Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-05
a pp7 6 Street
PLAYED BALL IN ALASKA.

This Is one Of Bill Baiey,s stories in the
Boston Post:
He was pretty well weather-beaten, but
there was a look of joy on his face as he
sat down by my side in the grandstand at
Huntington avenue.
know how to score don't you?" he
observed.
1 said hoped did.
Work for a newspaper, don't your he
went On.
I admitted the impeachment.
Want to tell you about some base ball
games I played In last summer" he began,
edging up to me confidentially. up in
Alaska. The fields don't look much like
this. They don't keep 'em SO well. The
infields are covered with small nuggets,
and the ball takes some mean bounds. We
can play all night up there, with the mid
night sun at work all summer.
Juneau won the championship last year.
1t was a funny deal. The season was due
to close on Labor day, and Dawson was
three games to the good. 1t happened.
however, that Juneau and Skagway were
playing. and they had five postponed games
so they played six in one day. Juneau
won five of them and nosed Dawson out In
the race. Started the games at l am. and
played through until pm, with an hour s
intermlssion between each game.
Toward the end of the season it gets a
little cold. We played out one day with
the thermometer % below. People said 1t
was getting cold enough for foot ball, but
as the Methodists refused to postpone their
lawn fete on account OF cold. we thought
we could play ball. Ed. Jackson, who used
to play with Nashville in the Southern
against us, and he played me q shabby
trick. went UP in the seventh inning with
two men on bases and picked up bat.
Jackson. who had kicked on pitching be-
weather, handed up straight one, and !
met it square. The bat flew all to pieces.
found out afterward that Jackson had
whitfield that bat out of an icicle that ran
put up the job on me.
1T was this way. He had prospected
some before he got the job pitching for
White Horse. Every Fourth Of July we
have big tournament at Skagway, all
the teams In the league being scheduled to
play each other there that week. It was
there that Jackson got the idea that made
him millionaire. He has a habit Of spit
ting on his hands and rubbing them in
the dirt before pitching. One night. after
he had beat Juneau 4 to 2. and pitched
corking good game, he was washing
up in the clubhouse. when he sees a
streak of pay dirt on his hands. He washed
the sediment in the bottom of the pan and
got $4.56 worth Of gold dust. He pitched
every day after that and kept washing his
hands and panning out the gold. Then he
took to sliding. We seldom slide up in our
league, for the ground is frozen so hard.
but Jackson kept sliding and sliding. and
then after the game he'd wash his uniform.
We noticed he was getting extremely neat
but didn't get on to his plan. He told me
afterward his base ball pants sometimes
assayed $22 40 worth OF gold dust after a
game at White Horse, $12S0 at Juneau and
50. 40 at Fairbanks. He was careful with his
money. and came home rich.
But, say" he urged, as I started to
beat retreat IT didn't tell you about the
funniest thing that happened last season.
1t was during the tournament at White
Horse. We played an eleven-inning game
with Fairbanks, and it was nip and tuck.
We scored one in the twelfth and thought
we had won. when a brilliant aurora bore
ais settled down over the field. Fact, as
sure you. One end was on the center field
fence and one on the grand stand. and we
couldn't see a thing. Umpire had to call
the game on account Of aurora borealis
after Bill McShane had struck at sun dog
twice, thinking 1t was the ball.
''Only time on record that game ever
was called on account of aurora-what's
your hurry. was just going to tell you
But ] was gone.