The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-07

.SQVAS pAb1T9nC |To G.
From the Angle Of the Bug
BY HUGH w. ROBERTS

afternoon he left Tuscaloosa for Mer-.
Ger, where he was scheduled to play
a series for the championship of the
south. He carried IS men. His train
broke down before Birmingham was
reached. Insomnia assailed his play
ers. One of his pitchers developed a
sore arm. He finally arrived in Mer-
Ger 20 minutes before the game. Ala
bama was beaten that afternoon. On
the following afternoon Alabama was
beaten
As stated in the outset, Rick Wood
ward, the popular owner of the
Barons, is superstitious. 1t would serve
very little purpose were we to re-
count everything that Rick is accus-
toned to do in an effort to obviate
defeat, how sometimes in the press
box he forces every man to change
his seat with his neighbor; how, In
this instance, he forces every man to
put his hat on his head, each at a
certain angle, and how a moment
later he requires everybody to remove
hats. 1t might not prove diverting to
state that sometimes while seated on
the players bench. he makes the bat
boy line the bats up in a straight line
and how a second later he makes him
tumble them up into such an intricate
pile that the players have trouble in
selecting their own and never failing
bludgeons.
We are going to tell of just one of
the peculiarities of the magnate, his
belief in the efficacy of hair pins. 1t
is probable that no other man in the
world-unless he has come under the
seductive spell of Mr.. Woodward
has conceived the idea that hair pins
produce base hits and prevent field
ing errors.
Rick quite through accident learned
of the mystic power of hair pins. He
was walking down Third avenue one
morning of a season in which the
Barons had made an awful start He
found a hair pin. He picked 1t up
Half an hour later, without thought
it is probable. he gave the hair pin
to "Lil' Marcan. Accidentally. this
player. who had not singled in the
few games which had been played,
preserved the hair pin. That after
noon he bingled three times in a row
and sent three runners over as a re-
suit of his swatting. The Barons won,
and shortly thereafter were in the first
division, out of which they were
never elected for the remainder of
the sea son.
1t is unnecessary to state that Rick
learned the lesson. And now every
morning, he walks through town with
head lowered Occasionally he is seen
to stoop, smile brightly, and pick
up something. 1t is invariably a hair
pin. Later he gives the hair pin to
one of the players, and the man so
fortified never fails to smash the ball.
1t is all very strange and peculiar.
Rick has learned where most fire.
quently hair pins are to be found But
he never goes TO his fertile field until
all others have proved barren. He
first starts along Third avenue and
winds himself to Twentieth street
Then he turns toward First avenue
If by the time he has reached First
avenue, no success has rewarded his
efforts, he starts back again-follow-
ing the opposite side of the street. If
he still scores a failure, he immediate
ly repairs to the front of the estab-
lishment of Loveman, Joseph & Loeb,
where the fair sex, in great numbers,
are wont to parade. There he invar-
iably reaps a harvest.
Seriously. of course, Rick doesn't be-
lieve in all this stuff. But he prac-
tees his stunt, just the same He
will tell you that hair pin means a
hit, and that if he finds several. the
defeat of the Barons is ipse facto
made impossible.