Evening star., 1928-11-13
WAR COLLEGE ENDS
SERIES RACE TODAY.
Baseball Pennant Contest to
Be Settled by Army
"HaS-Beens." i

The glory of countless battleEslds has
faded from the memory of man. In
Vulnerable warriors have had their little
day in history and passed into oblivion
But there's one battered band OF heroes
down at the Army War College whose
deeds will not soon be forgotten
Broken fingers, injured ankles, charley
horse, sprained backS-nothing can de-
ter them in their noble crusade. For
they are in the midst of base ball
pennant race. Theirs to do and die
until the Army's little world series
(and. OH so seriously is battled to a
finish and the victors crowned.
Their average age is 45. Their aver
age casualty. one broken finger, charley
horse, blowout" or Whatnot, per-
game. And their slogan is Our UNI
pires, may they always be right: but,
right or wrong. our umpireS!" That S
why these War College mines will not
be forgotten. Theirs is a record un-
challenged in the annals of the game.
The series is at its climax now, and
nobody's even felt the urge to kill an
umpire. Besides. it's against he rules
laid down by his royal highshlp, the
Judge Lands of the league. eyes, they
nave him. too-Senators, Browns, Ath-
letics, Yankees, White SoX, Indians.
Tigers-and Judge Lands. They're all
there, loving the umpires,l
Things haven't always been thus, we
must admit Before this particular law
was writ into the books there was an
occasional tendency toward murder ana
sudden death in certain quarters as was
evidenced by the following deplorable
incident which was bv way of being the
primary cause for the judges ruling
and the inspiration of the lofty toast
to which the Army War College mines
are pledged in their titular conflict:
In brief. it happened thus: Salo
Catcher Humphrey to Chief umpire
Gillespie during the heat OF the Tray
in an early joust:
You're lovely umpire! That bird
was as far out as a certain partys
goin' TO be after election day!
Or words to that effect.
Said Umpire Gillespie with dark
significance to his remarks):
II have spoken! Cease, microbe, and
play ball'
Or similar words. All of which and
a little more unrecorded made things
bit awkward for few innings, and
resulted in decision being HANDED
down from his highship's sanctum with
the rule of rules appended.
The critical game OF the series was
to be played this afternoon, weather
permitting. with the Yanks meeting the
AS. If the Yankees win, the fights
still on: but if the AS score they cap
ture the pennant. Advance reports
from the opposing camps indicate Ger
tain victory for both teams.
The game as played by these teams
is not exactly like that seen daily at
Griffith Stadium during base ball sea-
son. A few minor changes have been
made. The outfeld is not quite SO far
out, for instance: and the baSemen are
a little more chunmy, being almost
within speaking distance of each other
Then, too, the ball is larger and a little
softer than Babe Ruth's swatting
pill. The Babe visited the War College
diamond not so long ago, by the way,
and yelled himself hoarse for his kin
dred YankS.
A number of former West Point stars
are bolstering the lineup of several of
the teams There's Johnny Herr, for
instance, who held down third base for
one year and shortStop for two more
up at the Point. And that same Kacher
Humphrey, who said mean things to an
umpire, learned to talk to 'em back
in the COS, when he played second
base for four years Douglas Paschal,
one of the youngsters on the leading
Athletics, was member of the cadet
nine when he was graduated from West
Point in 1914, while Cols. Walter S.
Fulton and Leon B. KRONER both
starred in the outfield during their
cadet days.
AS with most things, there's a reason
for these games aside from the fun
derived by the contestants. Students
and faculty of the school are required
to take a certain amount of exercise
every week, and their daily 45-minute
periods are given over to base ball dur
ing luncheon recess" Every able
bodied man in the group is on team.
In addition to this series for the
pennant, there is challenge cup series
played each Fall and Spring. in which
the one faculty nine and the six stu
dent teams have it out for a trophy
fresented by the class of 1928.