The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-07-25
Catcher in Battery of Pettiford
and Weaver.
OFEXPERIENCES
Has Played in All the Leagues
in Country.
Now Handling an Indicator in
Sioux City Series.

| 100 III hb0c9 Sc1l44C eSAA-AOA lin
Sioux City club: Cla-kun- Daw-un-
ur-thome club: Dur-r-n-Cha-play
ball." All right. We can get it off the
score board-but who's the umpire?
A quarter of a century ago, the bat
terry announced for the 'ome clui
sounded something like Pet-fawd-un-
Weevver. 1t was Pettiford and Weav-
er. That catcher is the umpire today
the Original Buck Weaver.
Twenty-Five years ago he broke into
professional baseball in Topeka in the
nrSt year of the Western league After
% years in the professional ranks,
playing from New York to California
and Texas to British Columbia with
Kansas as the central point about
| which his long career revolved. Buck
| Weaver is back in Topeka as the goat
OF the game Though he doesn't think
! so)-the umpire
Rugged and weather-bea and with
the complexion of an old sea salt
burned upon him in the Kansas plains,
he stands complaeently watching the
bases today. A week ago in Lincoln he
caught one of Cobb's foul tips on his
collar bone and the seasoned bone gave
way. So he is content to stay from be-
hind the bat awhile and leave that to
Jac1-the-Giant Killer, Club Mckee
CnriStened William Bond Weaver
some time or other back in Parkers-
burg, W. Va, Buck brought that name
to Kansas along about 1884 and regis
tered on a farm near Olathe. A spender
of the town organized ball club to
tour the state the following year and
Kid Weaver was in the bunch taken on
the road
AS plain Bill Weaver. he was taken In
by Topeka in 1856 when the Western
league was first set into motion. He
came into professional company along
with the gloves ard masks. the curved
balls and the low scores He has seen
baseball grow from a stick of space to
a double page in che daily papers. He
was mixed in the thick of a couple OF
baseball wars and he knows the game
from it's infancy. Last night as he sat
at his hotel, he cleared the haze from
his memory and reviewed his long ca
reer.
CoIOred Man on the Team.
Il can remember the day that
joined here better than any other.
saw a colored fellow on the grounds
and asked if he was the mascot. They
said he was the second baseman. His
name was Bud Fowler and he could
play the game. He never hung around
the rest of us, although we asked him
to, but in his own GROVE he certainly
was a hero and everywhere We went
all the colored folk in town came out
except in Leadville; they wouldn't
let him play out there
This league had just been organ
1Z6Q- mere were 4ORtfds 1C4ANSAs
Leadville, Leavenworth. Lincoln and
st. Joseph in the circuit. 1 remem-
Der Dave Mulvane was president of
the Toneka association and Charles K.
Holiday was manager. 1 ought to
look these men up while I'm here.
They were good fans in those days.
This town is changed considerably
since 1886, as you know. The ball
park, I think, used to be west, in
stead of east We turned west at the
old National hotel. There used to be
good crowds out there, too. Topeka
of the league. The nexI season they
won the pennant with Goldsby's Gold
en- Giants and then dropped out.
1--WE had Pettiford, Blanchard. Nc
Elroy and Burchard for pitchers that
first year and Harry Smith and 1 did
the catching. Those men could pitch
in those days, but still the hitting
averages were usually around 400
somewhere. They drew a line for the
pitcher in those days and 1T was only
As feet away. They had all the ter
ritory behind that line to run in and
could come up to It to throw at a hop,
skip and a jump. They used to get
the smoke on them
In 1887, when Topeka made such a
reputation and spent all the money in
town for ball players to trim up the
surrounding states, Pettiford and
Kansas State league. That old league
consisted of Wichita, Em7oria.. Arkan-
sas City and Wellington. They finished
before the Western league and Wich-
tia and Emporia got into the Western
for the windup, Pettiford and Weaver
playing with Wichita They seldom
broke Up a battery in mat day and
age Each pitcher had his catcher
ard kept him.
Why They Call Him Buck.
why do they call me- Buck ?'' he
replied in answer to the question.
We'll. 1 got that down at Austin. Tex,
in 1883. There was a terrific slug
ger named Buck Ewing Up in the big
show. He led them all a mile, as l
it. Down south I was hit
ting fairly well myself so they called
me Buck the second. and it stuck to
me"
In the fall of the same year Buck
was sold to Louisville in the old Amer
lean association and played there until
1894, helping to win the pennant in
1890. In 1894 he went to the Pitts
burg Nationals. managed by Buekin
burg. During the winter the Ameri-
can association aspired to become a
major league and in order to squash
the plans of the lesser league, the
majors had to hoist the salaries of
their players to keep them from go
ing over. Buck signed a new contract