Las Vegas optic., 1913-09-26

fence just to right center, with hard
ly curve in it. That ball never
stopped until it hit something stick
ing up in Guilford Avenue, two OF
three blocks away, about 1900 feet
from the home plate, 1t was the
longest hit l have ever seen made,
and | have been twenty-four years
watching baseball at home and on the
road Chick Stahl, when the Balti-
mores we're out with the all-Ameri-
cans, hit one over the fence at Re-
creation Park, in Frisco, and broke
woman's window, but that wasn't
anything compared with Brouthers
and Jackson isn't in it at all.
The day after that hit was made
they painted sign in great, big,
white letters. 1t was just one word
Here and it marked the place
where Brouthers hit went over it.
That sign stayed on the fence until
the park was torn down and there
isn't rooter in Baltimore old
enough to remember it who doesn't
warm up every time he thinks of 1t.
If you want any evidence Of
Brouthers' hit just ask any Of the
team, and they'll tell you. The way
! remember my score card for the
day Brouthers was playing first base,
Reitz second, Jennings short, Nc
Graw third, Joe Kelly left field,
Steve Brodie center and Willie Kee-
Ter right The pitchers were Hem
ming, Mcmahon and Esper and Bill
Clark and Robby were behind the
bat. It makes me hungry just to
think Of that good old team"
S. G. Appleby, a Baltimore sport
writer, saw Brouthers do it and di-
l&tes as follows
IN yown estimate is that the ball
went thirteen hundred feet from the
plate before it stopped rolling. The
ground was five hundred feet deep
from the home plate to the fence
where it crossed over, and the ball
was about ten feet higher than the
12-foot fence when it left the grounds,
for it was a long, low, swift, flat hit
mot sky ball. Then it went two
and half city blocks, bounding and
rolling and these measure. on a city
plat more than six hundred feet.
"As saw the hit from the press
box it appeared to go on an abso-
lutte straight and rising line from
Dams bat to the point where it
crossed the fence. The curve, or
trajectory as the gunnery engineers
call it, was not observable within
the grounds at least from the high
position of the press box. The ball
seemed to describe a straight up
ward slant from bat to fence. Then
the curve toward the earth became
apparent and the leather reached lne
ground.
Two figures weres seen in the dis
tance chasing it. There were houses
on the western side of Guilford Av-
enue, but none on the eastern side to
obstruct the view. The running men
were the watchman and Herman Won
derhorst. They sped past the row of
houses, which denoted the first block
on Guilford Avenue, and kept on, in
dicating that the ball was still going.
"Well, we didn't watch the chasers
after that, for Dan Brouthers was
making the home run, the men in
the grandstand were shouting and the
bleacher crowd was sending a wild
alarm to the skies that seemed to
fill the whole universe with noise.
But it was a long hit, III right
And with all the foregoing evi-
dence it's just about a 1OO-to-1 shot
that if Jackson's long hit had been
nearly twice as long as it really was,
it would have lacked something of
taking any medals there are in fan
dom. rtbof ao So