The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-11
STRANGE DO|NGS
 OF THE FANS
Halt Games Just to Settle Per
 sonal Difficulties
HUMOROUS INCIDENTS
Two Men Rush on Diamond to Have McPhee Decide Bet-Larry Lajoie Is Touched for S2
 by old Friend
From the Cleveland Leader.

From the Cleveland Leader.
 Numerous instances there have been of championship games being interrupted for some extraordinary or some unusual reasons, but, perhaps, the oldest of them all happened in game at Cincinnati one day. 15 or 20 years ago. Frank Ban croft tells the story.
 "We were having red-hot battle with Chicago that day." says the famous bus mess manager of the Reds, and in the eighth inning--with the score 1 and l. McPhee hit a ball down to short too hot for Dahlen to handle cleanly
 ''McPhee had been anchored on first about two seconds when two men jump ed over the rail separating the grand stand from the field and started out to- ward 'Biddy.' It all happened so sud- denly that at first we thought McPhee was to be given some kind of a present or other but we were soon undeceived.
 Would Bet on Anything
 'eTn those days the fans bet on every thing that could possibly happen-bet the next delivery of the pitcher would be a ball or 8 strike;' bet that the batter would strike out; bet that he wouldn't; bet that he would go out to the infield {; fly out to the outfield, or foul out; bet that the umpire would call the next man who tried to steal out or safe; bet it would rain or snow bet the game would not go nine innings; bet it would end In tie and so on to the uttermost pos abilities of the game.
 Well, on this day one of the men who had wandered out on the field to talk to McPhee took off his hat and, address ing the popular second baseman of the Reds in a. tone clearly audible in the stands, said:
 ' Biddy. to decide a bet, will you please tell us whether that was g. hit for you or an error for Dahlen? I bet this man ? to that you would make A hit. and we ain't able to decide winch 1t was
 "Before the umpires and the captains could chase the men off the field, Me- Phee piped up
 Say, if you guys live to be million years old. you'll never see a cleaner base hit than that
 And it is my recollection that the offi- cial scorer was of the same opinion
 Laj0ie Makes Loan
 Napoleon Lajoie had been on the old Philadelphia team but few weeks when he was the innocent cause of game be- tween the Phillies and the Bostons be- ing temporarily stopped. Larry was playing at first in this game-it was played in Boston-and a lot of his friends from Fall River and Woonsocket were on hand to see their old idol
 Everything went along merrily until the seventh inning. At that particular stage of the game the Philies were lead ing, to 1, and the crowd-it was a Bos- ion crowd, remember-was yelling its approbation of Lajoie, who had batted in about seven of the visiting clubs nine runs.
 As Lajoie took his place at first in the eighth inning a man climbed over the front railing of the 50-cent seats and, almost before he was noticed at all, had made his way over to where the hero of the day was anchored.
 The umpire and the groundkeeper made rush in the direction of first base just in time to hear LaJoes unwelcome wis itor say:
 / :. Nap. old boy. I've got to get that 5 o'clock train back to little old Woon- socket. Stake me to s2, will you?'
 Larry didn't allow himself to be frustrated by this little incident He gave the high sign to Manager Shetts- line, who was sitting on the bench, and his old neighbor got his S2 with no seri- ous interruption of the game attending the transaction