Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-12-06

4 ed on being catcher. They wanted /
( wear chat mask. II there had been
, camera. each Of the forty would hav
! had a photo taken OF himself wearin
! the "wlre cage" Here was a grea
! dilemma. At that time l was only !
, private. and there We're sergeants, cor
porais. and even an officer. who want
I'd 20 catch. Stewart again came Il
the rescue. Calling me aside, he said
Leave II TO me. Emp, I'll fix 'em
III try ont each one in turn. Let then
wear the mask. and III send In some
curves, and when the ball cracks then
on the shins a compile Of times you
couldn't pay 'em TO put on the cage
The T0mmies were strange TO curved
halls. and Stewart had speed II did
nay heart good TO see him dampen their
ar,Ior and dent their anatomy at the
same time. The Tommies would see
the ball coming TO them and would
reach up their hands TO get II. Then
the ball would "breakp and hit them
on the shin or knee. After five or six
had retired, rubbing sore spots and
eussIng Stewart out, no one else want
ed to catch, and the situation was
saved.
Tommy Is a natural born soccer
player and clever with his feet, but
stupid with his hands when 1t comes
10 baseball. Several Of them had a
bad habit Of stopping grounders with
their feet. especially our shortstop. He
would see a hot grass-eater coming his
way, then, instead of using his hands,
he would put his foot in front of 1t.
The bail would climb his leg and get
him on the chin or In the eye. After
receiving a puffed-up lip and beauti-
ful black eye, he fatty refused TO play
unless I would let him wear the mask.
Americans, picture a shortstop wear
ing catcher's mask, and then SYM
pathize with Stewart and me. The
shortstop was sergeant, and through
diplomatic reasons, gave the mask
to him. At this every inhelder 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 baserrnner with the
ball to put him out. This is general
ly tennis ball and does not hurt very
much.
Wen, those Tommes had habit of
tanning the baseball with all their
might at the unfortunate runner. Many
an carly practice was broken up this
way, because the team would lose in
terest in baseball when they had
chance to view a fight between giver
and 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. as 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 working
party. one or two of the players would
get wounded or killed; in fact. being
baseball player got to be a perfect
Jonah, and the T0mmics commenced
getting superstitious. II one of our
team happened to be working among
ten or twelve other company men, he
was sure to get hit. while the other fell
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 a
mile from us. This was our chance. |
Stewart went over and challenged |
them to q 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 little "lnsde" base
ball Then the iinx popped up again.
On the morning CT the game with
the Canadians, our cleverest infelder.
the first baseman. picked up an old
German hand grenade and brought 1t
20 the billet. This man was great
collector; always hammerlng
az ~dud" shells. trying to remove the
nose-caps.
Seeing him foeling around with the
German bomb. told him to throw it
away; that one could never trust those
things. and that I did not want to take
any chances OF losing first baseman;
bat being Of a naturally curious dispo-
sstion. ne refused to Go so. Taking the
bomb out behind the billet he proceed
ed To take liberties with its mechan-
Ism: result. right hand blown OF and
another vacancy 10 be filed at first
base. What we said about him would
not be fit for pub icatlon.
che game war scheduled for two
O'Clock. and exactly at one-thirty-five
MIR. Fritz plunked a stray 'tive nine
she'll into our field between home
and first base. l1aking a hole big
enough for timber 20 hide in. This
meant picks ard shovels for all hands
10 in In the hole.
By this time a large crowd of root