Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-08-07
Ball F! |! ] |: D STORIES ] | | |
Peculiar Incidents Not Covered
s' by the Rules. By.
PUZZLES FOR THE UMPIRE.
Treadway's Fowl Hit That Struck Fair,
but Was Declared Foul - When
Tommy Tucker Saw Snakes "A
6atted Ball That Never Came Back,

| tommy tucker saw Snakes ~
Ratted Ball That Never Came Back.
Baseball rules are supposed to cover
every possible emergency that may
arise during game, yet q dozen times
a week in some nook or corner of the
world there arises situation over
which there are certain to be bitter
disputes and which the umpire alone
may judge. >5a &z y !st.9,... .
Even. i'll the big leagues these things
occur. One did on the ifold Eastern
park grounds at Brooklyn in game
between Philadelphia and the Peram-
bulators ~ sEE .f'
The decision of the umpire was up
held by President Nick Young, al.
though itstill is open to dispute.
1t happened that in5the seventh in
ming, with two. men on bases, Tread
way hit a, line drive down the left
field line The bali beyond doubt was
going foul, for 1t was curying toward
the foul line rapidly. Gaffney, who
was umpirlng the game, was standing
at the plate squirting down the line,
| Suddenly a fight of pigeons swept
along. The bali struck one Of the pi-
geons, knocking Il. to the earth, and the
ball itself swerred from Its course and
struck the ground d foot inside the
foul line. The Brooklyn runners raced
around the bases, but Gaffney waved
them back and declared the hit, foul
There Twasaa long awrangle, which re-.
suited ,s1t In Brooklyn protesting ), the
game, but Uncle. Nick upheld Gaffney
Jiggers Donahue always had ter
ror Of all sorts Of; snakes, toads and
bugs, and this terror once nearly lost
Chicago q victory over. Washington.
Joe CantI1Ion knew Of this aversion
and when the Senators opened in Chi
cago Cantillon spent the early after
noon digging fishing worms, grubs and
the like, and he arrived at the park
with couple OF pans filed with them,
= Joe waited several innings, and then,
with one of the Senators on first. he
began sprinkling worms around the
sack. Jiggers did not notice it for
minute, and, indeed, not until the
Washington player ram or the bag to
draw the throw. The ball came low,
and just before he stopped to catch
1T Jiggers saw the ground covered
with worms. He, let out yell and
jumped a foot in tine air.. He managed
to block the ball, however, and sent
In a hurry-up call for John to sweep
the ground around the base. =
8 All through the game CantfIlon and
his men sprinkled worms and bugs
around Jiggers and Kept him In a state
Of terror, but with the arid OF the broom
he managed to frustrates his tormentors
and escape without an error, and the
following day he appealed to the UNI
pire to make the Senators quit
Tommy Tucker, however, was not so
lucky as Jiggers. He lost game for
Washington to Chicago once and starr
ed a battle all because Of trick Bill
Dahlen and Bill Everett put up on him.
Tom never did like snakes Indeed,
he held them in adherence, and in
some way Dahlen discovered this.
Washington was to play Chicago that
afternoon, and during the morning
practice on the west side grounds Dab
len and Everett discovered a small
gartersnake and treasured it up.
Along in the fourth inning Everett
cracked out hit, and as Soon as he
landed on first base Dahlen, ignoring
his usual custom, ran out to coach, and
moment later he slipped the harmless
little reptile to Everett, who dropped it
into fuckers hip pocket.
Tommy discovered the snake lust as
the pitcher was delivering the ball,
and, with yelp, he deserted first
base. The shortstop gathered up the.
ball ON the run and started to throw to
second, but was too late and threw
toward first. Tommy was twenty feet
off the base, jumping up and down and
hunting for something with which to
kill that snake, and the ball went to
the stands, and Chicago scored four
runs in the round - s$ s554ss II I'll 4
Tucker protested wildly, but the UNI
pire couldn't find anything about
snakes In the rule book and let it 60
at that.
But possibly the hardest decision an
umpire ever tackled fell to the lot of 4
Jack Stratton. who was umpiring q 4
game between the Dallas {O.) team
and the club from Sycamore Valley
years ago.
The teams were playing down at &
Lynn's bottom at Sycamore Valley,
and the score was Is to 10. gor some
thing like that, In favor of Dallas In
the ninth inning. with two out and
the bases filled. At any rate, what
ever the score was, Sycamore Valley
needed three runs to tie and four to,
win, and 1t happened that Butch Car
penter, one Of the weakest hitters on
the team, was at bat.
II One strike had been called when
Butch hit the ball Where that bali
went no one knows to this day. All
the players were running. They saw
the ball pitched and saw IT hit, but
inst as the bat hit the bali the boiler
at Hicks sawmilI, about 200 yards
away, exploded.
About five minutes later, when the
smoke and steam cleared away, the
base runners remembered and ran
around To fhfs nj fp N s3ai4sssI335