The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-06-06

Error Is Ne
May Think
the Droppe'
Powie. The star slusger catches
old Mr. Pill on the nose It sails
TAR and high to the outde1d and the.
home teams heetest gardener speeds
for it Man and ball appear to be
outdoing: each: other in a race for a
certain spot The player makes a
lunge forward. reaches up his gtoved.
hand, grabs the sphere. Then it
does a neat little twisting act; and
falls to the greensward while the
runner rounds second and slides
eventually into third, safe by inches.
It's hit.
But astheeb ball wriggles free. amid
the cheers and groans. you hear lit
tie knots of men all over the stands
In animated argument
wen. there's another. triple for
Jimk1ns.", gloats Jones to his next
door neighbor.
.Tripleg Say whacher kidding.
yourself w1thg That butter-pawed
joke out there in left oughta had it
easy. anyway he got his fingers on
ttsand they have to give him an err
TOR. Smith answers, feeling safe in.
the surety of his latest remark.
cleaned just the day before from an;
equally wise old owl in the drug
store tanning bee.
NIX. Betcher IS Jimkius gets a.
triple. Decide it by the morning.
papers. snorts Jones
And even when Jones wins his bet
the next day Smith is not at all con-
vfnced. He is only certain that the
scorer who awarded the triple is
either first cousin of the ball play
er or else belongs in the observation
ward Of the city hospital
1T HAPPENS
EVERY DAY.
If this scene is not enacted every
day in every ball park in the coun-
try then the writer knows nothing
about fans and their ways. In fact
In the last ten games I have attend
ed I have heard this argument and
the, resultant wager. either in this
exact form OF modified one,
brought up at every game
Or here's another case-
The batter drives ground hit in
the. direction Of the shortstop. The
ball goes speeding between the in-N
de1der's legs and everybody on the
sacks starts to rush for the plate
Mr.. Fan in the stands sets up
terrible. yell and recites Che history
of that short stop. his antecedents
and his present Inequalities
The next day Mr. Fan looks in
vain in the official score for an err
ror against the offending indelder
and when he sees none he froths at
the mouth; addressing unkind Ian
suage in the direction OF the official
scorer.
But it. was hit
And. peculiarly, it was hit for
the opposite OF the reason expressed
by Mr. Betting Bug in scene one
the player did not get his hands on
the ball He should have felded it.
that is true. but he never touched it
% he cannot be charged with an err
Eor
Now I'm not implying that Mr..
Average Fan does not know his
baseball. Far from tt While Iwas
considering writing. this story I
z outlined these two examples to a
fnend-a dyed-in-theswool fanatic
who has followed the. game for
years
say" he chirruped. that's pref
ty raw. Take that first example,
for instance. Don't you think I'd
know whether that was hit or an
error
HOW ONE FAN
CANE OUT.
1sassured him that.I thought, Civ
the concrete example, that he
would I also told him that the,
scene described was taken from a
very recent big league game and
then suggested that he keep score
Tor the next ten days. check up with
the official and see how near right
/ he was. He did. At the end OF the
ten days he had agreed with the of
dctal scorer in only one game. The
rest of the time ne was of from
: three. to, seven hits or errors per
rHuix.. ..sze-ss3l.s