The Washington herald., 1910-12-23

From the Cincinnati Tinesstar
1 have, Of course. made quite a few
long hits and hard hits In my time" says
Napoleon Lajoie Some of them went
a good deal farther than others, and
some OF them were smashed with a good
deal more Yigor than the rest-an de-
pending largely, OF course, upon the way
the bat met the leather. / have q keen
and painful recollection, however. of
what / think was the hardest hit ever
made. The recollection is specially keen
and extremely painful because I wasted
so much energy on the blamed thing. and
because the best / got was the haw-haw.
1T was way back in the days when was
on the old Philadelphia team. which. as YOU
viii remember. was some aggregation OF
swatsmiths. Although I was rather new
10 the big league IN those days, seemed
TO nj in with that bunch all right and
was hitting along with the rest OF the
tribe. We needed all the hitting We
could accomplish, too. for somehow or
other, We weren't winning any flags, and
Il took all our smuggling 10 keep the Op-
position from treading on our backbones
In those days, the right-fie!d fence in
Philadelphia was close, too close, and the
neiders used 70 play 10 take them on the
bound as they came back from the fence.
In one game, II / remember rightly, three
men we're thrown out at first on what
should have been the safest kind Of hits
but that is another story. Pass me right
on, please, 70 the description Of my own.
special, individual sorrows.
THE afternoon ] made nv great hit
u q 49,
miserable for all the pitchers. and espe-
cialIy for our performers. When the last
half OF the ninth arrived We were TO the
bad something like TO Z. There was a
hit, an out. a base on balls, and q pop
fiy, I came Up, with men on first and
second, two gone, and the chance to tie
or before me. The ball came over
Messing hot / grazed il. and that was
all The next one must have been in
tended simply as teaser. for 10 drifted
over so slow and easy that a baby could
have hit it with a wire. Methinks the
hurler never meant 10 get it near the
pan, but was playing wide 10 get a pos
sible fail out Of the runner. who was lead
ing on second. Anyhow, it came over
the size Of a fat balloon. oh. joy said
], and I leaned the bat against that ball
with All my weight and muscle.
TO the best OF my recollection.
never before or since hit ball so hard
as that one. ] could feel the leather
| being driven into the core of the yarn
and rubber by the force OF that ire
mend0us drive. and the sting ran up the
bat with such venom that my hands and
wrists blazed burning hot The ball went
out. not whizZing, not sailing. but faster.
more terrihcally speedy, than anything 1
ever laid the wood against in all my life.
There was a glad roar from the null
titude, and ! went down 10 first, blaZes-
bent for home run, while two men
few for home. Round first I went. and
steamed for the middle corner. Sud
denly man rose up in my track, and
stuck the bail into my diaphragIn-it was
the third out and the game was over
How and whyfore2 Only this: l had
hit that ball so fearfully hari that il
rebounded back from the right-field wall
like a snapped piece of rubber band. Il
shot straight back all the way TO the
diamond, and leaped right into the second
basemans hands for a sure trap and the
last out OF the afternoon. And that, kind
gentlemen, is the story of the hardest
ball / ever hit DO you wonder that the
memory gives me pain2"