The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-26
POINTERS ID RANDOM
BY HUGH w. ROBERTS.

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 In that season of pleasant memory when the Barons won the pennant of the Southern league, they became famous IS heavy finishers
 Since then, however, it has been al most the invariable case that when the Barons were beaten prior to the ninth in- ming they were beaten for good.
 But yesterday afternoon the Barons, after seeing the Sea Gulls establish a to lead, drove Becker from the box, hammered Hickman unmercfully and piled up a total of seven runs.
 Just as the season is going into his tory the Barons are breaking many records
 Last week for the first time this year they won both ends of doubleheader.
 Yesterday afternoon they won their first game by overcoming a big lead in the ninth inning.
 Just now they are playing marvellous ball.
 Every team has been met and overcome with comparative ease.
 The reason for the spurt is not difficult to find.
 The Barons are stinging the ball no harder than they have all through the season. But the pitchers are holding up their end of the game
 And all of this reminds that had the pitchers done as well throughout the sea- son the Barons would now be sitting in very select company.
 When the eighth inning dawned yes- terday afternoon the Sea Gulls had a lead of five runs
 Only the fan who has followed base hal1 o1n toll 1, ,i. what a handicap five runs make.
 But after two were down and two on bases Veteran Bill Douglass hit to deep center for three bags, clearing the bases. He, himself, scored a moment later when Smith got his third single of the after noon.
 In their half of the eighth the Gulls could do nothing.
 Then the Barons came to bat in the ninth.
 An error and two singles filled the bases with one down.
 Becker is jerked from the slab and Gordon Hickman commissioned After toying with the little giant for mo- ment or more, Big Henry lifts the ball over the fence, drives three men home ahead of him, and makes the circuit him. self.
 Robertaile pitched the ninth for Bir- mingham and held the men of Tom Fish CT in the hollow of his hand.
 The Barons and the Gulls will play their fourth game this afternoon.
 Either Hickman or Fisher, most prob- ably the latter, will do the pitching, while either. Robertaille or Feharty, probably the former, will work for Bir- mingham.
 The odds, naturally, in view of the results of the preceding three games, fa- vor Mobile to win, but there is no tell ing as the story goes
 Some other man might knock the ball over the fence and drive three men ahead of him across the joyous platter.
 After the Mobile series the Barons step over to Pelicanville
 For Nashville's sake as we'll as for our own, it is hoped the men under the leadership of Bill Douglass will main- tain their present pace.
 And Atlanta is trembling in it's boots.
 Not so many games separate the Crack CTS and the Barons, and if the two ag- gregations play another ten days as they have the ten preceding. there will be very few points between them
 The Barons have played three games in the west and won them all. In other words, on this trip they have won as many games dlTcduy as they captured OH either of the preceding. It is a notable fact that during each of the western invasions the Barons have been under the guidance of different man.
 Right now, too. in the absence of Molesworth a veritable star, the Barons are presumably weaker than on either of the preceding excursions.
 Corning as if did that hit of Meelx's was like a page out of a romance of Laura Jean Libbey. They are little sore in Mobile. They are little sore in Atlanta. While Birmingham Is in a sadder plight than either, there is pleasurable sur prise here.
 This is the first fun we've had this season.
 Tn the Atlanta Constitution of Sun day J. w. Heisman, president of the Atlanta club, wades through three col umns of valuable space in explaining the situation in Crackertown. Heisman tells of hard luck stories of umpire robberies, of sickness, pesti- lence and death. He then proceeds to roast the fans because they have criticized. In 1t all, Heisman reveals his ignorance or the national game as 1t is played among professionals. He speaks as the col