The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-07-04
UANlU

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it; victory for the Maps and the
nag was assured.
For nine and half long innings
the contest had battled back and
forth No game in the American
league that year had been featured
with flasher fielding, greater pitch
ing or more nerve-racking tension
on the part OF the players. Spec
tators, gripping their seats most OF
the time, yelling themselves madly
hoarse the rest, hung breathlessly
on the result of every pitched and
batted ball.
Cleveland came to bat. BY the
time two men were out, there were
two on the sacks. A hit meant the
runs that meant victory and victory
meant share in the worlds series
and possibly the highest honors
which baseball has to offer.
Could there have been any great
er setting when Nap Lajoie. then
the greatest of all sluggers and idol
of the American league. came to
bat? If there could, we cannot
imagine it.
Lajoie waited. Then he picked
out good one Crash of bat on
the stands. The white pill flashed
through the pitchers box on a
straight line over second base. The
Cleveland runners started for the
plate and victory. Cleveland fans
rose in their seats and made pam
demonium a mild term.
There was a streak of Brown
clad legs speeding from short in
the direction of second. Not a root
er in that vast throng had even the
slightest idea that the fielder could
touch, let alone field the ball. There
was scoop, left-handed one, a
quick change of ball from left hand
to right without stopping the Won
derful burst of speed, toss with
out looking, and Lajote was out by
inches at first.
ROBBED OF
GAME.
The Cleveland crowd, robbed of
the game, robbed of their pennant
chance, robbed of their world 8
series, sat stunned and silent for
moment and then gave vent to one
mighty cheering ovation for Bobby
Wallace, grandest then of all short
stops.
Wallace by that play gave won
derful evidence of the honesty of
baseball. The men against whom
he was playing were all old friends
and pals. st. Louis had been put
out of the pennant hunt. The drive
by Lajoie was legitimate hit.
Bobby Wallace could have failed to
field that ball and the men he want
ed to see win the rag. If his own
team could not, would have sue
ceeded. But Wallace proved base
bali is clean by making an impos-
sfble play possible at the time OF
all times when his heart must have
told him to let the ball go by.
1t was only a few weeks ago that
the same Bobby Wallace stood on
the third base coaching line at
Sportsman's Park in st. Louis. 1t
was his twenty-second year in big
league baseball, his sixteenth in
st. Louis And as he stood there
and urged his companions on the
sacks, the great double-header
crowd cheered him whenever he
made a move. The afternoon ex-
tras just before the start of the sec
ond game had announced the pass
ing of this greatest of all fielding
shortstops, one of the cleanest men
in the game and at the time of his
going the Oldest active major league
ball player in the business.
BROUGHT ON
BY WAR.
The release Internationally of
Bobby Wallace was another of the
nathetic results of the baseball war,
conpied with poor financial and
business conditions which have
forced owners all over the land in
to q policy of retrenchment. There
Ia NO doubt but that in normal base
ball times Col. Robert L. Hedges
of the Browns would have kept his
Satsran until he could have found
= niace for him as an umpire or a
manager in a good minor league
town But the Browns were draw
INC less than an average of 1900
narsons day; rain had caused
1oany postponements and the Fed
sal league too. had cut into the re-
ceipts. Hedges could not let any
of the youngsters go. With his
team going badly he had to keep
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