The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-03-28

sion iirrle BIT. Out Of the forty try
Ing Tor the team, twenty-eight insist
ed on being catcher. They wanted 10
wear that mask. II there had been
camera, each of the forty would have
had photo taken of himself wearing
the wire cage" Here was great
dilemma. At that time l was only a
private. and there were sergeants. cor
porals, and even an officer, who want
cd to catch. Stewart again came to
the rescue. Calling me aside, he said:
Leave 1t 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
on the shins couple of times you
couldn't pay 'em to put on the cage"
The Tommies were strange to curved
balls, and Stewart had speed. 1t did
my heart good to see him dampen their
ardor 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 1t. Then
the ball would "break" and hit them
on the shin or knee. After five or six
had retired. rubbing sore spots and
cussing Stewart out, no one else want
| ed to catch, and the situation was
saved.
player and clever with his feet. but
| stupid with his hands when 1t comes
to 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 it.
The ball would climb his leg and get
him on the chin or In the eye. After
receiving a puffed-up lip and beauti
full black eye, he fatty refused to play
unless l would let him wear the mask
Americans, picture a shortstop wear
ing a catchers mask, and then sym
pathlze with Stewart and me. The
shortstop was a sergeant, and through
diplomatic reasons, l gave the mnsl
to him. At this every inielder wanted
to wear 1t. Stewart solved the prob
lem by putting in another shortstoI
and giving me the mask.
In England they have q game called
FOUNDERS" In which you are sup
posed to hit the baserunner with tn,
ball to put him out. This is general
ly tennis ball and does not hurt yer,
much.
Well. those Tommies had habit 0
tanning the baseball with all thei
might at the unfortunate runner. Man
an early practice was broken up thi
} way because the team would lose In
terest in baseball when they had
chance to view fight between a give
, and a receiver.
After about ten days practice W
, had picked two pretty fair teams an
: arranged for scrub game. Stewart
side won. due to his pitching.
Then, as Is usual in baseball, thing
began to happen. A jinx seemed t
rest on our candidates. Every time W
party, one or two of the players woul
I get wounded or killed; in fact, bein
a baseball player got to be a perfec
Jonah, and the Tommics commence
getting superstitious. II one of OH
team happened to be working anon
ten or twelve other company men, h
was sure to get hit, while the other fe
lows came through without a scratch
Stewart and also began to get fright
ened, and decided to chuck up tn
whole thing before we got it ourselve!
Then we went further back benin
the lines. During this stay we rounde
out passable team.
A Canadian battalion, Just sent OF
from England, on their way t
'Wipers," went into billets about
mile from US. This was our chance
Stewart went over and challenge
them to game for the following SUI
day. The challenge was accepted.
I We had a weeks time in which I
4 strengthen some weaknesses and
teach the bunch little "inside" has,
ball. Then the jinx popped up again
On the morning of the game wit
+ the Canadians, our cleverest inflelde
{ the first baseman, picked up an oil
German hand grenade and brought
| to the billet. This man was q gret
? souvenir collector; always hammerin
e at ~dud" shells, trying to remove tt
, nose-caps.
. Seeing him fooling around with II
: German bomb, l told him to throw
: away; that one could never trust thos
: things, and thatI did not want to tai
any chances of losing first basemar
= but being Of naturally curious disp
r sition, he refused to do so. Taking Il
s bomb out behind the billet, he procee
4 ed to take liberties with its mecha
< ism; result, right hand blown of ar
. another vacancy to be filled at fir
B base. What we said about him wou
t not be fit for publication.
t The game was scheduled for tv
:, o'clock. and exactly at one-thirty-i'
= Mr.. Fritz plunked stray "five nin'
q shell into our infield between hon
t and first base, making a hole b
e enough for a timber to hide In. TIL