Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-03-11
TELLS
HOW TO SLIDE IN
REcoRp-HERALD SPORTS WRITER
GETS SECRETS FROM OLD
oTTUMWA JIMMY.

Jimmy Johnston, the man after
whom the Ottumwa ball club was dub.
bed Speed Boys" was given a half
column of space in Sundays Chicago
Record-Herald to tell about hook-slld-
ing. The following story written oy
Harold Johnson under an Oakland,
CAL, date line, contains the ms ana
outs of sliding:
ANY time an athlete steals eighty
one bases In 1876 games in company
such as the Southern association lay
q little bet on said athlete. That's
what Jimmy Johnston, speckled recruit
outpost with Callahan's white sox, ala
last season while helping the Birming-
ham team copper the Dixie flag. Al
ways swift-footed young man, jim
my frankly says something more than
natural speed must be had IN order 10
carry off the base-stealing honors or
his circuit. Ability to execute the
hook-slido is one of the reasons that
attended his success last year.
81 didn't know the difference be-
tween hook-sliding and aeroplaning
when I started with the Seattle team
of the Northwestern league IN 1910,
said Jimmy. II was as fast on my feet
as any other fellows on that team ana
was willing to take as many chances
as the next one, but 1t seemed was
forever getting tagged at one sack or
another.
FINALLY, one afternoon I took a
shine to the way in which Jimmy
Adams, first baseman OF our team, slio
into the bases and decided to copy nls
style. At first found 1t simple mat
ter to hit the bag, hooking as slid on
my left hip and touching the base with
my right arm The day after exper-
mented. 4 was as sore as boil on my
left side and was quick to take advice
of an older player, who suggested that
I wear a sliding pad, made or path
toweling, on my left hip. When my
sore spots had healed determined to
learn everything about sliding, so l
made pads out OF sheepskin and soon
found myself hooking" the bases
from the right and life side as easy
as though were falling off log :
sT.ater when I went to OttumWa l
improved rapidly, and in ninety-two
games with that team In 1910 | stole
forty-six bases. Then I was shipped
back by the white sox in the spring OF
1911 to Birmingham and in that sea
son stole thirty-three bases IN eighty
four games before being sent to the
hospital as the result of being beaned
by Rube Benton, the big southpaW no"
with the Cincinnati reds.
"No one realizes more than now
much damage can be done to a young
player's career and prospects by the
bean ball" continued Johnston. i
was going great in 1911 until the day
when our team (Birmingham) was
playing Chattanooga at Chattanooga,
which, by the way, is my home town:
7 was up at bat with two strikes called
when Benton whizzed fast inshoot az
me-. and before could dodge the ball
crashed against the left side OF my
head about an inch above the ear.
II dropped like sack OF flour, ana
for ten days lowered between life anu
death. That accident happened Aug
90. 1911. and | was of no earthly use
ia the barons during the remainder OF
the season. In fact, I find myself gun
shy' every time I get into action on
dark day."
Jimmy isn't the only ball player in
his family. HIS DrOIHef Whooroi' "'A"
"Doc," Johnston, former first baseman
Of the champion New Orleans team OF
the Southern league, is now playing
the initial corner for Joe Birmingham's
Cleveland maps and is rated a fixture
at that post. James says DOC got
his nickname as the result Of a promise
made by their father to make an M. y.
out of wheeler Jimmy says ne came
within an ace of being Methodist
minister, but switched to the national
nastime at the eleventh hour.