The San Francisco call., 1909-09-11
InI9lRANK WILLIAMS
@BASEBALL BULLETIN
The Story of Boys Amusement Enterprise
BY ARTHUR MORGAN IANCWORFIIY
BIZ ARTHUR MORGAN LANGWoRTHY

turn for his audiences transfer to him
Of an admission price of , cents head.
The Baseball bulletin company came
inte existence two DAYS later, and
trouble began right at the start Ben
shreYdly recognized his own tremen-
dous Importance in the scheme. and
held out for what Frank considered
extortionate terms. He refused to go
into the company unless Frank and Joe
would pay the daily telephone charges
as well as cost eff building The phone
charges. allowing the average game
time about l hour and 4S minutes.
amounted 10 more than a dollar day
The boys finally agreed to this after
Joe had told his father his scheme
Mr.. Fisher was greatly amused as
well as interested He agreed to guar
antee the phone charges, and as the
boys had little money of their own
the Baseball bulletin company finally
got under construction. but not before
Ben Jordan had forced an assignment
of SO per cent of an profits TO himself.
They obtained the material from a
pile Of old lumber in the stable loft,
and as all were more or less adept
with saw, hammer and paint brushes,
the work progressed rapidly.
Frank painted big white diamond
on the black side wall of the stable. as
shown in the diagram Then the nine
players We're drawn in white standing
at their positions -Four hooks were
driven into each base and the playing
field stood finished
Now the booth was built as shown.
The three upper square holes were TO
mark the number of innings played and
the runs>scored by each team, the name
of which was slipped in the little
bracket above. The four lower holes
were to denote the strikes, balls, fouls
and out, and all were manipulated by
the flash" operator inside. who showed
the proper numbers as the game pro-
gressed. These numbers slipped in
little. brackets built inside.
The space under the diamond on the
wall was occupied by the batting lists
of the opposing teams Each list was
divided into nine consecutiveiy num-
bered racks. When the game was
played the players names were
scrawled on cardboards cut TO fit and
slipped into the racks in their proper
batting order
Thus each player was furnished with
a number. And for this reason the
back of the booth was open TO the
diamond wall. AS a man went to bat
the field operator would take the
number his name represented on the
batting list. Then the operator would
turn TO nine consecutively numbered
disks inside the booth and pick out
the same number as the players num-
ber. He would stick the disk on the
end OF long black pole, and reaching
out place the disk at home in the
batter's box. resting pole end on hook
10 steady it, as shown. The disk at the
pole end would thus be moved around
the bases, resting on the other hooks
as the runner progressed.
The nine numbered disks represent
ing the home team (who were known
as the "Reds') were painted red with
black figures, those Of the visiting team
always a light green with black fig
ures. Thus the spectators were not con-
fused and could tell instantly who was
at bat by comparing the disk number
with the batting list. If two or more
men were on bases more disks on poles
were called into play.