The sun., 1908-10-18
GREAT BALL IN THOSE DAYS
HOW RAIN WON THE PENNANT
FOR THE AURORAS.

End OF the League Season, Because
the Wet Weather Came Along Proyi-
dentiaiIy Just When II Was Needed.
"The struggles between the Tigers and
the White Sox and the battles between the
Pirates, Cubs and Giants all bring back
to mo the good old days In the Alfalfa
League" remarked th6 alert oldster with
the warped fingers. Il renember one
year when 1t was very tight thing be-
tween tho Auroras, the club for which I
played third base. and the Bazoos. That
was baseball, J tell you.
by grand work in the field and at the
bat we managed to Offset the horseshoe
play Of the Razoos end we were coming
down tho stretch in the fall almost on even
terms By the freaks of the percentage
table. when the season was almost over
we were .ooi ahead Of the BaEoos For
some time before that We were breaking
even on the games played, and one day
we'd be o few hundBed ed-thousandths ahead
OF the Hazoo City gang, and the next
they'd have an eyelash on us.
THAT put 1t Night up TO the final series
Of eight games between us and the Bazooe.
and as five of them had to be played In
Basoo City IL looked tough for us, The
worst OF all was the night before We were
due to leave for Bazoo City our two best
pitchers went to the bad.
Lefty Watts, the hero Of hundred
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 acquired from standing In
the steam OF a drill. II looked very bad
indeed for us
However, our manager, Jimmy Jen-
kins, went around among us and told 4s
never to lose heart, that all might yet
be well. He seemed so cocksure that
wondered at It.
Some Of the fellows in the club had
noticed 1t too and we spent lot OF time
trying to dope ito out, Wehad seen Jimmy
and queer looking chap busy talking
over something for two or three days
before that in Aurora and we thought
maybe he was some crack pitcher Jenkins
had dug up. He was great fellow for
uncovering phenoms and springing them
all OF sudden.
But when we asked him about this
guy, all he would say was that he was q
crank at the game. Then he smiled
mysteriously. All he'd say was, He
amt no player So we let II 20 Mt that.
When this queer looking cuss didn't get
on the train with US, we thought nothing
more about him.
Things didn't break 30 bad for us
In Bazoo City at the start. Two OF our
ordinary pitchers went in and copped
OF the first two games and that put us
well ahead Of the Bazoos. But then we
got a had bump.
Watts went in the third day a9d they
killed him. Then, the next afternoon,
Nelson took the slab and tried what he
could do. The Bazoos had their batting
clothes with them and they walloped
out triple, two doubles and single of
the reel and put that game on ioe
After that was over we we're still the
old ,00i to the good and four more games
to 60. The next afternoon Jenkins he
comes around and says to US:
Boys, I'm goin' TO try an experiment
this afternoon. an II IL goes the PEN
nant's ours
That's all he'd say. hut we tried hard
to get the dope on the situation. He
wouldn't tell us anything. but he sent in
tine fellow who'd won the game the first
day and begged us 10 do our best with
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 so encouraged we got a run
to the good by hitting.
'The Bazoos were just going 70 the
bat in their half Of the sixth inning. with
the score standing 5-t for US, when
saw Jenkins and that queer looking guy
consulting on the bench. / 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.
'Willits started to pitch the inning and
he blew up the same as usual. The
Bazoos had three more runs in and no
one was out that inning when all of q
sudden there was loud noise outside
the ball park. 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 queer look
OF triumph on the face Of Jimmy Jenkins.
He was staring straight up in the air and
I followed his glance.
There was a great big cloud up in the
sky where minute before IL was a fine
clear day. Well, inside OF three minute
1t was raining menageries In that ball
yard and there wasn't chance 10 play
che game OF. The umpire had to call
1t and the score Of course " tent back to
the inning before. giving 1t to Us and max
ing our lead something good.
''well, that rain came up something
says Jenkins to us that night
as we were taking the train back to Au-
rora. Maybe now 10 1t happened to
rain while we were back home we wouldn't |
have 90 much trouble with tae pennant,
whats' Then he grinned cheerful.
'The captain Of the Bazoos he cursed |
awful, because he knew that
three days OF rain would mean the loss
of the pennant, the rules being strict that |
the playing season had to be finished In |
the next three days. The Bazoo City mob
was wild because We had won the game,
when by rights they should have had IL.
II thought there was something 4 queer,
put said nothing.
'The next day we played In Aurora.
rhe Bazoos got to Watts again and won
the game easy. II was hard game to
lose, but they took II In the eleventh on