Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1910-09-03
BASEBALL
Eighth Inning.
Copyright. 1909. by Metroq olitan
Magazine Co.

you ana fatty Jones ana rug Nose
Perkins on those happy but infrequent
days when the teacher didn't keep you
after school used to go out in the va
cant lot behind your house and play
baseball. And that was baseball!
Three old cat was the name Of that
particular breed OF the great American
game. Why three old cat nobody
knows-or If anybody does he has
omitted to tell me. However. out in
the back lot you'd go. you and Fatty
Jones and Pug Nose Perkins. taking
with you from the woodshed the uten
slls necessary for the sport
You didn't use regular. turned.
hickory bat. Oh, dear me. no. Those
were all we'll enough for dude kids
like Algernon Dalrymple. whose father
owned the shirt factory down by the
railroad crossing and who lived in the
big stone house with the hedge around
the yard so that you couldn't see into
the lawn parties they gave there until
you'd dug a hole through with your
pocket knife and fingers. Dude bats
were all well enough for dude kids like
him, but you and Fatty and Pug Nose
were different. should hope so.
Though Of course. If some one had
come along and offered you bat like
that you might have taken it-possibly.
But as long as no one did. you kept
right on using a shingle whitfield down
to a handle on one end. and when AL
gernon and his dude bat came around
you chased them off home contemp-
tuously.
And for ball you wouldn't have
one of those nice. white. hard things
that would hit you on the ends Of the
fingers and make the joints swell up
so your mother would have to button
your suspenders for you in the morn
ing. You used a chunk Of rubber
wrapped up in twine OF course the
twine would keep unwinding. and
coming Off every once In a while: but
that only lent additional interest to
the game. And at that 1t was lot
better than those dude ones-though Of
course II the same some one had
chanced to come around and offer you
one of those horsehide covered ones
But what's the use? Nobody came.
Well. Fatty Jones would choose to be
'in;" and as he was the biggest and
could lick both Pug Nose and your
self. you could find no adequate
grounds upon which to dispute his
choice.
Then Pug Nose would elect to
"catch." and as Pug Nose. In turn.
could lick you, you would with as
much grace as you could muster take
the ball and walk out to the pitchers
box. Once there you would spit on
your hand and rub 1t in the dirt and
then wipe 1t off on the seat Of your
trousers. Just why you did this would
have been difficult for you to explain
Had any one inquired your reasons
you would merely have supcrciliously
and pityingly remarked. "Why. all
good pitchers does thatr' and gone
right on putting yourself in line with
wearing your Sunday pants for every
day just that much sooner.
Then Fatty would insouciantly wave
his bat and admonish you to give him
"a good one" while Pug Nose at catch,
would squat upon his launches and
make meaningful faces at you. Where
at you would comfort yourself into an
attitude that would suddenly remove
three buttons and let fly.
Maybe the ball would go over the
stone that stood for home plate. Maybe
1t would go gyrating Off into the seen
cry somewhere and thereby win many
caustic remarks upon your ability
from Pug Nose, whose painful duty 1t
was to chase 1t. Or maybe it would
hit Fatty under the ear. making 1t
dead ball' and giving him chance
to make one run and an opportunity
while he was making that one run to
tell you that as a ball player your
aged grandmother could skin you for
ty ways and to opine caustically that
jackstones and stick knife and ring
around a-rosy were more in your line.
At length after Fatty had made
about seventy or eighty runs cts not
a stingy game, this three old caD you
would happen to catch pop fly that
got snarled up in your fingers before
you could drop 1t. or maybe you'd
"naip' foul" or possibly Fatty in
n misguided effort to swipe the ball
when 1t was ten or fifteen feet over
his head would strike out. And then
you'd all move up one.
Then Pug Nose would be In for thir-
ty or forty trips to the first land only
base and back, while you retrieved
the wild balls that Fatty threw. And
at length some inadvertence on the
part of Pug Nose would move you all
Ep once again, and you would be in
and Fatty catch and Pug Nose pitch.
At last your chance had come, and
you would brace back your shoulders
proudly and brandish the shingle and
lay for a good one, while Fatty. squat
ting behind the plate as warily as his
embonpoint would permit. would make
faces at Pug Nose. who in the pitch
er's box would be busily engaged in
unctuously putting large chunks of the
vacant lot on the most used portion OF
his trousers.
Pug Nose at length comforts himself
almost as well as you yourself could
and sends in a hot one. You can see
that it's going at least three feet be-
yond the plate, so you stand In silent.
naughty unconcern and let 1t go by.
"Strike, you guIbp" yells Fatty as