Albuquerque morning journal., 1906-09-23
SAYS ALBUQUERQUE
ROOTS WITH BIG
S|X-SHOOTERS
SIEVER TELLS DETROIT
A FEW FAIRY TALES
Pitcher Wishes He Could Be at
the Big Fair With Jimmy
Durham and Franz and Per-
rine and the Bunch.


Eddie Siever, the justly celebrated
Detroit pitcher, has been playing ball
in listless and discouraged fashion
sifted down to the southwest that
Eddie has little heart in chilly nor
thern twirling since he saw a news
paper dispatch which said that JIM
my Durham and some more of the
old-timers were down in Albuquerque
doing stunts at the territorial fair.
In fact 1t made Siever so homesick
that he couldn't hold in and had to
talk to someone about it. A reporter
of the Detroit Journal got to him first
and he unburdened himself as fol-
lows:
"I'd like to go down there with
Durham, Franz, Perrine and the rest,
said he, for there'll just be the
warmest bunch of base ball you ever
saw. It's an annual event that has
been running / don't know how
long. They call 1t the southwestern
fair, but it's nothing but a big base
ball tournament. They offer $1,000 in
purses and they get a chance to see
big league ball or pretty near it. It's
| IilCil OhlN' OppOlbuHlly all StdSOll, anu
the Mexicans, Indians and cowboys
are there for a thousand miles
around. Every man wears a belt with
a couple of guns hanging in it and
people-well your Michigan state fair
which I had the honor of visiting sew
eral days ago, is a deserted wilderness
compared to ii. It's the greatest
| manifestation l know of the hold the
great American game has on the peo-
| pie, for these poor fellows seldom
have chance to see anything but the
| scrubbiest sort Of other ball at other
times in the year and some of them
| don't even see human face fol
months at a time. But they all turn
| out for the southwestern fair.
In 1897 I was pitching my first
| league ball for the Leadville club In
Colorado. We entered the tournament
after our season was over and dowr
| to Albuquerque we went That yeal
there were Leadville, Albuquerque
Santa Fe and Ell Paso entered and no
body knew what players We're on hand
until we got there, for the Other
clubs were recruited entirely from
| the stars of the professional leagues
THE first evening in town I me-
Elmer Stricklett, even then the pos
SCISSOR of the spit ball which made
him famous since with Brooklyn
Lefty Meredith, since then a wei
known pitcher out west; Jimmy Will
| liams of the New York American;
now; Pete Lohman, the famous coas
| league magnate, and a lot of Others
famous then or who have achieved
| fame in more recent years. Their
were two moneys up that year. The!
were only offering $2,500 then, o
which $1,000 went to the winner, ant
the other $1,000 to the second plac,
club. Everybody played everybod.
else, just like a little league. Albu
querque won and we got second
Then we had Sunday game will
Albuquerque for $50 a side. l pitch
ed and we won 1t.
"The games were all played in tn
center of race track and the peopl
filled all the enclosure. Such a mo-
as they made! There would be shoot
ing every once in while when som
fellows got into a dispute and hal
the roofing was done from the six
shooters. A ball game sounded lik
a battle and it went badly with tn
pitcher who was inclined to be ner
lvous, though none of us were hurt
They'd pop at the fly balls, too, and
might tell a nice yarn about how W
lost the final game of the tournamen
by a shot DETECTING the ball from
the hands of our left fielder allowin
two runs to score for Albuquerque
but l won't.
"That self-same tournament wa
really what brought me to Detroit, 70
Pete Lohman saw me pitch, took m
to London, Ont. for his internationa
league team the next year, an
brought me under the eye of Stallings
"Oh, the smoke ball that l did hav
in those days! 1t makes me sigh t
think of it. All I knew was speed
lspeed and then more speed. Stalling
worked me in few games when
came here; and then kept me on tn
bench for seven weeks, teaching m
how to field bunts, but that hasn'
much to do with the Southwestern
fair.
1--WE had few letters now an
then from one OF the managers get
ing up a club to play in that Albu
lquerque tournament. but I've neve
been there since It gave me my staI
In 1897. At that, it's sometimes har
to refuse. The memory OF that oil
sun-baked diamond, the mud houses
the wild crowd and not to forget, tn
big money, all have a call that fel
low can't pass over without a littl
twinge at refusal, yet there's enoug
ball for nine men in one league sea
son and when it's over l want res
Some fall, before my pitching day
are ended, want to give that grease
crowd one more whirl, though, and
won't be happy to end my career If
can't"