The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-06-17


ular league umpires, but Detroit
kicked on him and the other teams,
too. He was pretty bad, so I got an
other fellow for today / think he's
all right He lives here and has um-
pired a lot of amateur and college
games. He's a man worth a quarter
of million dollars, he stands high in
society and church circles and in bust.
ness. He thinks 1t an honor to umpire
this game, and l hope you fellows
won't kick"
They didn't kick. The umpiring was
fine up to the ninth inning Then
Wichita was leading by one run. In
the first Of the ninth, with a runner
on bases, Frank Smith hit the ball
half a mile over the left field fence
and put the Sox ahead. Up to that
time the Sox had been much pleased
with the umpire, but when Wichita
went to bat for the last time things
changed. The umpire began to call
balls regardless of where they were
pitched. He walked three men, then
another and forced home q run. The
Sox grew mad and Smith turned on
him.
What are you trying to dor" he de-
manded. "Steal this game?"
why, Mr.. Smith," said the promi.
nent citizen, in distressed and sur
prised tones. "Mr. Isbell explained to
me that you wanted to lose this game
to him to give his Wichita team Q
good send-off."
Foxy Issy had "double-crossed"
both the umpire and the Sox and he
won the game. Instead Of seeing the
Joke, the Sox got mad.
Perhaps the most remarkable catch
made anywhere during the season Of
1910 was made by Carlisle Of the Yer.
non team of the Pacific coast league
October. The catch was made possi-
Bile because it started in joking
tribute by Carlisle to the hitting prov.
ess Of Ping Bodie, the smuggling OUT
fielder Of the Frisco team, who came
near breaking worlds records for
home run hits during the season.
The San Francisco grounds are SIT
uated low, and surrounded by great
fences, some of them as tall as the
threestory houses that adjoin the
park At points the fences are near
ly fifty feet high, yet Bodie kept dri-
wing the ball over fences, signs and
high screens until It got to be a reg
ular thing and q source Of Joking
among the fans and players alike. The
Vernon team came down from the
north with tn, Frisco team, and they
stopped to play a series on the Mis-
sion street grounds. 1t happened that
while the team was away painters had
been putting some new lettering on
signs high above the fence and one
tail ladder remained propped against
the fence in right center field. The
ladder was left there, and after Yer.
non had batted and failed to score,
Carlisle, Jogging out to his position.
saw the ladder, and thought of joke.
Two were out when Ping" the hero
Of Frisco, came to bat. Carlisle logged
back to the fence and, climbing about
twenty feet up the ladder, turned his
face toward the field. The bleacher
crowd appreciated his tribute to
Bodies hitting power and laughed
and cheered, and the crowd in the
stands took up the applause. Bodie
swung wickedly upon the first bali
pitched. Carlisle, thinking he had
carried the joke far enough. was de-
scending the ladder, when he saw the
ball coming toward the fence, far
above his head. He turned, scrambled
ten feet up the ladder, chung to
round with one hand and. stretching
out the other, caught the ball.
The catch caused long argument
but It was allowed and then the UNI
pire stopped the game until the ladder
was removed.
Copyright. 1911. by Joseph B. Bowles.)