Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-27

1 ran across the line and made a
! leap into the crowd. AS | left my
| feet a big fellow, who was standing,
! swung for my jaw. lie missed the
| jaw, but the blow landed on my
! shoulder 1t was lucky assault, for
| his blow, knocked me just enough to
one side to enable me to get my hand
on the ball. Fists were swinging from
all directions as / landed, but l man
aged to throw the ball to the catcher
and double the man trying to score.
retiring the side. It all happened in
about three seconds, but it seemed
several times that long. still give
credit for that play to the man VINO
swung for me az left my feet.
Most Valuable Play.
The most valuable play / believe
ever made occurred in a game be-
tween Baltimore and New York IN
1895. 1t happened with a man on
second base and one out. The batter
was Larry Battam, young thlrd
haseman. who had been with the New
York team only few days. bat
tam hit a high line drive toward sec
ond. made a leap, managed to stao
tho ball with my bare hand ana IN
coming down touched second base.
the side. That play won the game
for us and decided the pennant for
Baltimore.
II ia strange how fate works. Had
+bat han gotten away from me 1t
would have been good for at least q
three. Dagger. It probably would have
won the game for New York. II
would have made a hero Of Larry Bat
tam a Young recruit trying to break
into the majors. I luckily caught
the ball. And Larry Battam? He
faded soon after. I have no doubt
that the play disheartened him. lie
figured the breaks were against him.
became discouraged and soon depart
ed. That is how the pendulum swings
in base ball. The public does not ever
consider why you failed at certain
tine: all the public is Interested IN Is
whether you succeeded or talled'
The busiest day l ever had was dur
ing the same season, 1895. with Dos
ton playing in Baltimore. I accept
ed q chances at short Without ar
error. No. YOU won't find that in the
record books. II was not record.
forgot to mention Intentionally. OF
course) that this was thinning
game. Incidentally. scored the win
ming run in the fifteenth. I was on
second with "Wee Willie" Keeler al
hat He singled - scored - game
over.
The best series I ever saw was
n,oved nv Baltimore in Pittsburgh
late I'm the season OF 1894. We were
on our wav to our first pennant ana
one OF the tearos we had to beat was
Pittsburgh. When we opened the
series Pittsburgh had Just as gooo
a chance to land the pennant as we
and even better. for they had a long
stretch of games at home wnlie tne
schedule called for us to play on
the road. Pittsburgh had a GOOD
team, too. and we knew we were
in for tough going.
Never have I seen another series
like this. You know you plan
great many PLAYS in base ball and
only a few of them succeed. but in
this series everything We tried went
over. We were mechanically per
feet. No matter what we tried II
succeeded. It seemed that every
time a signal was given the play
went through We worked the hit
and run. the sacrifice and the squeeze
with perfect precision and skill
have never seen so much inside base
ball executed III another series. never
so much base ball finesse. There was
more aggressiveness and more spirit
packed into that series than l have
seen before or since. Mechanically
and mentally. It seemed we could do
no wrong. We played almost i'm
possible ball.
Baltimore won four games III q
row. No team could have beaten
the kind OF play we showed In
Pittsburgh. We were SO good that