The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-05-25

If you remember, and of course you
do, we did a lot of predicting anC
prophesying during the month or 81
preceding the opening of the baseball
season. The sum and substance o
what we said was that Johnson City
had some team. So far we are con
WINGED that Johnson City has some
team. Some team means that thu
team is some. You see, it's like this
swarthy little soldier by the name o
Colonel Garner peeled off his old Goa
and put on his other shirt, and started
in to build, construct and erect base
ball machine on scientific lines, Of
patent automatic inertia lubricator-tC
keep it running as smooth as bubble
of nothing floating down the stream oil
time. Machine | said, didn't :? Well,
in this advanced age of combinations
and trusts, the com bine of nine good
men and true into an automatically
working piece of machinery, instead OF
permitting each individual TO spend
his time polishing his star and halo, is
about the only trust that the law don't
consider in restraint trade. True, con-
siderable trade may be restraided along
about three and half O'Clock many
afternoons, but that's only surmise, as
there are usually not enough witnesses
left in town to prove it.
The sum total of the whole matter is
this: The Johnson City team is built
up to work together; they are trained
that way by man who knows the
game; and that's the way remnants
are won. Now the point is, keep it
up. Team work. team work; all to-
gether. Of course pitcher often
practically wins the game alone; but
he would seldom have the nerve to do
it if he didn't know that behind him
were eight individuals just as glad as
he is when the big red .neaded orator
declaims "Strike three-e-e-; yer out y
One day somebody said somebody
ought to write something sometime
about umpires. Well, I'm somebody,
and this is certainly some time, but l
certainly do hate to waste my scant
cerebral powers ON such subject. Not
because | dislike umpires; they amt
never done nothin' to me as know of,
but the fact of the matter is, umpires
usually get enough said about them
anyway, without ne Espaper becom-
ing an accessory after the fact. But,
come to think of it, we might take the
other side Of the subject and get out
our microscopes and see if there was
anything good to be said about-them
things we just mentioned, or whether
they were altogether gone astIay. Now,
a whole bucketful of those yarns about
them things we just mentioned, is
about as old and frazzled as the mother
in-law classic; ump--I mean them
things-are not bit worse than moth
as | have had occasion to
observe the rank decisions of both.
And when you come to think of it,
when couple of teams get spliced for
a series, the umpire does make pretty
good mother-in law. He's bound to
settle dispute the way they did
"when | was little girl ~ mean
when he was playing left field. Of
course that's all right, and at least half
Of the two disputing parties will always
throw their arms around his neck and
COO ''Dear Old Mamma" while the
other half begins tracing his geneology
back by route that Darwin never
thought of. OF the two, however, the
mother ump in law has the biggest
,ay-so, and usually sends the naughty
party to bed Tor rather TO the bench)
instead of commanding them to kiss
and make up.
But to narrow down to our own
young family, we find that papa w.
w. Miller has his three sets of twins
trained to behave like all nice little
boys should behave. OF course, the
oldest pair are Knoxville and Johnson
City, strapping pair of big boys; then
and Asheville, handsome
brace of youngsters; and finally, only
ast year Bristol and Cleveland, the
two little girls of the league, we're born.
They are hardly able to walk yet, but,
gee whiz, you ought to hear the cute
things they can say. Then there is
uncle Johnny Copenhaver, and cousins
AMI Smith and Carl Whitlock; and
asst, but by all odds the biggest, the
three mothers-ups-in-law, Donoghue,
and Barrett-short, thick,
red headed, joking "Red' Donoghue;
little quiet, stoop-shouldered, snaggle-
.oothed, business-like Mclaughlin;
and great big pot-bellied, double chin
1ed Barrett--that's them. The above
IS given merely as means of identifi- !
cation of the aforementioned gentle
men, and you are not to love them any
ess on account of our pen picture.
Good old jumps.
We rather expected it, too. OF
course, We didn't know just what kind