Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-10
FANS LAMENT
L0HMAN' S EXIT
FORMER CATCHER FORCED TO
RETIRE
Grand Old Man Of Baseball Popular
Among Players as We'll
as Patrons Of
Game

Poor Pete Lohman! His plight is
sad. There is not a baseball fan on the
Pacific coast who will not shed a tear
for this grand old man. For year his
mental condition has been such as to
give his friends cause to fear for the
worst, and now it seems that these
fears are to be realized. Poor Pete was
pronounced insane by experts last week
and will be committed to the state
asylum. from which 1t is doubtful If
he will ever leave alive.
Since he stopped playing he had two
strokes of paralysis, and these very
likely affected his mind Despite the
best of medical treatment, he grew
steadily worse until his family were
unsafe AS long as the present genera
tion attends baseball games, just so
long will they remember the old war
rior, who was a rare ornament to his
profession STEADY there boys. We
will beat 'em yet" These words of his
will ring over the diamond as long as
the memory of Pete. Lohman survives
Little can be said about this noble
fellow which is not familiar to all who
patronize the national game. As
player, few ever excelled him in his de-
partment. Was there ever catcher
who beat him winging the ball to the
bases? The coast fans have seen many
able and efficient backstops perform,
but not one ever put Pete Lohman in
the shade.
Was Great Thrower
When poor Pete was behind the plate
base runners hugged the sack for dear
life. In his palmy days 1t was worth
the admission price to sit on the
benches and watch him throw them out.
1t has often been said that Pete would
walk a dangerous batter just to throw
him out at second. No matter how fast
or how quick the runners were getting
away from the bags. they never esca ped
from this sly old fox.
He was player who always had his
wits about him. No matter how sleepy
or one-sided the game might be, there
was always one man who was using
his head and putting his whole soul in
his work If the score was 10 to 1
against him in the ninth, Pete would
be up there fighting like mad. Regard
less of the odds, Pete believed in fight
ing to the last ditch, and 1t was this
sort that gained for him such a great
following.
Being a fighter from the ground uI,
he naturally kicked a lot when leading
team, and this gave the fans on the
opposite side an opening to tantalize
him. Though they jeered him for what
seemed to them like senseless objecting,
the fans loved Lohman, for they knew
that his heart was in the right place
and that the game would be better off
If there were more Lohmans.
Pete was more than an indefatigable
worker he was chuck full of good.
sound baseball brains which he used
constantly Many have thought that
overworking his active mind was what
brought on his present condition.
Lohman was always concocting new
plays. How to entrap the enemy was
his great aim.
Discovered Hit and Run
When future historians chronicle the
events of the diamond, if they do JUS
tice to Lohman, they will give him
credit of developing the hit and run
play, which is now used in every league
in the country, Pete introduced this
clever stunt the year Oakland won the
pennant. He had seen it tried some
where.
The team which tried it perhaps did
not realize it's value until Lohman
seized and made it the talk of the base
ball world. Lohman won the cham
pionship with the hit and run play, for
the other teams knew not how to break
| it up.
The pitchers would not waste the
| balls like they do now when they catch
| the sign for this play. The hit and run
| play was perfected and used here
| couple of years before the major leagues
discovered it, and then columns were
written about the great discovery.
Lohman was stickler for team work.
From early spring until late fall he was
forever impressing on his men the inn
portance of working together. Nothing
pleased him better than to see his men
do as they were told. If they made a.
fizzle out of an attempt to bunt the ball
when bunt was his orders very well
and good as long as they did their best.
No Use for Drone
| 1t was the shirker, the 'drone, the in
surgent, the grandstand player whom
| Lohman had no use for. Lohman
among other things was an excellent
Judge Of players. When he had a gold
brick he was never long finding it out.
In his time he developed score or more
players, none of whom now regret that
| they received their early instruction
| from his hands.
When in charge of team Pete was
never wasteful He guarded his en-
ployers' interests like they were his
own, and for this reason Lohman was
sometimes accused of being parsimo-
NOUS. out of his earnings he managed
| to save a modest fortune, which is in
vested in Los Angeles and st. Paul,
| his former home.