Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
1T ELUDED THE WAITING CATCHER BY MANY FEET

the game was close. Although frankie
had overcome his tendency to dream of
pitching faue while in the field, he had
recently acquired the habit of occupying
idle moments out there by placing his
fingers in the proper position" to throw
the curve that he was trying to learn.
In the later half of the fifth inning
| Warrington vas leading, 2 to l. Waite
Roberts, who was on the mound, had
pitched a tight game for the first four
frames, but the first hitter in the fifth
sent sharp double to left This seemed
to unsettle Waite. and he walked the
next man. The third batter was Thomas,
the Vanderport third baseman, and a
consistent hitter.
frankie was playing fairly deep in
center field when Waite pitched the
first ball to Thomas. The batter con-
nected with it for hot hit over second
and the two men on the bags raced
along the paths. Frankie came in fast
for the hit, flelded it perfectly on the
second bound and threw like a fash
to catch the runner who had rounded
third and was racing for the plate.
Tom Polonis had jerked of his mask
and was waiting for one of the fielder's
perfect throws, confident that the run
would be cut of. but Frankie had I'M
consciously wrapped his fingers about
the ball in the position for throwing
the oNtcurve. His return was long and
low, but to his utter amazement 1t
broke sharply halfway to the plate and
eluded the waiting catcher by many
feet, while the runner scored and the
other two men stopped on third and
second
frankie stood spellbound. He had
lust thrown an outcurve! In his
amazement at this achievement he
hardly realized that his error had tied
the score He trotted back to his place
gazing at his fingers in awe. At last
the knack Of it had come to him!
Before he had time to recover from
his surprise. the harassed Waite had
thrown two balls to the next batter.
on the third pitch high ny was hit
between center and right. Frankie al
ways tried for such balls with runners
on the bags, by the coachs orders, for
his exceptional throwing arm often
saved runs from scoring.
He took the fly without dif1iculty end
again came his peg to the plate. This
time he realized dinnly that he must
throw straight, but again, to his utter
CONSERVATION, the ball curved sharply
outward and crossed the first base line,
finally bounding against the wall OF
thu stands. Another run was in!
Inc inning euQSQ Wlt4lOuS AuA eiASA
scoring. but Vanderport now had one
run lead. AS Frankie approached the
bench, nervously watching the coach,
that gentleman rose to meet him.
WELL" he exclaimed. Just what
happened to you? You never had two
such rotten throws in your life.
I'm sorry" said Frankie humbly.
1.-THE throws turned into outcurves.
didn't mean it."
"That's what comes of this pitching
bug YOU have" said the coach sternly
lone. more throw like that out OF you
and YOU warm the bench"
Coach Haggerty meant 1t. In the
seventh inning, with an easy throw 10
second, Frankie threw the curve again
and a runner was safe. At the enc OF
the inning a substitute took his place
in the batting lineup. ,
Frankie slumped down on the oencn,
literally dazed. Tom edged over by
him and patted him on the back,
Never mind" he said. I'VE all nave
our slurnps. But what happened9"
THAT curve" said frankie desper-
ately. 1--WE tried to throw 1t for weeks
and now I've learned and I can't throw
anything else. can't throw a Oah
straight" od
voice.
CTo b continued next Sunday)