The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-23
RING LARDNER, TIE WRITER, RELATES
 WILD PLAYER YARN

Ring I. Lardner, who has been baseball reporter. and fan in gen erals for a good many years now, is recounting his experiences in the Chicago Trib une He has called his "reminiscences, The Memoirs of Baseball Reporter" Here's how Ring gets the serial goi ng:
 Grand Rapids had 9. third base man who thought the water was created for chasing purposes only But for his Unsuitable thirst for something stronger this man would have been in a big Ieague-a star in it. too He might even have gone upss if he could have got But no; he had to have it fn~ the morning, which. as every ball player is supposed to know, is unethicaL
 He had whip of steel and a fast. ball as smoky as most pitchers. He preferred warming up with some catcher to practicing in his regular; position
 South Bend. where I first re- ported the pastime for gain. had two press tables. They were in front was a few feet from the visitors bench and the rival sheets close to the home dugout.
 John Cancels Grand Radipda team came down for a series and the third basernan proceeded to light himself
 
 By game time he was SO bad that Ganzel wouldn't allow him to play. Being near the Grand Rapids bench, heard the torrid dialogue between manager and man. GanzeI came over to me at length and asked that | print nothing about the matter Be- Ing agreeable in those days, I prom 1sed to pass the story uh
 The rival sheets reporter, how ever had no such request from Gan =. sx 1- stuff with pictures. It was in his pa- per the next afternoon.
 The afternoon after the next af- ternoon I took my place as usual and proceeded to write down the bat ting order in my massive score book T was interrupted by a sharp pain in the shin. A ball had struck me- and the ball had been thrown by the steel whip of the Grand Rapids base man He was doing his customary warm-up stunt and one of his shoots had escaped his catcher
 The catcher. Dan Howley, was standing directly in front of me, not ten feet distant
 Move over a little. will you 2,s I said T don't want to get killed made mine safe except from a ball thrown deliberately at me.
 And right away there was a ball thrown deli berately at me.
 F tucked and the ball whistled past my ear.
 What are you trying to do?" I yelled at the third saclzer.
 You HI find out if you set there long enough z he said.
 The ball had bounded back off the screen and he had recovered it. Yak ing careful aim, he shot at me again How1ey was quick enough to get his glove in front of the bail and divert Its course.
 ssCut it out. --i'' said Howley seYousH get in troubIe.''
 'I don't care if I hang" said - 'sI'Tn going to get that bird.''
 HowIey picked up tho ball and held it. The third baseman went to the bench to secure another ball Failing to find one. he grabbed a bat and let fly The missile fell short.
 Give me that ball. said to How ley.
 Howiey gave me the ball and standing up. [ threw it as hard as could at my friend. If it had hit him in a vulnerable spot 1t might have hurt him But he caught it in his bare hand and it came back neveral times as fast as it had gone 1t missed target by inches.
 Ganzel and the other Grand Rapi is players were returning to the bencn from their practice. summoned a5anze1