The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-09-24

certain ball players are or have beer
known to national game fame quite as
much from their association in pairs
as individually. Naturally they are
pitchers and catchers, deceivers and
receivers. who have become prominent
as batteries. The battery Of Plank and
Powers, of the Athletics Of the Amer
lean league, is a case In point Before
death dissolved the co-partnership this
summer, DR.. Maurice Powers was ais
closely associated with the pitching OF
Eddie Plank as the latters left arm
almost. Powers was In harness up to
short time before his death, and
while Plank was too good a pitcher not
TO be able to get along with another
backstop, Powers had caught and han
died and coached him so long and SO
well that the two were as near perfect
in their battery team play as two men
could come to be.
A noted team of bygone days was
composed of Getzein and Ganzel-the
pretzel battery they were called when
they played for the Detroits In 1887.
The ALTERATION, perhaps, helped in
keeping them before the public as a
battery, but, of course, only slightly
as compared to their usefulness. The
Detroits were the champions that year,
and Getzein won more games for his
team than any other pitcher, twenty
nine Then, too, In the defeat of the
ST. Louis Browns in the post-season
series that year he lent a valuable
hand Plank and Powers also were on
a championship team, the Athletics,
when they won the American league
pennant in 1905.
Everybody has heard of Clarkson and
Kelley, two Of the best and brainiest
ball players the game has ever known.
Numerous pennants did they help to
bring to Chicago under the Arson reg
ime, and when they were sold to Bos-
ton for what at that time was fabu-
lous price, the deal was the biggest
ever made In baseball. Both are dead,
Clarkson passing away comparatively
recently Carruthers and Bushong and
Foutz and Bushong were renowned in
the points for the original ST. Louis
Browns, and their pennant winning
habit continued after they had been
sold to the Brooklyn club. Batteries
were not split up ais much then as
now. Foutz and Bushong have gone
TO their long. sleep. and so has Charlie
Eyr.is cho sA,ne,. the Brooklyn club
Vher they were there.
These old timers worked together
with machine-like precision and the
name Of one always recalls the name
of the other, so closely were they iden-
titled in diamond affairs. Nichols and
Bennett were star battery for the
pennant winning Bostons of the early
nineties. Bennett, already veteran
and Nichols young man, frankly con-
ceded that much of his early success
was due to the sagacious handling he
had from Bennett. Baltimore, while
winning three remnants in succession
IN 1894, 1895 and 1896, owed not a
little of is chain Of successes to the
mastery work OF Mcmahon and Rob-
inson, an accomplished couple who
played into each others hands like
clockwork.
The years prior to that, when Prov
Idence and Boston were the keenest of
rivals, and the battles between their
respective teams were diamond tpics
the lusrer of whitney and Hackett, for
Boston. and Radbourne and Gilligan,
for Providence, was as bright as that
OF the Mathewsons and Bresnahans
and Browns and Kings of modern days
1t is true that Hackett and Gilligan,
tho backstops. shone somewhat In the
reflected lustre OF their respective
pitchers, but that wasn't the case with
Corc0ran and Flint and Goldsmith and
Flint, crack batteries for the Chicagos
in the early eighties Flint was a he
roic figure behind the bat. With nd
pad and only the finger glove, he took
the pounding Of his pitchers day after
say and season after season. Though
the catchers then didn't stand up be-
hind the bat all the time as they do
now, neither did they have the modern
appliances to soften the work
Before Mathewson and Bresnahan
came to be New Yorks famous bat
terry Rusie' and Buckley and Keefe and
Ewing were the best known. Rusie
and Buckley came to New York togeth-
err from Indianapolis, and 1t was big
Buckley who was largely responsible
for Rusie's acquiring control to In
crease the effectiveness of his wonder
full speed and curves. Keefe and Hol-
bert for the old Nets and then Keefe.
and Ewing for the Giants were great
players separately and in unison. Each
was a player OF the highest class by
himself, Ewing to this day being rated
the peer of all catchers. What a team
ii would make could he be paired off
with MathewsonI
When the New York team won the