The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1946-09-05
Double Plays

Double Plays
Through Tuesday night the Owls
had completed lao double plays
SO at home and n on the road.
During the remaining six games
they will have to- make nine more
to beat the league record of l54-
made by the Owls last year.
It's good to be able to report that
the Owls have snapped out of last
weeks regrettable incident, which
conferred round the players ill-timed
and ill-advised petition to secure
either more money from the play
offs, or a special players apprecia-
ton night" and which resulted in
a few members of the team coming
up with some pretty bad baseball
This column has always backed
the Owls to the limit. In fact l
was accused by a Chicago Cubs
Scout earlier in the season, of being
too much of an Owl fan to be an
effective sports writer, And it is
because | am an ardent Owls fan
that felt so l1eenly the action of
the particularly their talking
about it outside the clubhouse. The
whole sorry business was started by
the players themselves, but worse
than that, instead of keeping it to
themselves, they talked about it on
the street, with the result that all
kinds of garbled rumors quickly cir
cuated around.
AS a matter of fact, the first in
timation l had that the boys had
presented a petition to the front
office, came from cash customer,
who stopped me on the street the
morning after the petition was pre-
sented and asked me whether 1t
was true that the Owls had threat
ened to strike unless they got more
money!
But that's all water over the dam
now and once again the fans are
seeing a scrappy, fighting ball club
a ball club that has got from Bun,
ny" Griffiths, the best job of manag
ing in the league, and a ball club
that is not only going to finish the
regular season in second place, but
is also going on to win the playoffs
In all my years as sports writer
| have tried to keep from criticising
umpires, realizing that they are
right on the play, while l am up in
the press box. But last Monday
night, in the first of the three game
Harrisburg series, l witnessed the
worst exhibition of baseball umpir
ing l have ever seen-both behind
the plate and on the bases.
The two arbiters were making
their first appearance in Hagers
town and thank goodness it was
only a one-night stand, for, much
to the relief of everyone, they were
not present for Tuesday nights
double header.
The umpireS scheduled to re
place them failed to arrive and
doc" Lightner and his son BILL
who is also a licensed umpire, were
pressed into service. Bill was be
hind the plate in both games anc
did a really swell job. The Harris
burg players (and their manager)
did a bit of squawking, but Bill
handled them like a veteran and he
really took care of Mutryn wher
that gentleman had one foot Out
of the batter'S box and tried to ge-
away with it.
When the Owls came to bat il
the sixth inning of Tuesday nights
second game CATER losing the frs
game by a score of to 81, they
were behind 10, and Bodura hac
held them to two hits-a double tt
center by Zydowsky in the SECOND
and single to left, by Bernat in the
fifth, both blows coming with tive
men out-and he hadn't walked ;
single man.
But those Owls-who so often thi
year have pulled games out of The
fire when they didn't look to have
a chinaman's chance-really wen
to town in the sixth and seventh
innings and, aided by a really su
perb job of relief pitching by Ceci
Grimes, who was supposed to havt
a sore arm-goodness knows wha
he would have done if his arm haC
been alright-came out on top of al
81 score, to remain full game vi
on Harrisburg in the ding donl
battle for second place.
The play-offs start Tuesday night
with Wilmington meeting the third
place club in Wilmington and thu
second-place club (I'm betting