Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-21
BLACKLISTED
More About the "Flea and Something About the Penan Race
BiggS Goes IN for the Critical Game After
11-TnninQ FidScO
BY CHARLES E. VAN LOAN
rh. world,s Most ramons wrlter Of naae

The Worlds Most Famous
Mr.. BIsgs, who tells the story. s airing a
OF tho Beiinghams. with whom he first broke
into fast company as pitcher. lie tells OF
HE first day. when Small took him out for
practice.
Small taught him a lot of real baseball. The
Beltnshams have foE rivals the IltusViiie ite
Flea" is the star player. He is 30 small
that 1t is impossible to pitch to him
One fellow like Jimmy Dougherty can
keep a ball club all stirred up and worried
something frightful. The iniielders get
nervous wondering what he's going to
do. and knowing that when he does II
they've got to handle the ball fast and
clean and make no mistakes or they'll
lose him It's one thing to pull off a
chair-lightning piece of fielding, but It's
another to do 1t when you know before
hand that you've got to. A fellow sort
OF feels responsible and worried, and
gets a crazy sort of a notion that he
wants to throw the ball before 1t gets
to him. Then. OF course, he boots one,
and there goes the old ball game.
II don't do a pitcner no good, neither,
to have pest like that loose behind him.
and II gets a catcher to grabbing. The
outielders, they get mad at the infelders
for making errors, and first thing you
know you got a lot of Missouri love
talk floating around on the bench-every-
body beeting at everybody else-and, as
the papers say, fine time is had by all
present. I'd almost rather have three
men on and a heavy hitter up than to
have Jimmy Dougherty on first base with
nobody out. There'd be less chance Of
the whole team going up in the air
behind me,
Well, now. about that trouble with Ike
Small. l wasn't forgetting it, but SOS
you get the full benefit OF what hap
pened you have to know about the Flea.
He was mixed in with 1t.
We went along to the end of the season.
about breaking even with Titusville, and
both of us kicking the stuffing out OF Mil
City and Waverly. 1 got along all right
with Ike and never had no cause to
complain Of the way he treated me-
minded my business, which was pitching
ball; and he minded his, which was play
ing first and running the club. I wouldn't
go so far as to say he was in any way
intimate off the field, because he wasn't.
Small kind OF fiocked by himself Still.
you'd never thought he would have done
me dirt like he did, the low-down, un-
grateful. ornery houndl I get hot every
time l think about how he knitted me in
the back.
Coming down TO the last two weeks of
the season. could SEQ that the close
race was beginning to get Ikes animal
O little bit. His Angora was kind of blat-
ting in a nervous sort of way. He took
to fighting umpires and hollering at US
for nothing, and things like that. I've
heard that 1t was tipped OF TO him that
n he wanted to manage the club another
year he'd better come through with a
winner. Abe Marx was the owner OF
the team. and II would have been Just
like him to say that
Bellingham is a good ball town-the
best In the league-but. like most OF the
good ball towns, II wants a winner or
II has to know why II aint got one; and
II you're beat in whisker finish, edged
out by one measly point in the percentage
table. the fans Will roar just as hard as
If you'd been beat a mile Yes, harder,
because close finish works EN- all up
and gets 'em excited. II amt right and
fair but it's so.
Ike was having his troubles because we
couldn't seem to lose that Titusville out
MT. If We hooked up with Waverly and
won four straight, they'd win four from
Mil City. II they lost a game we'd lose
one. too. ana when We came together in a
series 1t was dog-eat-dog and sick-em-
Prince for fair, and nobody getting much
advantage Ike had 10 shoulder all the
responsibility, OF course, and it was him
the fans bawled out when we lost a