The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-21
SOME NOTABLE BASEBALL EVENTS Little Stories of Phenomenal
 Plays Made SPREAD OF POPULARITY Man Who Pitched First Curved Ball Is Still Livng-Woman Pitcher In
 Allentown, Pa.-To Elin-
 mate Spikes.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.


 ! everywhere Whether in Maine of Call
 fornia as soon as a man begins to wor-
 ry over the mana cement of the home
 team, and gets this responsibility firm ly fixed in his mind, "he's a goner."
 Nothing will cure him but the end of
 the season and the first frost.
 Baseball has firm hold on it's fol- lowers because of It's variety. While
 innumerable matches have occurred in 1 this country since 1t became the na- tional pastime, it is safe to say that no two of these contests have been
 played exactly alike. There have been thousands of unexpected situations
 many of them calling for instantane- ous decision and quick action by the players. The ball player who can meet
 the crises in a flash is said to have
 "a good head" Two evenly matched
 teams from rival towns in the middle
 west were fighting a hard battle one day last fall when an odd play oc-
 cured. In the last half of the ninth inning two men were out and a man
 was on third. The excitement began to tell on the pitcher and he threw a wild ball which struck wide of the plate and bounded into the netting in front of the grandstand where it stuck about twenty feet from the ground.
 The runner on third made a dash for
 home to score the winning run. The
 fans on his side stood up for mighty yell and then sat down in sudden dis
 gust The opposing catcher raced
 after the ball the instant it passed him, tore off his mask as he ran, and
 hinging it at the netting, dislodged
 the ball, caught it as 1t fell, and threw
 the runner out at the plate. His team
 won the game in the next inning and
 the madly enthusiastic fans sent him
 home bare -headed-his cap full of
 money.
 A somewhat similar play was re- ported years ago when one of the champion eastern teams was making tour throughftnhe west. They had a game in one Np,dce where the grounds and surroundings were not altogether
 suitable for the playing of a match game About forty foot back of first base there was a well covered by an
 old ia shioned suction pump. At
 critical point In the game the third
 baseman threw low in the attempt to NNAN
 the bag and bounded high into the air,
 coming down squarely in the jaws of
 the old pump and slipping down It's
 throat. Before the runner was half
 way to second the quick witted first baseman reached the well, and grasp
 ing the handle began to pump faster than if the grandstand were on fire.
 The rooters yelled and booted in ecstasy at the sight of the star first baseman wrestling with the old pump, but he persevered and pumped the ball up just in time to throw the runner out at the plate.
 Danny Hoffman is said to be the only player on record to kill horse in A baseball game. That was feat accomplished by him in a game played at Bridgeport the year before he
 Joined the Athletics. During the game a buggy drawn by a faithful steed or creamy white. with occasional splotches
 of flea bitten grey was driven into the
 distant outfeld The driver thought himself out of the danger zone and settled down to enjoy the game from safe distance. Danny's team was Tn a hole and 1t was another such chance as when Casey went to bat. But Danny was not Casey that day. He smashed
 vicious liner right at that old white
 horse Straight as an arrow shot from bow the ball sped for the head of the nag, and 13-inch shell would not have put its lights out more effectually
 or speedily. The horse was buried with baseball honors and stone
 erected on which was inscribed: out from being hit with a batted ball. A queer play was pulled off this year
 at the Polo grounds in New York, and is said to be the only one of its Kind
 in the history of the game. The Cincinnati Reds were the visiting team. A batter having struck out was thrown out at first by the third base
 man. He had struck at the ball three times. The last one was really foul | tip, and struck the catcher on the | shins. but the umpire did not hear it. | The ball rolled in front of the plate, l and thinking it a foul the catcher | threw it to third, as some catch CTS
 have a habit of doing. The umpire | called it strike third threw it to | first, and the batter was out. This is | the first time on record that a third 1 baseman ever got an assist on strike ! out.
 Triple plays by one man are almost
 as scarce as hen teeth. There are only | a few instances where this feat has been accomplished. Napoleon Lajoie | in his book on baseball, asserts that | up to 1906 there had been but two in- | stances where one man pulled off triple play Paul Hines, now clerk
 doing the most prosaic work in the department of agriculture, was the | first player who ever executed triple
 play. First Assistant Postmaster Gen l eral Hitchcock. the athlete of an ath- | letic administration, witnessed that | play. and never tires of telling about
 1t. Hines was playing center field with l the Providence Grays in 1878. There | was a man on second. and one on | third A batter had made short fly l that looked like a hit Hines ran for l ward and caught it. and went on to
 second base, getting there before the l player on second had time to recover l it. Then, percelving that the chap on | third was almost at the home plate and | was turning to recover third Hines | sprinted and beat his man there by | full ward quarter of century | elapsed before another triple play was
 ever made single handed It remained | for Harvey OHagan to share the honor | with Hines. He was playing first bas | with Jersey City. A line drive came his
 way and he landed it, and retired the
 man recently ensconsed on first. Then | he determined ito tempt the fates in an | effort to beat the man who had turned l back to second while en route to hird. | Harvey was sprinter for sure that | day and he got there first. Three