Show I RUN u A v S B BY Y GEORGE HOME HAGGERTY WILLIAM t GEALEY DALEY You naturally expect that Peleg Rodney manager of o the team teama a n nine that had more than a lookin for tor forthe forthe the Corn droppers league championship would sit around idle while Josh Hap Hapgood Hapgood Hapgood good brought out shortstops and on the hated Alfalfas and Tim armless pitchers on the despised Clover dates It t style It had always been his proud boast that he led ledIn ledIn ledIn In surprising baseball stunts and others othera followed and It him more than a little when his two worst rivals scored so on him So he set out tc te beat the shortstop and the ketcher and the armless pitcher To anybody else than Peleg Rodney this would have hae ap appeared appeared appeared an impossible task It would have about seemed se med that the mine of ot baseball curiosities et was about worked out but he look at it that way wa 9 Better fish in the sea than has ever been out of it Peleg said ald after atter hearing wed had nearly furiously excited cranks to see one of our games in which the tho shortstop was a figger Nature may be all right in pro ducin ball ban ir 11 but when you add the products of mans ingenuity to natures handiwork you get a marvel that thatis is a marvel you get warranted not riot to be break down at the heel nor get out of order at every change o climate He made that fling rUng because on very ery hot days we kept the short shortstop shortstop shortstop stop in the stable for fear tear his arm would melt So Peleg schemed and schemed and when finally the result was announced I dont think any more ordinary ordinary ordinary nary little shamefaced and generally sore bunch o 0 people existed than us Alfalfas This flaring poster noster greeted us when we struck one day shortly shortt after the untimely end nd of the armless pitcher GRASSHOPPER GRIMES The Jumping Guardian of the Second Sack Has Been fleen Signed by the Enter Enterprising Enterprising Enterprising Club and Will Play Today COME ONE COME ALL To See This Lithe Limber Lepper Lepp r of the Diamond Forty Fo v Feet in the Air Spearing not Hot Liners Is His Specialty He lie Eats Home Runs He Gobbles Three He Spears Doubles and He Kills Singles COME AND SEE HIM JUMP So kind of ot distrusting were were beat at last we go out to the ball ground and theres the funny contraption around second base you ever seen Jump Yes Yee Y s he could jump but it any natural Jump like our rubber armed shortstops reach r ach was natural it was just as Peleg had said raid a combination o 0 nature an wits mostly wits Peleg had one of or his utility men out on second and just lust as we get in sight a n man at the plate knocking out flies fUes drives a long one to the left lert fielder That is it was wa meant to be a long one With the th crack o the bat whiff up in inthe Inthe inthe the air goes the second baseman on a along along along long flight sos hed get the sphere In one hand And he ho does get it and nd amid considerable consider ble applause he wafts down to the earth again and snaps the ball back to the batter Almighty crickets sings out Josh see that jump Not crickets my dear Josh says sas Peleg coming up rubbing his hands like he was glad wed come Not crickets grasshoppers Look now on Grasshopper Grimes the human perfection of Sala kingdom Wot does the poet say sayI U I Not lighter does the swallow flit Than gobbling up a hit that old Idiot disgusting We hurried to the dressing room to get away from him then came out on the tho field and got soundly trounced because none of us could get any kind of ot a drive by that human With him in the game the first base baseman baseman man and the outfielders just stood and looked on There was nothing for them to do The pitcher ud pitch up easy curves and wed wallop em but no mat matter matter matter ter where here we hit It high low up or down that Grasshopper Grimes made one o 0 them fearful leaps pounced on the skim skimming skimming skimming ming sphere and we were out before we could get started round the bases And running round the bags himself help Hed get on first and while the pitcher was winding up hed give one jump and hit second and another and make third going so high over the heads of the players that they have touched him even If they had had the ball Then when he got to third hed grasshopper it home while I was throwing tho the ball back to the pitcher and he al always always always ways beat the throw At least the tho um urn umpire umpire pire said he did I think so a cou couple couple plo of times but it diant diUnt do me rue any good goodNow goodNow goodNow Now Peleg had tried to hide from us the real formation of that Grasshopper legs by tellin us they were lastic but we quickly found t und out different A lighted cigar against his stockings when he ho bring any rubber smell but Instead It burned a hole through which I could see the glint of steel That gave Pinch Hobbs a sort o 0 base for his great brain to get on onYe We Ye cant knock em out fm tm under him says he because fastened on em Wo Wl cant spike him and put him out o 0 the game because the Je steel Well VeIl says sas Josh desperate over er l Ins ls s mg inS the game and the possibility of losing another the next day I dont car c care r how its Us done when nor who does it but re remember member and he shook hook his hie finger sos we could see he reely meant it remember he must be got rid of ot ofIn ofIn I In the face o e them explicit Orders Pinch sta stays F up all aU night thinking tut tnt dont find out much He told me hed on a bomb under Grasshopper Grimes that damage hint him personally you ou know but Just strong str enough to blow him off the grounds ground an Into the next county with his durn durr steel jumpers I also alEo d on him up with witha a rocket says Pinch but that seems ruther brutal He might not strike on his feet and ind the sight when hed break brea i into pieces or flatten out after atter a fall like that ud hurt the great national game So Im up a tree I say an but deep down in my heart h art I made mad a resolve that Id put through a little scheme of ot my own on in this gent gentIt It turned out that it was steel springs set on each foot that Grimes was earing under them long stockings Worse orse than thau that Peleg Rodney threatened to get them put on all an his men Josh Imme Immediately Immediately ered that If one man could beat nine of ot us one game with them things that nine nino of em could beat us I games or enough to put us in last place this year and part o next So he hung round blue and stayed In the hotel that afternoon Pinch Hobbs and Sam Merritt were caught out in quick order by the jumping 3 wonder whose every move was applauded by the admiring bleachers that afternoon and then I came une c up The pitcher pitched l me a drop and I landed on In it with all my force The grandstand rocked from the power I put in that swat Out over his head went that ball and gracefully hp he shot up to meet it A look hook of alarm shot over his face It was going goluS faster than he thought Both hands went swiftly up clutched that flying sphere and he come down No he kept ept right on over the fence the ball ban him along like Uke a weed On n the tail tall of a kite Everybody Every od odon on the nine starts after him hitri Hes found fund In a swamp and has to be dug dugout dugout dugout out they the dont get back to renew the game and we get got It by b default But the worst of all for them was that the springs in coming down got sunk in the swamp bog and they had to cut em emoff emoff emoff off of his feet to get him out O t Peleg Rod Rodrey Rodrey rey r er havin no pattern fit out his nine as he had said and the result was that we won the thus showing that good clean baseball and above abo all aU heavy hitting will triumph over scheming eve evey y time Copyright 1906 by George William Daley Dale |