The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-19
STAHL WAS BIG JOKE DURING HIS
 NEW YORK DAYS
BUY RED sOx MANAGER PROVED HE COULD COME BACK,
4Ry Edward L.vel1 Fox.)


 HE COULD COME BACK,
 @By Edward Iyel1 Fox.)
 Boston. Mass Oct. 19.-Ten years .&Ec a rangy. biack-haired young man, :stradEht aa a young pine, stood in the ico@cher'e box and watched the Uni- versaty of IHinois rwirs base bah .~senned 4o move him as the men he had fsd. inspired as 8 college captain cam do rose behind him. and break ak ing into a volley of unexpected hits, brought to pretty Gadesburg another trophy cf the field Only smile play ed about the corner of his 4notlth as a tore across the plate with the wInninE rum Then Shafl was gone.
 Those swarming. rioting undergrad- willing shoulders and gone forth upon & procession just such as the Caesars began could find him nowhere. Qulet, unconditional, Stafl would have none of 1t you see. Like a shadow he had stolen from the field, vanishing at the first sight of victory So did Garland '. StahI lead a team to his first cham
 The years have passed and set the atage In the vale of the. Fenway.set from the sea, that strengthening .droopinr banners sent them snapping from their poles And on all slices or the Fenway the ugly skeletons of the stands. things of wood and air-bare In rreax pieces with deserting specta tors enclose 1t from the world
 within these walls climax of men was occurring. an awful drawn strain the like of which had never seen be- fore-nct even at Indianapolis that red day in May, when men went mad be- hfnd the steering wheels and smoking racing cars from the track For the tsrprns of New York and Boston had come down to the last ditch-the last inning of the last gazne-wits the worlds series at the stake and as the gray Giants scattered to their posts in the field as the Hed-Iegged men of the huxne team came running to the duw-out naesing for the last attack, bent down among them. talking hasti-. 1x. and he was Stahl, the same quiet. unemotional Stah1 of nois-perhaps his face a little wrinkIed. his hair be- ginning to gray at theAtemples, but he was leading his team to a second championship
 of d college. for spirit. for the swell- ing ambitions of youth, now it was for money (a7rnost $3,00O more to his players if they won) Yet although tradition had gone from his life. spirit r,<,r, fi1an that a deep-laid vengeance had come into it, a desire to see. New York beaten, taken down. New York, which, when Sta1l had done his best for its Yankees, had poured abuse on his head, calling him Joke. instead of .sJake.'' and now Joke 5Stahl was about to take worlds championship from them.
 watched him as he stood there on the lines, silent. unworried-just as he had stood that day at sGaiesburg decade ago. I watched him as, turn ing to the bench, he waved Wood into shadows and sent the fair haired En- gle to bat in his stead saw the swing the loose body of him backward and, springfng forward, reHase the ball as from q catapult I heard the crash rnoantinE toward the blue heavens, saw 1t reach the crest of it's arc, hover uncertainty and begin to fail And tom of the arc was Snodgrass sure death on hit of this sort. But,- stand ing there, far afield,. his back to the bleachers. his face to the setting sun. Snodgress trembled. An unfortunate realization of this moment came to hfxn: what if he dropped the ball now catch turned into a miserable error; what if 1t did and the runner should subsequently, win worlds champion ship in the tenth inning, mean a loss of more than. a thousand dollars to each of his mates.
 Then the strain told. In trice his frayed nerves had parted; down boIted the ball, looking big and white. dim- cult to hold in a basket, let alone a 1 of him gone. Snodgrass thrust up his hands only to see the ball bounding from them. go rolling over the grass The heart of another man pulsed rap 1 idly, for Stah1 had scented victory and 1 found it red. How he waited there in a pause of uncertainty as his next man l went out you may imagine. Always he kept watching the sturdy Engle, | now leading off second; the great haps about to '1 fall: MT. Matthews ss Son Son, whose skill alone held off the triumph | that must be his. Still but one was out |
 e bresazing there was a chance that one run-enough to tie-perhaps two, then | victory would come, and. believing in his team, StahI waited
 Now. Speaker stood tapping the plate; a cool, dangerous figure-that rupt1y the confidence was justified. for something white had as11ed into right | and Engle pIoughing up the dirt and had beaten the ball in race for home | So did ff1e climax come, a stage set as by Beaasco, the red-legged forms of yerkss and Speaker ready to dart faltering in the box, the quiet Stah1 watching his every move And, now going to pieces as Snodgrass had done thinking no doubt of the $Soooo bIuuder that had been made be- hind him. Mathewson lost control the grinning Lewis trotted to first on balls haired Stah1 never changed. The bases were full, one was out-but a run | needed to win the greatest prize in base ball. and StaFI glanced curious1y at the New York bench. Not an emo- tIon of the situation had taken him. this man who the year before had re- tired from base ball only to find the games call too strong for him. Maybe he thought of that day at Ga1esburg as 7se stood there serene, cool with the stands in tumult behind him, the set
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