Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-25
GREAT BALL IN THOSE DAYS
How Rain Won the PennAnt for the
Alfalfas.
ONE WAY OF ENDING A RACE
they Led at End Of season Becauss
wet Weather Came Along Prove
identiaiIy Jnst when ~
WA Needed.

"The struggles between the Tigers and
the White Sox and the battles between
the Pirates, Cubs and Giants all bring
back to me the good old dsys in the Al
falfa league" remarked the alert oldster
with the warped fingers. II remember one
year when 1t was a very tight thing be-
tween the Aureras, the club for which I
played third base, and the Bazoos. That
was base ball, I tell you.
by grand work in the field and at the
bat we managed to offset the horseshoe
play OF the Bazoos and we were coming
down the stretch in the fall almost on
even terms. BY the freaks OF the per-
centage table, when the season was al
most over, we we're .0Oi Ahead Of the
BasooB. For ONE time before that We
were breaking even on the games played,
and one day we'd be a few hundred-tnoul
sandths ahead OF the Basoo CITY gang and
the next they'd have an eyeiash on ~.
THAT put IL right up TO the final series
of eight games between III and the Bazoos,
and as five OF them had to be played In
Bazoo City II looked tough for us. The
worst Of all was the night before we were
due to leave for BaBoo City our two best
pitchers went to the bad.
Lefty watts, the hero Of 100 no-hit, no
run games. threw his arm out In our final
home contest. and Mike Nelson, the coal
miner, was all in with rheumatism, az.
CURED from gtending In the steam Of a
drill. 1t looked very bad, indeed.
However, our manager, Jimmy Jenkins,
went around among US and told US never
to lose heart, that all might yet be well.
he seemed SO coeksure that l wondered.
Some of the fellows in the club had
noticed Il, too, and we spent a lot Of TIM
trying to dope 1t out. We had seen Jimmy
and q queer-looKing chap busy talking over
something for two or three days before
that in Aurora and we thought maybe he
was some oraoK pitcher Jenkins had dug
up. He was a great fellow for uncovering
phenoms and springing them all OF a SUI
den.
But when we asked him about this
guy all he would say was that he was a
crank at the game. Then he smiled mys
ter!ously. All he'd say was He amt NJ
player So we let It 60 at that. When
tuis qGeer-lookins cuss didn't get on the
train with US we thought no more about
him.
Things didn't break 20 bad for us In
BaEoo Uity at the start. Two Of our
ordinary pitchers went in and copied of
the first two games and that put us well
ahead of the Bsaoos. But then we got d
bump.
Watts went in the third day and they
killed him. Then, the rext afternoon, Mel
son took the slab and tried what he could
do. The Bazoos had their batting clothes
with them and they walloped out a triple,
two doubles and a single off the reel and
put that game on ice.
AFTER that was over we were still old
DOL to the coed and four more games to
60. The next afternoon Jenkins comes
around and says to us;
Boys, I'm goin' to try an experiment
this afternoon, an IL It goes the p~ennaut's
ours
That's all he'd say, but we tried hard
to get the dope on the situation. He
wouldn't tell us anything. but he cent in
the fellow who'd won the game the firsl
day and begged us to do our best viii the
bats.
This pitcher was one Of those fellows
who'd go six innings fine and then he'd
generally blow. That afternoon he did
fine in the early part. Of the game and
we were 30 encouraged we got a run to
the good by hitting.
'"rhe Bazoos were Just going to the bat
in their half Of the sixth inning, with the
score standing Sd for US, when l saw
jenkins end that queer looking guy con-
sulting on the bench. 1 wondered what
was up. / thought maybe he was going
to give Twisty Willis, our pitcher, oxygen
to pull him through the game, but nothing
like that happened.
. willis started to pitch the inning and
he blew up the came as usual. The Bazoos
had three more runs In and no one was
out that inning when all of a sudden
there was a loud noise outside the ball
park. I noticed then that the odd looking
chap had left.
Nobody paid much attention to the
noise, thinking maybe they were blasting
outside the park, but / saw q queer look
of triumph on the face of Jimmy jenkins
He was star ng straight up in the air and
I followed his glance.
There was a great big cloud up in the
sky where q minute before II was a fnSA
! clear day. Well. inside Of three minutes
II was raining m~enageries in that ball
yard and there wasn't a chance TO play
) the game off. The umpire had to call 81
, and the score. OF course, went back to the
inning before, giving it to us and making
out our lead something good.
! ""weil, that rain came UP something
providential,' says jenkins to W that nigh,
as we were taking the train back 70 Au.
rors. Maybe now II 1t happened to rain
2 while we were back home we wouldn't
\ have so much trouble with the pennant
what2' And then he grinned cheerful.
9Th captain Of the Bazoos he cursed
something awful. because he knew thai
three days OF rain would mean the loss OF
the pennant. the rules being strict that tn,
playing season had to be finished In the
{ next three days. The Bazoo City mob wal
wild because we had won the game, wher
. by rights they should have had It.
II though there was something queer
but l said nothing.
THE next day we played in Aurora
/ The BaSoos got to Watts again and woI
8 the game easy. II was a hard game L
! lose. but they took It In the eleventh on
scratch single that jumped into the bleach
d ers and went for a home run.
n That left us, however, still .O1 to tn,
9 good. But Jimmy Jenkins figured Il VI
y and found out that IL We broke even oil
the next two remaining games we'd los
the pennant, because when we got tina