The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-01
MATTY EXPLAINS
 HOW GIANTS GOT
 COVALSKIE'S GOAT
GIANT PITCHER GIVES INSIDE STORY OF HOW PHHLLEs' PITCHER WAS SENT TO
 MINORS.

Christy Ma.t11ewsons hhe great Giant pitcher, tells in an article in the Sporting News, how the New York club got Pitcher CoValeslzhers goat and sent him back to the minors. Nfatty says:
 Covaleshie won three games for tine Paafladelphfa. National League club from the Giants back in 1908, when one of these contests would have meant a pennant to the New York club and possibly a. worlds championship. That. was the season the fight was de- cided in a single game with the Chi cago Cubs after the regular sched- ule had been played out Cova1esl1ie was hailed as a wonder foH, his per 6or1nance.
 Just after the season closed, Edward Ashenba.ch, the scout for the, Cincin- nati club, now dead, and formerly a manager in the league where Cowa1- eskie got his start came to McGralw and laughed behind his hand
 'cMac'' he said 'T am surprised you let that bdg Pole beat you out of a scription to use every time that he starts working All yoln have to do is to initiate a snare drum. ]"
 What are you trying to do-Aid tolerably irritable over the outcome
 .eTry it, was Ashenbach's laconic reply
 The result was that the first game Covaaeskie started against the Giants the next season, there was a chorus of each of the coachers doing a rata tat-tat'' solo, for we decided, after due considerat ton, this was the way to initiate a snare drum We would have tried to initiate a Galiope if we had thought that it would have done any good against this pitcher.
 t'Pll hdre 6. fife and drum corps if the tip is worth anything" declared Mo Graw.
 s'Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-talt-tat!' came the chorus as Cova1esAde wound up to pitch the first ball It went wide of the plate.
 ssRat-a-ltat-tat! Rat4a-tat-ta -tat!'' it was repeated all through the inning. When Covaleskie walked to the Phil adelphia bench at the end of the first round, after the Giants had made three runs off him, he looked over at us and shouted:
 You think you're smart, don't yoq1?''
 ''Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!" was the only reply. But now we knew we had him. When pitcher starts to r1tated- So the deadly chorus was kept up in vol1eys until the umpire stopped us, and then it had to be in a. broken fire, but always there was a "Rat-a-tat-tati Rata tat tat!'' When Cova1eslzie looked at McGraiw coaching on third, base, the manager made as if to beat a snare drum, and as he glanced at Latham stationed at first, Arlie would reply with the 'rat- a-taf-tat.''
 The team on the bench sounded like flies, and CovalesIde got no peace. In the fourth inning, after the game had been hopelessly lost by the PhiladeI- plia club COValeslxie was taken e1l1t We did not understand the reason for it, but we all know that we had found Covalesl1ie's groove with that 'rat- beaten the New York club out of a pennant never won another game | against the Giants
 Say said GcGraw to Tacks Ash l a~ bach the next time the club was in | Cincinnati, 'tthere are two things want to ask you First, why does that 'rat-a-tat-tat' thing get under Coval- eskie's skin so badly, and second why didn't you mention it to us when he was beating the club out of a cham pionship last falI?'
 Never thought of tt,'' asserted Ash enbach. Just chanced to be telling l stories one day last winter about the | old times in the ri-State, when that | weakness of CovaIeskie's happened to | was cured.''
 ''Cured!'' echoed McGraw. s'Onay | way he could be cured of that is to | poison hira But tip me. Why is it?' l
 Well, this is the way heard it, | answered Ashenbach. 'FWhen he was | g. coal miner back in Shanokin, Pa, | fond of music. Everybody who was | any one played in the Silver Cornet | band down in MeIodeon hall on T9l1Irs- | day nights. The girl told Covaleskie | that she couldn't see him with an K | ray unless he broke into the band.
 |" But I can't play any instrument said the Pole.
 Well, get busy and learn, and l don't show around here until you have answered the girl.
 Now Covaleskie had talent for | m u5ic, so he picked out the snare | drum as his victim and started prac- ticing regularly, getting some instruc- tons from the local barrdmaster. Aft