The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-07-25
Seeing Big League
BASEBALL
W
By BILLY EVANS
Sportswriter, Big League Umpire
and General Manager of the
Cleveland Indians

1t seems as if most of the note
worthy incidents of my first couple of
years in the American league involved
either the st. Louis, Detroit or Chi
| cago teams. Now | come to my first
and only collision with pop bottle
and it happened in st. Louis. And
what verto-be-forgotten expert
ence that was! That was the time
as the psalmists say, that l walked
through the valley of the Shadow"
Doesn't it seem odd, doesn't it seem
ironical, that of all the pop bottles
thrown at me in my career the only
one to hit me was aimed at some one
else? | can afford to laugh at it now,
but at the time it was far from funny,
it almost ended in tragedy for me. In
addition, it taught me a few things
about the frailty of human nature.
while nearly cost me my life. 1t did
result in my being sent to the hos
pital for many long and painful weeks.
1t was day later that same year
1907. Detroit and st. Louis, hot in the
pennant fight. had hooked up in one
Of those crucial" games that always
draw the crowds, and call for speciai
ground rules. The fans that day had
overlooked into the outfield and were
roped off. The rules were that any
ball hit into the crowd was to go for
a twO-base hit Any ball hit out of
the park, of course, went for home
run.
Now-and this little detail had an
important bearing on the events of
that memorable day-in the extreme
corner of the left field fence there
was a little hole through which the
concession men passed their sand
wiches and soft drinks and such.
There was a gate to the opening and
it had remained shut throughout the
game, everything would have been all
right for me that day. As it was, the
mere fact that it was left open for
while nearly cost me my life.
Late in the game. with st. Louis at
bat. Harry Howell. Browns pitcher
came up. Home runs are unusual for
pitchers to make. especially in tight
games. But Howell saw one TO his
liking, swung hard and connected.
The ball went on a line, straight for
the left field ,Hrnce. and without dew
iating an inch from its arrowlike
course, disappeared through the little
opening. l was watching that ball
like a hawk Naturally l expected to
see it land in the crowd. But l saw it
disappear, plainly enough, and when
Howell reached second and stopped
l waved him home.
And then the inevitable argument!
Immediately the Detroit players
rushed at me-Bill Coughlin. Germany
Schaefer, Davey Jones, Hughie Jen-
nings and all the rest of the team.
Jennings. of course, as manager, was
chief spokesman.
"HOme run! Are you crazy, Bill?
Don't the ground rules say that any
ball hit into the crowd goes for two
baseS?"
"Sure, what about it,"
swell, how do you get home run
out of it,"
Come on now, Hughie, you saw
that ball. Didn't it go through the
hole in the fence?"
Jennings was nothing if not honest.
Eyes, Bill, did. But it's still two
base HIT
swell, if it went through the hole in
the fence, then it was hit out of the
playing field, and as it didn't go into
the crowd, it's a home run. The ball
went out of the lot. Hughie'
"All right, but what right has that
hole got in that fence?'
At this point many of the fans, see
ing the Detroit team clustered around
me in argument, began to jeer at
Jennings and his players. Pop bot
ties began to fall on the diamond, but
we paid little attention to them.
Then Jennings, for the first time,
seemed to realize that we were in
danger, standing out on the diamond
a target for the hundreds of bottles
that were flying through the air. He
glanced around him. "We'd better
get out of this, Bill, before somebody
gets killed."
And then-"Look out, Bill" he
cried.
l. too, saw it coming, coming straight
at me-but too late. Crash! There
was a terrible racking sound in my
ears as the bottle struck. few inches
away from my temple. sudden
darling pain and the world seemed to
drift. away from me. And then-Ob-
Iivion. The bottle, l learned later.
smashed into a thousand pieces, and
Jennings, although he had ducked,
was cut badly about the face by the
flying glass.