands.
"'How about it, Lucer he megaphoned
to the girl in the stand who had given
him the order to hold the bag.
"'Oh let 'em have tive can win any
how said Luce, and then Joe skunk away
from the bag with the confident air Of
somebody who's got the straight word
from headquarters.
Ladies' Were Cruel.
"The girls were entirely unmercifuI on
the players of the opposing team and
never left off ridiculing them from the
beg inning to the~end of the game A runt
somewhat smaller than little Barbeau Of
the Cleveland team came to the bat. for
the first time for the opposing team.
Land sakes, look what's at the bat!
the girls all chorused. and then they all
thought they'd have loosened the rear
buttons of their peek-a-boO waists Some
body lend me their oprey glasses SOS I
can see him! Well. lawsy me! Just LOOK
at what's battin'!
Thus kidded, the sawed-on at the Dot
went right up into the air. First the
pitcher fed him thing that almost got
buried in the dirt about five feet in front
OF the plate, and the runt swung at 1t
like a woman trying to slap at a bat
that's got into the bed room with a broom
as the slapplng tool, and he spun around
a couple of times like top.
Look at the cunnin' little thing plaviD'
ring -around-rosy with himself" shrieked
all the girls together, and then the runt
kswIng at two ballooners that curved
AWAY over his hair. almost breaking mis-
I,n..l xxy.a1 cd hn % fha
garding the laughing girls out Of the tail
of his eye. with the air of a hobo that's
beer ordered to beat 1t out of town on
the ties.
"AIl of the players on both teams
coached during every minute Of the game
If anything. the team in the field was
buster at the coaching business than the
team at bat
Who's goin' t git this oner the short
stop Of the out team would say, splitting
on his glove as he gazed around Just as
the batsman came up. Hey? Who's goin'
II want him. the center fielder would
| reply.
''Aw. give him t. me- the third base
| man would chime in. pleadingly. almost
oh I'll git him. the catcher would bel
low through his mask just as the pitcher
was about to fling the ball. II that first
one happened to be strike. Well the
catcher would go on, I've got third of
him.
law. gimme tn rest of him. the first
baseman would beseech so that you'd al
most imagine there were tears in his voice.
| 'Lemme have him, won't you?
That's hittin' at EN-! That's swingin'!
| That's shooin' tn chickens out o. tn
| truck patch! and the whole team in the
| field would howl when the batsman would
make some peculiarly vicious but unsuc-
cessful paste at the ball.
This ones tryin T. make a record SOS
! he bust into tn big company next
year, the catcher would howl dersively
| as he tossed the ball back to the pitcher.
| Watch him take a bite out O. this one!
| Well. 1 got two-thirds Of him now as the
batsman made another unsuccessful swat
| at the pill. Then, when the batsman struck
| out 'Aw, why didn't you give him t me?
| all of the men in the field would Sroan as
| If in great physical and mental misery
| over the deprivation.
lone O. you can have this one Traits
| comm up now" the catcher would reply
| soothingly, and thus the all-hands-round
| coaching went on.
Players Didn't Mind.
1.-THE batters didn't seem to mind 1t at
| all. probably because they were used to 1t,
] and they used the same coaching tactics
| themselves when their turn came. The
| only thing. in fact. that any OF them seemed
| tn mind vas the giving of the girls md