Show BASEBALL above all other games has known more than its share in the way of masterpieces of eccentricity many of these I 1 happen to know they were true color because they were naturals born with oddities few could believe hube rube waddell was one of them one of the greatest of all pitchers who would rather 8 g go fishing or tend 1 bar for nothing than win a ball same game another was crazy schmidt of the old reds who carried a small notebook in his hip pocket denoting the weak spots of all opposing hitters against hans wag 0 G rice ner s name he had this one line A base on balls that s what wag ner got from schmidt phil douglas of the giants dizzy dean of the cards are around the head of the list also flint rhein babe herman bobo newsom germany schaefer shoe less joe jackson arhe arlie latham nuts wits and half halfwits wits but all great ballplayers balI players latham was one of the smartest the list is too long to go into further details but one of the leaders in this colorful field has been overlooked and forgotten his ills name is bugs s raymond the pitcher john me graw always insisted had the finest pitching motion he ever saw in eluding walter johnson who was smooth as the west wind and as or cyclonic raymond should be right around the top in this human oddity group that in eludes only stars I 1 still remember my first meeting with raymond some 43 years ago this happened to be a spring day in atlanta around the now forgotten era of 1904 crackers vs boston the atlanta crackers on that day were to play the world s champion boston americans who the fall be fore had beaten pittsburgh s great team i fit 0 n the first but still unofficial world series of 1903 this boston team managed by the brilliant jimmy collins one of the greatest infielders ers of all time was baseball s sensation big bill di neen had been a major factor in winning this series from a team that had such stars as hans wag ner fred clarke tommy leach and kitty bransfield boston long before any red sox appellation was about a 1 to 40 bet to win champions of the world playing against a strictly bush league outfit by some odd chance before starting a mile and a halt half walk to the ball park I 1 happened to be taking a drink at some wayside bar in preparation for the trip A heavy hand fell on my shoulder and as I 1 looked around there was an un kempt looking fellow around pounds who wore no necktie and hadn haan t shaved in at least two days here was the king of all the tramps I 1 d ever seen how about buying pie me a drink fellow was his opening remark I 1 bought him a drink then I 1 had to buy him another drink how do we get out to this ball parka he asked we walk I 1 said if you are going with me then a sudden morbid thought hit me isn t your name Raymond 7 9 I 1 asked yes he said bugs raymond shuts out the champs do you happen to know I 1 sug that you are pitching today against the boston americans the world champions 7 I 1 never heard of fin em raymond sa d where s boston on the walk to the ball park that afternoon bugs spent most of the trek throwing rocks at pigeons tele graph poles and any target in sight people I 1 had known in atlanta gave me an odd look after taking a brief glance at my unshaven rough and rowdy looking co compan apan ion knowing what would happen later I 1 wasn gasn t bothered about any social check up raymond started the game by in suiting jimmy dollins collins freddy par ent george lachance and every star on the boston team he would walk from the pitcher pitchers s box up to wards the plate and let them know in forcible and smoking language what he thought they all were what the boston Ameri americans th the e world s champions didn dian t know and what I 1 didn dian t know or anyone else was this they were facing one of 0 tl ti e greatest spitball spit ball pitchers and one of the greatest natural pitchers of all time it if you could only keep him one third sober which even me mc graw couldn coulden t not even with four bodyguards bod guards raymond had speed curves control plus an ed walsh but on th s particular on raymond shut out the world s champions 3 to 0 and allowed them just three scratch singles As we faintly recall the hazy details mond had 11 strikeouts even half sober mcgraw told me once raymond would have been one of the greatest |