Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-11-08
Yankee Athletes Daze
Englishman With Skill
in Throwing of Bombs

Dead-shots with the hand grenade,
American soldiers are given great
credit for bringing the Hun to terms
by their skill with this weapon, and
an English soldier visiting the Polo
grounds last fall was probably the
first to realize what Yanks might do
with this missile. He had just seen
his first baseball, Cleveland VS..
Yanks, and the accurate throwing
was a perfect shock to him.
Your ballplayers would make
first-class bombers," he confided to
his friend. "Our fellows, who go in
for cricket, cannot throw with such
skill as your American ballplayers.'
The English soldier was asked if
he cared to meet personally some of
the members of the Cleveland Amer
lean League team, for Cleveland was
playing the Yankees at the Polo
grounds that day, during the 1916
season, and won the game which
so interested the English Tommy. OF
course Tommy was delighted and
that night, accompanied by his
friend, he visited the hotel where
the Cleveland team was lodging and
was introduced to iris Speaker, Jack
Graney, Steve O'Neill and some of
the others, including Stanley Cove
leskie, the pitcher.
During a tanning bee which fol-
lowed, and after the Englishman had
told all he knew about trench war
fare, Iris Speaker, out of curiosity,
asked to see a hand grenade, and,
after holding the egg-shRped piece
of steel in his hand, remarked Il
bet l could dust off u couple of Huns
with this bird"
There followed a long discussion
about throwing hand grenades the
Engltshman informing the Cleveland
players that the free arm movement
employed in slamming a baseball
from third to first would never do in
modern warfare, because the strain
on the arm would be too great; that
the motion used by the bowler in
cricket was the real way to toss
grenades into a German trench.
Speaker and the Cleveland players
offered to bet the Englishman that
they could come nearer a given mark
If allowed to use the baseball throw
than he could by employing the mo-
tion of cricket bowler, the result
being that the Englishman was in
vited to the Polo grounds the next
day and told to be on hand before
the crowd arrived, or about the time
set for practice. He was there and
brought half a dozen hand grenades
with him.
Speaker Graney, Coveleskie and
others stood at home plate and
pegged at second base. Speaker hit
the bag on two shots, while all of
his other shots missed by inches only.
The other players did about as we'll
while the Englishman could not be-
gin to show such skill.
Instructors in hand grenade throw
ing have always laid great stress on
the stiff-arm throw, and, of course.
the average American, who has
handled baseball from his kid days
soon becomes proficient, but letters
from the front recently have con
tained significant paragraphs. infor-
NATION to the effect that In the heat
or battle the average American
soldier throws a hand grenade Just
like he throws baseball. The stiff
arm style Is entirely forgotten. Manv
German soldier has been busted
on by accurate pegging on the part
of some husky YanlS who, in his
college or sand-lot days, could slam
a baseball from deep center field to
the home plate and always hit the
mark,