The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1924-11-14
TELEPHONE PLAYED
IMPORTANT PART IN
WORLDS SERIES
Chesapeake & Potomac officials Forced
To Anticipate Championship
BY Many Months.

Along about last June, when the
Capital City's Senators were in first
place, only few optimistic fans were
predicting with any assurance that the
fighting Mats would win the American
league championship. Long years of
last division finishes. had put damper
on the confidence of even the most
faithful Washington fans.
But Chesapeake G Potomac Tele-
phone Company officials were taking
no chances; they realized that if by
any chance the Worlds Series did
come to Washington, it would mean
unusual conditions and rapid jump
in telephone traffic. Washington had
always been a great baseball town."
and it was argued that If the Mats
did come out on top the attraction
of seeing the underdog fight his way
up would draw many thousands to the
city from all parts of the surrounding
country
So, even during the days Of Wash
| ington's Slump when it was extremely
doubtful whether or not the Mats
would finish in first place, the tele-
phone men were doggedly busy with
pen and paper. The problem was
somewhat of q difficult one, inasmuch
as there was no certainty whether
four games or seven were to be played,
and especially because most of the
traffic would be crowded 70 within
few hours each day.
The regular operating force was, of
course, not adequate to take care of
the emergency. The Telephone Com
pany decided that, under the circum.
stances, it would not pay them to
train the additional operators needed
for the Series and then release them;
so they undertook to locate the girls
who had formerly been with the Com
pany and were now occupied in the 1
business of keeping house for hubby"
or working along some similarly
strenuous line of endeavor. 1t was,
perhaps, an extraordinary tribute to
the spirit the Telephone Company de-
velops in its employees that 165 of
them expressed themselves as ready
and willing to help out, even though
many of them were in no need of the
extra money. Vacations Of many of
the regular operators were then ar
ranged so that they would come after
the close of the baseball season, and
all preparations were made to take
care of the increased business.
All this was of course done on the |
chance that the Mats would come
through with victory, and at this
time that "if" was mighty big one.
AS the race drew to close and the
Senator'S again regained the lead and |
hung on from day to day by the skin
of their teeth, interest in baseball in
the Capital City grew more and more
intense. Thousands of fans began |
calling the newspaper offices during
the times the games were in progress
and even after the games were over
the ardent rooters were eagerly clam
oring for details of the doings of the
home teams closest competitors. I
Each afternoon it was necessary to
add to the regular operating force in
order that the calls to the newspaper
offices could be handled with the usual
speed, and at the same time seeing
that the service in general did not
suffer from the increased volume of
traffic.
When at last the long-awaited series
did open in Washington thanks to
their foresight and ingenuity, the
Telephone Company was equipped to-
promptly handle all calls Even though
many were watching the game, or
posted near scoreboards and radio
sets, thousands of calls poured in all
afternoon; even when the Nationals
were playing in New York the traffic
load did not perceptibly lessen. At
the seventh game, the deciding one of
the series, interest was at fever heat.
Calls for the day arose from the
normal of 100000 to peak of nearly
100000 but of these. few were kept
waiting more than. an instant Toll
traffic, too, increased considerably, !
and after the game a few hundred
fans presumably used Long Distance ]
to tell their friends in other places
the good news. -
The Telephone Company. in addition !
to keeping up the service in Wash
ington, enabled thousands of fans in
other cities to hear the returns via
radio through their powerful station
WCAP. lecatedl at their headquarters !
in Washington.