The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-13
Hans Wagner Tells Of Ball Speared By Aid Of Lightning
 Flash In Spectacular Play
By HANS WAGNER


 Copyright. 1924. in United States and America by North American Newspap per Alliance for The Age-Herald. All righta
 The most spectacular catch ever seen in baseball, in my opinion, was made by Jack Murray, outfielder of the Giants, at game in Pittsburg. This is probably the only play ever made that was aided by a flash of lightning.
 As some of you may know. heavy rain clouds and the smoke from the various, industrial plants and fac tories occasionally make it dark in Pittsburg long before the hour of sunset. On those days the ball games are very gloomy affairs. I have known of a game being called on ac- count of darkness long before o'clock.
 On this particular day the Giants and Pirates were in . tie in hard fought game. Finally the Giants go: lead just as it grew so dark that 1t was almost impossible to see the outfielders. A dark. black cloud came up and behind 1t we knew 8 storm was coming. We tried to hur- ry the game along as we had men on bases and chance to win.
 While the batter was waiting on the pitcher lightning flashes showed through the cloud, followed by heavy thunder. and the crowd in the bleachers started for shelter.
 The storm burst just as the bat sQuarely on the nose. Everybody could hear the crack but in the growing darkness we could not see the ball. In fact we could barely make out the form of the outfielder. Just at that moment: though, there was a great flash of lightning. It lighted up the. field as flash at saw Jack Murray going for the ball He also saw the ball by the flash and with 8 leap reached 1t. From where we sat it was plain to see that he had speared the ball but in a fraction of a second the whole same Murray came dashing in with the ball and the umpire called the batter out.
 That catch made by the aid of a flash of lightning had put our side out and won the game. There was no question about the catch being fair.
 In all my experience that was the most spectacular finish to a ball game that I ever hope to see.
 outsield Lost In Mist.
 Ihere nave DeeH SeNeIdl Ouu CdSes like that but none so exciting as Murrays catch. In Chicago only a wear ago mist blew in over the field from the lake and was so thick that the outfielders could not be seen. The Giants and Cubs were playing. McGraw has told me that that was the only game he ever took part In when he couldn't see his out fielders sometimes for two innings The game having started under those conditions the umpires refused to stop. Pep Young tells me that he was in right field when he heard a ball whistling by his ear. A few the first bounce and he tried to mako 1t appear that he had caught 1t on the fly, Luckily for the Cubs one of the umpires ran through the fog after the ball and claims he saw Young trap 1t. Young never denied
 In one game out at Exposition Park. the old Pittsburg grounds which backed up on the river, Clar- ence Beaumont was playing center field. He backed up so far that he was knee deep In water in attempt ing to catch a fly. He made the ,afch for the last out but in doing so stumbled \and fell, going com pietely out of sight beneath the In A game between Louisville and Cleveland Dummy Hoy was the vic- tim of the funniest accident l think ever saw. He had backed up as far as he could go when he tripped and fell, the ball coming down and hitting him squarely on the head as he lay on the gorund.
 Looks like we'll have to give our outfielders masks from now on or they'll get their brains knocked out, Fred Clarke remarked when the laugh had died down.
 Jake Beckley, a very tricky player in the old days, got caught at one of his own tricks one day in a way that gave us all a big laugh. Jake had a way of hiding the ball under his arm at first base so as to catch the runner when he wandered off. |. A Play That Didn't Come off.
 The batter this day had got A two- base hit and was on second. Beckley took the ball from the outfield and promptly hid it under his arm. He gave the pitcher the sign to go ahead and pretend to pitch.
 With everything set the runner made a break to go from second to third sooner than Jake had expected There was a great lot of yelling and laughter from Jake's teammates but something happened and he couldn't get the ball out from under his arm until the runner was perched