Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-28

Baseball practice has been going on fol
two weeks at Warrington High School wheI
Frankie Lum appears one afternoon AMI
for the team Prankie IS rather bu M proSt
figure in an limiting uniform. but he hal
fathers farm He has ali kinds ne Of 0s spe n
and control. but no curves. After seeins
him pitch and learning that he is a I'm,
out for outiSeld. and frankie agrees. So a. Al
though he insists that he wants to pitch
then offers to teach FRANKIE how 'u to throw er
curved ball. Warrington High School al.
ready has two good regular pitchers, all that
TNSTALLMENT II.
Prom the day that Tom made his
generous offer, noon lunches were q
very haSty affair for Frankie. AS soon
as he had eaten the sandwiches that his
mother had packed for him in the
morning, he met Tom at the door of
the school cafeteria. and they went at
once to the ball field. They could have
tossed the ball back and forth some
where else had it not been for the fact
that Tom soon discovered that some
sort Of backstop was needed if he was
not to run his legs off chasing frankie S
pitches.
For throwing curve seemed.
strangely enough, an impossible task for
the country boy. He had taught him.
self to throw by hurting rocks, and his
whole object had been to throw as hard
and IS accurately as possible. Now
when Tom showed him how to wrap his
long fingers about the base ball in a
certain way. and how to get just the
right wrist movement into the pitch,
frankie lost all Of his control. Occa-
sionally the ball found Toms mitt, but
just as often 1T went over his head or q
yard TO either side Hence q backstop
was necessity for the catcher.
Il don't know what's the matter with
that darn ball." walled Frankie one day.
as they walked back to the school after
q half hours practice. 81 just can't do
thing with it,
Wei. youu Just have to keep try
Ing" encouraged Tom. And to keep
trying was Frankie's nature. Tom was
good enough to catch him every noon.
and the would-be pitcher persisted.
But weeks went by and the results were
far from encouraging.
Tom refused to let frankie become
disheartened.
1T vii come TO you all of a sudden
some day" he said. You'll get the
knack of it ard then your have it. I
never saw a case just like yours. though.
II must be the result OF the thousands
OF dornicks you've heaTed out in the
hayfields"
Frankie grinned ruefuly. 81 guess
that's it." he admitted. I'm one of
those old dogs that you can't teach new
tricks"
Meantime the base ball season of
Warrington High School had opened
auspiciously with two victories. Coach
Haggerty rejoieed that he had found a
natural slugger in Frankie and placed
him third on the batting list. The
fourth, or cleanup position, was held by
Captain Art Belden, who was one OF
those batters who combined a real
punch with consistency. Frankie didn't
hit quite as often as Art did. but when
he connected the ball was scheduled for
long trip.
Frankie was given center field 10
guard, after he had demonstrated to
the coach that he could handle a fly
ball
That's where that throwing arm of
yours win do the most good" he said.
and he coached the boy in returning the
bah to all the bases. With his speed