The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1949-08-25
BEHIND
HOME PLATE
By DOUG STEWART


League All Star Team selected by
the eight managers, was amazed
to find that Hal Keller, the Owls
right fielder, was not even given hon
orable mention.
In nv book Keller is without
question one of the best outfielders
in the league, and he's got throw
ing arm that's very definitely re-
spected by every third base coach.
Batting 1928 and with an RBI rec
ord of SO, l just can't figure out how
anybody could leave him off the
starting All Star team, to say moth
ing of honorable mention, in the
Interstate League.
OF course, we all have our partic-
ular favorites, but in stating I'M
equivocably that l feel that Keller
has very definitely been sighted, 1
am not influenced by any favorit-
ism towards Hal, but simply by his
1949 record with the Owls.
think Hagerstown's Little
League All Star Team did marve-
lous job in getting as far as the
finals in the regional tourney re-
Gently held at Hammonton, N. j.
With the League in its first year
in Hagerstown, and with only four
team participating, it seems almost
impossible that those kids could go
up to the tournament and fight their
way through to the finals, playing
against other youngsters who had
much more experience. Their play
ing reflects not only credit on the
kids themselves, but also on the team
managers and coaches.
Here's hoping that Hagerstown's
Little League is here to stay and
gets bigger and bigger each year.
During the Lancaster series last
week there were three most unusual
plays.
In the first game of last Tuesday
nights double header, Glane, the
Lancaster pitcher, cut loose with
three successive wild pitches while
Hixson was at bat, scoring two runs
That is the first time in my memory
that any pitcher has had three sue
cessive wild pitches charged against
him on the same batter.
Then in the first game of last
Thursday nights double header the
Red Roses got credit for double
play that you will probably never
see again. With the infeld as slip
perry as glass after the all-day rain,
Dykes was on third, Chaser was on
second and Keller was on first. Helm
baugh was up next, and he got a
solid single to right, scoring Dykes
and Chaser, but when Keller tried
to go to third on the throw-in, he
was trapped between second and
third.
In the rundown, with everybody
slipping all over the place, Keller
finally managed to dive head first
back to second. But unfortunately
Heinbaugh by this time had reached
second himself, and he had to beat
it back to first Hampered by the
slippery going, he finally fell over
and was tagged out While this
was going on Keller started running
again, and he in turn was trapped
between third and home. Finally
he lost his footing and fell over also,
and was tagged out to complete the
double play.
The actual play went as follows:
Lancaster's centerfelder finally field
ed Heinbaugh's single to right and
the ball went from him to the short
stop, to the third baseman, to the
first baseman, to the second base
man, back to the shortstop, then
again to the third baseman, and
finally to the catcher, Heinbaugh
was actually tagged out by the
shortstop, and Keller was tagged out
by the Gather, to complete the double
play P.S. Anybody who had been
lucky enough to have movie cam
era for that play could have sold
the film to any news reel in the
country.
The third unusual play, and one
I cannot remember seeing before,
came in the second game of Thurs
day nights double header. In the
fourth inning Beres the Lancaster
pitcher, threw out all three batters
in succession-Glaser, who was first
up, Kelly who followed, and Keller
who was the third batter, all hit
easy grounders to Beres who threw
them out at first.
Hank Sauer, Chicago Cubs,