The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-08-12
BALL FIELD STORIES
Peculiar Incidents Not Covered
by the Rules.
PUZZLES FOR THE UMPIRE.
Treadway's Fowl Hit That Struck Fair
but Was Declared Foul - When
Tommy Tucker Saw Snakes - a
Batted Ball That Never Came Back.

Baseball rules are supposed to cover
every possible emergency that may
arise during a game, yet dozen times
8 week in some nook or corner of the
world there arises a situation over
which there are certain TO be bitter
disputes and which the umpire alone
may judge.
Even in the big leagues these things
occur. One did on the old Eastern
park grounds at Brooklyn in a game
between Philadelphia and the Peram-
bulators.
The decision of the umpire was up
held by President Nick Young, al
though it still is open to dispute.
1t happened that in the seventh in
ming, with two men on bases, Tread
way hit line drive down the left
field line. The ball beyond doubt was
going foul, for it was curving toward
the foul line rapidly. Gaffney, who
was umpiring the game, was standing
at the plate squirting down the line,
his eye following the ball
Suddenly a flight of pigeons swept
along. The ball struck one of the pi-
geons, knocking it to the earth, and the
ball itself swerved from its course and
struck the ground a foot inside the
foul line. The Brooklyn runners raced
around the bases, but Gaffney waved
them back and declared the hit foul.
There was a long wrangle. which re-
suited in Brooklyn protesting the
game, but Uncle Nick upheld Gaffney.
Jiggers Donahue always had a ter.
ror of all sorts of snakes, toads and
bugs, and this terror once nearly lost
Chicago a victory over Washington
Joe Cantillon 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 a couple of pans filled 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 a
minute, and, indeed, not until the
Washington player ran off the bag to
draw the throw. The ball came low,
and just before he stopped to catch
it Jiggers saw the ground covered
with worms. He let out a yell and
jumped foot in the air. He managed
to block the ball, however, and sent
in a hurry-up call for John to sweep
the ground around the base.
All through the game Cantillon and
his men sprinkled worms and bugs
around Jiggers and kept him in a state
of terror, but with the aid of the broom
he managed to Illustrate 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 a game for
Washington to Chicago once and start
ed battle all because of a 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 a hit, and as soon as he
landed on first base Dahlen, ignoring
his usual custom, ran out to coach, and
a moment later he slipped the harmless
little reptile to Everett, who dropped it
into fuckers hip pocket.
Tommy discovered the snake just as
the pitcher was delivering the ball,
and, with a 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 7
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.
Tucker protested wildly, but the UNI
pire couldn't find anything about I
snakes in the rule book and let it go
at that.
But possibly the hardest decision an
umpire ever tackled fell to the lot of
Jack Stratton, who was umpiring a
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 10 to II, or 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 ii happened that Butch Car
Denter, one of the weakest hitters on
he team, was at bat
One strike had been called when
Butch hit the ball. Where that ball
went no one knows to this day All
he players Were running. They law
he ball pitched and saw it hit. but
ust as the bat hit the ball the boiler
It Hicks sawmilI, about 200 yards
away, exploded.
About five minutes later, when the
smoke and steam cleared away, the
,ase runners remembered and ran
around TO the plate.
The real argument started about half
IN hour later. when everybody had
listed the wreck. Sycamore Valley (
'lain1Csl the victory, declaring that four
uns had scored, and Jack Stratton al
owed their claim.-Minneapolis Trib-
Inc.