White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-05-30
WHITE BLUFFS DROPS
GAME TO KENNEW|Ck

| Almost anything can happen in a
ball game. And the fact that it can,
and often does, is what keeps the fans
interested and makes it ball game.
Sometimes an ordinarily steady and
reliable player will have an off day:
a day when the breaks are all wrong
and he does not seem able to get going
right Sometimes more than one player
on the same club is so affected-sort
of an epidemic, as it were-and when
that happens, well it is usually just too
bad for that club.
That explanation, in general way,
accounts for White Bluffs loss of the
game last Sunday to Kennewick on the
White Bluffs grounds. The club had
one bad inning when the visitors scored
S of their eight runs. During this wild
inning the locals committed about all
of the misplays in the book. Wild
throws were mixed up with costly fun
bles and it seemed that every play that
was made was the wrong one. Once
up in the air, the players seemed to
have difficulty in getting back to earth.
Outside of that one bad inning the
White Bluffs club played fairly good
game. although not up to their ordin-
ary form.
Both clubs started out on even terms
by scoring run each in the first in
ming. They battled along on fairly
even terms until the fourth inning when
the home team took its balloon ride.
When the seventh inning opened, the
locals were trailing to and their
cause seemed hopeless. But they sud-
denly came to life and by some timely
hitting mixed up with Kennewick err
rors during the last two innings they
made it a neck and neck race again.
The heartbreaking play of the game
came in the last half of the ninth.
The locals had run their score up to
to Kennewick's and had runner
on third and another on first with one
out. Swede Cords at bat, hit a
grounder down the third base line.
The spectators and White Bluffs play
els in position to see as we'll as some
of the Kennewick players said the ball
was fair by at least foot, but the Ken
newick umpire called it foul and stuck
to his decision in spite of loud and vo-
ciferous protests on the part of the
White Bluffs contingent. Swede even
tually struck out and the next batter
was also retired, leaving the score at
8 to 7 in Kennewick's favor.
Had the umpire called Swede's hit
safe, the runner on third would have
come in, tying the score, and the
runner on first would have
advanced to second and possibly third
and Swede would have been on first
with only one out. But this dealing in
"ifs" is rather profitless and contributes
nothing to the general good of the
order except to provide some interest
ing speculation on what could have
happened. You remember the line in
that old poem, 1T might have been"
The largest crowd by far of the sea-
son was on hand to witness the contest.
The game was somewhat marred for
them by the constant wrangling with
the umpires. Warter, Kennewick pit
cher, was particularly irritable, protest
ing every close play and as the game
progressed his irritableness seemed to
spread to the other players. In the
last inning the Kennewick players be-
came so incensed at two close decisions
that went against them that they threat
ened to leave the game. After con-
siderable argument, Real went in as
umpire to replace Miller.
Hanford stepped into undisputed
possession of third place in the league
standing by winning from Benton City
on the latter's grounds by IL to 10
score.
Next Sunday Hanford plays at
White Bluffs, and Benton City at Ken
newick