The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-09-18
A Great Moral Baseball Play.

The American Magazine has been Of
fering prizes for the best letters en-
titled, s'The Greatest Baseball Play |
Ever Saw" The prize winning stories
are published in the September number.
The following story, written by W. j.
Hampton, is the winner OF the first prize.
1t is an account Of thrilling game IN
which player was tempted to cheat,
but resisted temptation.
"The greatest baseball play ! ever saw
occurred in the autumn OF 1869, that
year when the famous Red Stockings oil
Cincinnati played every leading club
from Maine to California without losing
a game and tying once az TO ~ with
the lawmakers OF Troy, New York,
club which it had previously defeated.
Out of 81 games played, the Reds won
SO and tied one. In these games they
scored 1896 runs to 574 by their OPP
ponents, and OF these runs George
Wright. the great short-stop, made 339,
50 of them home runs.
However, to the story. ! was boy
in those days at Portsmouth, Ohio, and
we had club which had put it all over
everything in our neighborhood as the
Red Stockings had put it all over the
United States, and we were some proud
OF our record, just as the Reds were OF
theirs. Ours was good enough for the
Reds to take notice, and they came up
the river to play us after walloping
everything else in the country. We
thought they would lick us, but it was
enough to be defeated by such players,
and we were not expecting victory. But
as the game progressed we began to
think differently, and when at the ninth
inning the score stood 81 to &c. as / re-
membered in our favor, Portsmopth's
blood began to surge and every back
bone there felt the tingliug of strained
nerves The Reds showed signs too, but
not as ours were, and we could see them
getting together and passing the word.
They NAV have thought they would
have fun with Portsmouth when they
came. but they had changed their minds
now. In the ninth they got three men
on bases, but they had two men out and
Portsmouth stock was going up fast. SO
was the excitement. Then George
Wright took the stick and every Ports
mouth heart stood still. Would he, or
wouldn't hef He did, and the ball
scared heavenward, as they did in those
DAYS, and curved down to. the weeds in
the far left field. We had never thought
ball could be knocked that distance
and the weeds had been left to grow.
Our left fielder was Lutte Huddleston, a
fine player and fine fellow, and Lutte
headed for the ball, Wright in the mean
time hitting the bags all around and
bringing in three men Huddleston went
down in the weeds with the ball and
everybody thought he had it, all right.
Portsmouth broke loose in a crazy bed
lam as Lutte came up ont of the ruck
with the ball in his hand; the Red
Stockings stood stiff betwixt doubt and
fear and the umpire help up his hand
to hear from the fielder, for he alone
knew what the answer was. Ports
mouth was screaming with JOY and yell
ling il to their player who had defeated
the unconquerable Reds, the unconqaer-
ables were beginning to droop, and then
Huddleston. stood up straight and shook
his head. He had not caught the ball.
Nobody knew except himself whether he
had or not and it was up to him to lie
for victory or tell the truth for defeat.
He had the strength of character under
extraordinary circumstances, to be
square. The next Red - the bat went
ont and when Portsmouth came to the
plate the Reds got together for all they
were worth, now that they had learned
how close call they had had, and the
game closed, 40 to 81 in favor of the
Champions of the United States"