Morris tribune., 1911-01-06
S 7 o r | e S
'''j;;'''';i - '{a;:;:::' %
The Second Baseman's s
Story.
By HOWARD SHEDD.

!
If it had been his left hand that he
wore the big mitt on it wouldn't have
been so bad,
! "Nho else is there to play" he said.
1--WE got to do it."
He went out to a doctor, and l sat in
bed thinking. l saw that we was up
against it good and hard. The utility
man was in the hospital, and neither
of the pitchers could play first worth
whoop and were weak with the
| willow.
! When Dan came back he had his
! hand all bandaged up.
! "I'll have some extra thick ones put
boys will throw to the left enough I
guess the big mitt will carry me
! through"
Well, the big day came. There wasn't
a vacant seat in the park, and talk
about eXcitement-say, you've got to
go out in the minors to get the real
| thing in that line. The big league
towns amt in it a minute with these
| little burgs when it comes to going
! dippy over a ball team.
/ We was all a little worried over
! Dau's hand except Nolan, who sneered
when he heard about it. But all the
! infielders promised to bear to the left
on first base throws. and we figured
, that we would get through all right.
| l was warming up near the grand
stand when l heard my name called,
and I turned to see Julia MOriarty
right behind the netting on front
seat.
"What's the matter with Mr.. Mo-
! rams hand?" she asked.
Fire in our room last night" l told
her. "Lace curtains blew into the gas
jet, and Dan burned his hand some
thing fierce putting it out"
"Rut he can't play, can he?" she
asked, and l noticed she seemed sort
of worried.
He's going to play" l said, land
he'll be safe if the boys don't throw
into his meat hand. We're taking
special pains this afternoon to hit that
big mitt Of his. Don't you worry:
We'll win this game all right
The game got to going soon after
that, and we run along five innings
with nothing doing. Nolan and Hart
were both in form and nobody got past
second base. Dan was getting along
fine at first. though he had to do some
sidestepping at times.
When Corydon came to bat in the
sixth something started. The first
man up slammed a safe one to left
field and reached first base. 1t was
the first safety they'd got off Nolan,
and it nettled him little. He watched
the base runner like hawk and kept
throwing to Dan to keep the man on
first. | could see from second that
these throws didn't bear any to the
left either. | saw one of them get
Dan square on the right hand. He
held on to it, but | could see his face
twitch. 1t must have hurt him some
thing terrible. Well. the next man
up drove triple to the fence, and
Corydon got the first run Of the game.
The three bagger man came home a
moment later on a sacrifice.
We did some batting ourselves in the
seventh and tied the score. Then in
the eighth, with one man out, Cory
don's left fielder got to first on an
error by our shortstop. He took a
good lead, and Nolan fired one at Dan
to catch him. 1t caught Dan square
on his sore hand, and he nearly doubled
up in agony. The ball bounced away,
and the Corydon man was safe on Sec
ond. There were groans from the
grand stand.
The next man up died at first, but
the man on second took third on the
play. The next batter sent a slow
roller to Nolan. He picked it up and
slammed it at Dan with all his might,
aimed square at that sore hand. 1t
looked like an easy out from the grand
stand, and when Dan dropped it and
the runner reached. first, while the
other man scored from third, there
was an awful roar. My, but our root
ers were sore! It looked like an easy
catch to them-that is, to most of
them. A few real wise ones saw how
Nolan had thrown the ball. The rest
began yelling at Dan.
"ROtten!'
'"Take him outr'
"Get a new first basemanv'
1t hurt Dan. too, as much as the
throw had done. 1t was the first time
they had ever roasted him that way.
You can't blame them so much, though.
They didn't know about his hand, ex-
cept that it was tied up. and they
weren't next to Nolan's tricks.
After all. though, it didn't matter.
We hit Hart to the woods in our half
of the eighth and sent two men across
the plate. That made it to in our
favor.
COrydon came to bat in the ninth
with everybody holding his breath.
and Nolan made a finish that was A
corker. ! have to admit it-he sure
was a pitcher What does he do now