New Britain herald., 1928-05-04

Griswold, Is.. May 1.-The lead off man on the Griswold high school team isn't a man at all. The job is held just now by a girl, i Miss Alice Buckman, 16, and she has won 1t because she happens to be a better ball player than any of the five boys who competed with her for the place.
 But don't get the idea that Alice, star rightfielder. known to high school rooters as Buck" Is a hoy denish tomboy. She isn't. Of the dia- mond she is as feminine, modest and well-behaved as any school girl you could find.
 A reporter who came to Griswold to see the baseball star. found slight. demure youngster who insisted on powdering her pose before she would pose for a photograph: a girl who, when the reporter arrived. was help ing her mother with the housework. No! She Doesn't Smoke Alice gave a loud No" and stamped her foot when asked If she smoked.
 I've never smoked and I've never had any desire to-" she said. "Just because I'm on a baseball team I've not forgotten that I'm lady. and I do not think that any girl who amokes Is much of lady"
 She added that once she had been given a taste of nquor and hated it.
 Mrs. Buckman. her arm around her daughters waist, extolled her virtues as a home girl" Alice. she said, will shortly be one of the best cooks in Griswold. Right now she can bake pies and cakes fry steaks, cook the potatoes-in short, prepare an entire meai-with the best of them.
 The mother added that Alice will make someone 8 splendid wife" She is fond of housework. is neat as a pin, does most of the cooking. bak- ing, sewing and sweeping in the Buckman home. In addition she does her own ironing and washing and takes care of small garden. Alice hopes she'll be able to go to college when she finishes high school, but outside of that she asn't any particular plans. She has no ambitions to become profession al ball player.
 Dcspises Tobacco Chewing
 'In the first place, l couldn't. and the second place that's where men belong and not women," she said ''There is too much cursing and ! fighting in teams made up of older men, and despise cursing and fight ing. Most of all despise tobacco chewing, and every baseball player I have ever seen that was any good chews tobacco"
 Although Alice is by no means a toinboy, she doesn't want people to think she's typical flapper. either
 I'm not a flapper," she said. "And don't care whether the boys arc crazy about me or not. In fact. right now I feel that I never want to get married"
 I Alice began playing ball when she was a little girl. Baseball. however. wasn't her only girlhood recreation she had her dolls and dollhouses just like the other girls, and she played with them until she was tn her teens. When she tried to play ball with the high school team this year there were five boys competing for the right field job. Alice soon proved that she could bat. field and run the bases better than any of her com. petitors. There was nothing then fo, Coach Phil Morrison to do but give her the job.
 Piays Soccer and Basketball At the start she was a triflt nervous, and the crowds worried her Now. however. the cheers or jeers oi the spectators worry her not in the least. Baseball. as 1t happens. is not her only interest: she was captain of the high school, girls soccer team last fall, was stak forward on tho girls basketball team in the winter and is good tennis player. Hel 1 father. E. NJ. Buckman. rural mai carrier. says she is also good foot ball player.
 Alice likes to dance. and Is pop. ular with her classmates. She is ( good student, and is making higl marks in her studies-Englis1 literature. triEonometry. history 1 Latin. French and stenogra phy Prof. V. D. Patterson. her teacher says she has one of the keenes minds in school.