The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1910-08-11
Sad Story Of
Old Sure Mitt
Who Could Play Baseball All Right
Except at a Critical Juncture
OF the Came.

Manager Wilton read the telegram
for the second time, unconsciously
showing his attitude by negative
shake of his head. One of the clubs
in the big league had wired as fol-
lows: How much do you want for
Dixon?" His answer placed the al
most prohibitive price of tw I've
thousand dollars on this player for
immediate delivery, but his letter of
confirmation stated that if they would
wait until the end of the season they
might have the lad for onethird of
the above amount.
You see this man Dixon was reg
ular tower of strength to the local
team. which was in the thick of the
pennant fight and they could i'll af
ford to let him go. He was one of
the most popular players in the as
sociation and the fans had given him
the sobriquet of Old Sure Mitt. His
regular position was in the center
field where b e covered acres of
ground. A fly ball batted in his di-
rection was a sure out for he was al
ways waiting for it to drop in his
glove. As one rooter remarked: It's
just like dropping 'em in wei"
He killed off many a run at the home
plate by beautiful throws from deep
center, the ball coming to the catcher
on the first bound. H was left
handed and batted in that position,
maintaining all average of over 300
year in and out. So no one was sur
prised when he was called to the big
league at the end of the season.
AS the season was so far advanced
he had but few opportunities, merely
substituting in two or three games
for the Frogs. But his work on the
next Spring training trip gave great
promise and it was freely predicted
that he would make good. For the
first few weeks his work was gilt
edged in every respect except batting,
but the Captain thought that would
improve and kept him in the game
every day.
| Then came a crucial series of three
games with the CLANS. These two
teams were then fighting for second
place and bad blood had existed be-
tween them from the time some of the
CLAIMS had been members of the old
Baltimore Orioles. Each team had
taken one game and the de cld n G
contest was being played. 1t h a q
been a pitchers battle. T b e score
was l to O in favor of the CLAIMS VI
to the eighth inning when the Frogs
had scored two runs by combining
tw 5s with an error of their op
acts. The Frogs failed to score
i. their half of the ninth, but the frs
man up for the CLANS drew base
on balls, was sacrificed to second anC
) scored when the next batter doubled
to right field. Then followed safe
bunt putting runners on first n {
third. After Wee Willie William
had fouled out, the runner on frs
stole second. SO with two out, two
men on bases, and the score tie the
. big crowd in the stands grew sud
denly quiet and waited for something
to happen. Home-Run Hazletol
stepped up to the plate wearing |
grim look of determination. The frs
, two balls pitched were wide on e
and he let them go by. The catche
signaled for a straight ball but tn
: pitcher, to deceive the batter, ven
+ through all tn e motions of wind
: ing up fora curve ball. Swiftly tn
ball shot toward the batter and crack
the sphere sailed few feet over tn
shortstop's head straight toward Oh
Sure Mitt. He had been playing ia