The Belding banner-news., 1920-07-21
A Line % Type

We took Aunt Maggie to the ball
game last Saturday and this is how
she explained it to a friend she met
the next day:
eyes, you know Elsie, never knew
there was so much to this game of
baseball until / saw the game yester-
day and learned the fine points and it
I it wonderful. You see, we got there
just as the man they call the empire
came out and said something nobody
could understand, but i guess they
were all afraid of him for all the
players scattered all over the whole
field. There were two teams, as they
call them, one side had red uniforms,
and the other side blue. The game
is played on a diamond, not the kind
you have in your ring, but path
shaped diamond like, and on each cor
ner is a sofa pillow. This is to al
low the players who run to rest up
when they get to them. Then there
is a man they call the pitcher. He
winds himself up like a snake and
then throws the ball before the man
that is called the catcher, because he
tries to catch the ball before the man
with the club can hit it. The man
with the club stands between the pit
cher and the catcher and is called the
knocker. My nephew who knows all
about the game said they were work
ing on an invention hereby the ball
will remain in the air until the knock,
er can hit it. The catcher wears a
mask on his face. ! surmised that
this was to keep out the mosquitoes
if the game lasted till night, but in
this | was mistaken, as my nephew
informed me that the catcher was
very hot tempered and he wears this
mask so that he wont bite the knock
ar. | couldn't understand why he
should want to do this, but my nep-
hew said that they had had some fam,
lily trouble about three generations
I ago, and the catcher was never able
to get quite over it.
/ noticed man out in the field who
wore large glove about six sizes toe
large for him. He kept jumping up
and down grabbing around in the air
with this glove and / asked my nep-
hew what in the world he acted that
way for and he said he was out there
catching flies. How he does it good
ness only knows, for / would imagine
it would be a great deal easier tc
smack them with fly swatter, OF
they could spread a few pieces OF
sticky fly paper about. The game
went on quite smoothly until one OF
the red players stole a base. It's toe
bad that somebody always has te
spoil everything and to look at his
face you would think he had had a
good bringing up and good fond par.
ents, but these days it is hard to tell
However learned later that he triec
to steal another base and was caught
/ hope they punish him severely. To.
ward the end of the game someone
said the teams were tied, but from
where sat they appeared to move
about quite freely in spite of this.
L didn't quite approve of the EN-
pire: He kept on hollering strike
but I'm glad he didn't induce the 9TH
ers to go out for we have had toe
much labor trouble as it is, and when
they carry the unions to amusements
it is going a little too far. The pitch
er for the red side had a glass arm
so my nephew said. / don't know il
he lost his own in France, but it must
have been wonderful operation
Science has advanced so lately that
nothing seems impossible any more,
The catcher on the blue side must
also have had some sort of an opera
ton for the man next to me made
some remark abo ut him having A
bonehead. Well, dear next time we
go We will call for you for I know
you will appreciate the game more
when you grasp the main points as /
have done, so long DEAR