Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1911-06-03
SWEENEY Will
TRY Big feat
May Catch Baseball Dropped
658 Feet From Metro
p0Iitan Tower.

Big Ed Sweeney, the Yankees star
catcher. is going to catch baseball
thrown from the Metropolitan Tower,
or. at least, he expects to smother a
horschide In his mitt that has been
chucked from the 65S-foot building
top, says S. Farnsworth, writing to the
Examiner from New York under
date of May Goth. The giant back
stop hasn't decided when he will
make the attempt, but It will prob
ably be on the return of the Yankees
from the first Western trip, the latter
part of this month.
During the Yankees visit in Wash
ington last week Sweeney and Ford
took a walk out to the famous monu-
mont In the Capital City one morning,
and as they looked up to the little
windows near the top, $50 feet from
the base; Sweeney remarked that he
believed he could spear a ball thrown
from there.
viii Try Out Dozen Balls.
Charley Street of the Washington
club and Billy sullivan Of the White
Sox have caught balls tossed from
the monument. Before them such
giants of the diamond as Buck Ewing
Charley Snyder, Paul Haines and
Malachi Kittredge had failed
"You would only be equaling rec
ord II you made the catch" said Ford.
"Why don't you try to catch one from
the Metropolitan Tower"
Although the great spitball finger
was only joking when he made the
remark, Sweeney took 1t seriously.
and since then has been planning to
execute the seemingly impossible
stunt.
I'm sure | can make the catch"
said Sweeney. THE science of the
play is to judge the ball. Once | get
my hand on the pill know can
hold on to II. shall get one of the
boys to drop the balls, and II may
take at least dozen before | shall
try to grab one. will have to gauge
the course they will take before
make tne attempt.
Danger II Attempt.
"The only danger in making such
catch Is to get under 1t properly.
II one of them comes down and hits
me on the head | guess would never
play baseball again. But have al
ways been pretty accurate in Judging
fly balls. When the ball lands In the
glove | shall have my arms extended
out straight from the shoulders, but
will let them drop with it, BY this
means will be able to break whole
lot of force.
Charley Street has told me that
the ball he caught from the Washing
ton Monument must have weighed
200 pounds when II landed In his
glove"
Street has heard of Sweeney's plan
to break his record, and says that he
may beat Big Ed to II. But Gabby
Is not at all confident that either he
or Sweeney can do 1t. Street says
when he made the catch from the
monument he thought his arms had
been taken clean out of their sockets.
Good Judge Of Balls.
81 let twelve balls go by before /
could get under one properly. Yes,
II was the thirteenth | captured.
When | had barely touched the
twelfth one ! knew | was to succeed.
My nerve came back and when the
thirteenth arrived closed In on 1t
and held 1t fairly and squarely.
II cant say very much about II,
only that the force was more terrific
than that of any ball had ever
caught in my life, either batted or
| thrown"
Well, anything a Washington man
can do New Yorker ought to go one
better And that is just the way
Sweeney feels about H. He Is such
an excellent judge of high lifts he is
pretty sure of making this wonderful
play, too.
q q q