The sun., 1919-07-27
HOLE IN FENCE HOME
RUNS NOW COMMON
Circuit Drives Of 0'Neill and
Rariden Recall Many Pecu-
liar Incidents Of Diamond.
FANS HIGHLY AMUSED
Most Spectacular Incident
Recorded in 18th Inning Vic
tory Of Grays in 1882.
FANS HIGHLY AMUSED
By THE vETERAN.

Within the past few weeks several In
stances have been noted Of batsmen get
ting credit for home run hits by reason
of the ball scooting through hole In the
fence, rolling through an exit or other
wise disappearing. to the dismay OF the
fielders and the delight Of the stlcker.
O'Neill Of Cleveland got n home run
the other day as a result of the ball roll
ing into a hole in the left field fence In
the Cleveland ball ground.
whoa Bill" Rariden got one Of the
strangest homers In the history OF the
game a week ago last Friday at Boston.
He drove the ball to left centre and the
spheroid bounded into a hole In the
score board.
Hal Chase Of the Giants also hit an
odd homer against the Braves on the
Polo Grounds last Thursday. Hal sent
the ball to right centre, and It rolled
through the gate I'm the bleacher fence
and disappeared. Had an opposing player
hit that ball some watchful club attend1
ant would have slammed that door quick
enough.
Instances have been known Of a dog
SELLING q ball hit far afield and running
away with 1t, and there is extant a re-
port to the effect that hard hit ball
found Judgment in an empty tomato can
that lay in the outfeld. The fielder was
resourceful and threw the tomato can
and all to the diamond, but the ball
stuck in the can and the batter got
credit for d homer.
Old Time Occurrences.
One of the most amusing instances Of
the kind occurred in Detroit In the early
days of tho game, when the catcher
came behind the bat only when there
were two strikes on the batter. Bennett
was catching and there was a runner on
third. A wild pitch got past the catch
er, and the runner started for the plate.
Bennett made a clutch as though he
had stopped the ball and then menaced
the runner with a pretended throw. Back
to third went the runner, and then Ben
nett raced to the grandstand wall and
reaching down appeared to pick UP the
ball. The coachers howled themselves
hoarse telling the runner that the ball
was lost, but Bennett kept making mo-
lions as though to throw to third, and
the runner danced back and forth for
nearly a minute before he finally real
lied that Bennett did not have the ball
The spheroid had rolled into a small
hole at the base Of the grandstand wall
Another Peculiar Incident.
The most spectacular incident took
place at Providence August IT, 1881.
wnen the Grays won a / to game In
, the eighteenth inning. John Montgom-
cry Ward was the pitcher for Providence
and Weidman and Trott the battery for
Detroit
AS was customary In those days Rad
bourne, the famous pitcher of the Provi-
dence team, played in the outfield on the
days on which he did not pitch.
! Radbourne, who was an effective
hitter as well as a great pitcher, went
to bat In the last half OF the eighteenth
and drove the ball on a line to left.
George Wood was the left fielder Of
the Wolverine team. and the ball got
past him and rolled to the part of the
field where It was customary for horses
and carriages to be parked. Wood
dashed up to the parking space and
found that the ball had nestled near the
heels of a large black horse OF vicious
mien. As Wood reached for the ball the
animal made ID terrific kick at the field
er, who backed away with alacrity.
Wood was still saying. Whoa, boyT
as Radbourne battered over the plate
with the winning run.
In the way of weird home runs, Il
only remains for some player to knock
ball into flying machine that is loop
ing the loop over n ball pasture.