Baxter Springs news., 1918-11-29


wear that mask. II there had been n
camera. each Of the forty would have
had u photo taken Of himself wearing
the "wire cage" Here was n great
dilemma. At that time ! was only n
private. and there were sergeants, cor
porals, and even an officer, who want
I'd to catch. Stewart again came to
the rescue. Calling me aside, he said :
"Lenve It to me. Emp, I'll fix 'em.
I'll try out each one In turn. Let them
wear the mask. and I'll send In some
curves, and when the ball cracks them
on the .shlns couple OF times you
couldn't pay 'em to put on the cage."
The TOmmles were strange TO curved
balls, and Stewart had speed. II did
my heart good to see him dampen their
artlOr and dent their ANTONY Mt the
same time. The Tommies would see
the ball coming to them and would
reach up their hands to get 1t. Then
the ball would ''break" and hit them
on the shin or knee. After five or six
had retired. rubbing sore spots and
cusslng Stewart out, no one else want
cd 10 catch, and the situation was
saved.
Tommy is natural born soccer
player and clever with his feet, but
stupIu with his hands when II comes
10 baseball. Several Of them had a
bad habit of stopping grounders with
their feet, especially our shortstop. He
would see hot grass-eater coming his
way, then, instead of using his hands,
he would put his foot In front Of 1t.
The ball would climb his leg and get
him on the chin or in the eye. After
receiving n pufred-up lip and a beautl-
full black eye, he fatty refused to play
unless would let him wear the mask.
Americans, picture a shOrtstOp wear
ing n catcher's mask, and then SYM
pathlze with Stewart and me. The
shOrtstop was sergeant, and through
diplomatic reasons, gave the mask
TO him. At this every infelder wanted
to wear 1t. Stewart solved the prob
lem by putting in another shortstop
and giving me the mask.
In England they have game called
'rOunders," In which you are sup
posed TO hit the baserunner with the
ball to put him out. This Is general
" a tennis ball and does not hurt very
much.
Well, those TOmmies had habit OF
lamming the baseball with all their
might at the unfortunate runner. Many
an early practice was broken up thls
way. because the team would lose in
terest in baseball when they had a
chance to view fight between q giver
and a receiver.
After about ten days practice we
had picked two pretty fair teams and
arranged for scrub game. Stewards
side won, due to his pitching.
Then, ms is usual in baseball, things
began to happen. A jinx seemed to
rest on our candidates. Every time we
had to go up the line on a working
party, one or two of the players would
get wounded or killed; in fact, being
n baseball player got to be a perfect
Jonah, and the Tommies commenced
getting superstitlOus. If one Of our
team happened to be working among
ten or twelve other company men, he
was sure to get hit. while the other fel-
lows came through without a scratch.
Stewart and also began to get fright
ened, and decided to chuck up the
whole thing before we got 1t ourselves.
Then we went further back behind
the lines. During this stay we rounded
out a passable team.
A Canadian battalion, just sent out
from England, on their way to
"Wipers." went into billets about q
mile from us. This was our chance.
Stewart went over and challenged
them to a game for the following Sun
day. The challenge was accepted.
We had a weeks time in which to
strengthen some weaknesses and TO
teach the bunch q little "inside" base
ball. Then the jinx popped up again.
On the morning of the game with
the Canadians, our cleverest infielderr
the first baseman, picked up>an old
German hand grenade and brought II
TO the billet. This man was q great
souvenir collector; always hammerlne
at -dud" shells, trying to remove the
nOse-caps.
Seeing him foollng around with the
German bomb, told him to throw II
away; that one could never trust those
things, and that.I did not want to take
any chances of losing first baseman
but being of naturally curious dlspo-
sitiOn, he refused to do so. Taking the
bomb out behind the billet, he proceed
ed to take liberties with its mechan-
Ism; result, right hand blown off and
another vacancy TO be filled Mt first
base. What we said about him would
not he fit for publication.
The game was scheduled for TWO
o'clock, and exactly at One-thlrty-flve
Mr.. Fritz plunked stray "five nine'
shell into our infeld between home
md first base, making hole big |
enough for a Timber to hide in. This |
meant picks and shOvels for all hands |
TO fill in the hole.
BY this time large crowd Of root
ers for both sides had lined themselves |