Show I 1 ODD ACCIDENTS ON DIAMOND I IBY BY HUGH S FULLERTON One of the remarkable things about baseball is the scarcity of accidents to players In the two major leagues alone there are ball baIl players play playing playIng ing days a year ear at least often five fie or six hours houis a day counting practice and yet if even v n one Is hurt it is her heralded heralded aided all over the country There are perhaps people in the United States who play ball baIl of f some form every day from April to the middle of October that Is one per person son Eon in every eighty handles a ball ban dur during during ing lug the day and at least estimate there here are games of ball played every everyday day in summer and the serious acci accidents a ci dents do not average to the season The number of deaths ie l e ported or that I have hae seen reported in the last ten years vears are fourteen a little over one to the year ear Broken fingers spike spik e wounds bruises from batted balls and p balls hard raps in the head Ilen 1 are aie numerous num enough but the wonder 1 is that there are not more serious injuries Juries in Blood poisoning from leg In cases where the colored stockings g are driven into the legs of the players ers is the thc most dreaded form of ot f accident not even eyen barring collis ons between play players ers eru r Jimmy Connor now flOW no laying lavinT down east was ruined for ma league corn bv by an accident nt that came near nea killing him He was at hat at when Big Pig Jack TacI Taylor bf hr Philadelphia sent UD u a 1 terrific Connor thought thou ht he lie had caught the signal for a i 1 ut stepped n and was dropped like a log Ice lo lothe the ball han ar him v in the temple The injury maJ Mm MOl timid at bat for but he got his hiG nerve back and is hitting them high hi h up Dd far away t tr r o x Fred Lake Loke and a big first bar bR man ran together on the Kan as n a 1897 while after n st J foul 1 iy Both men were going goins at too speed pe d and smashed sm their faces and bodies to together together gether ether both dropping unconscious to the ground Neither man ever Vl r fully full r re recovered recovered covered from the collision although h both T played afterward The Th strange feature o of the accident wits was w s That Lake was carried off the he field unconscious unconscious and seemingly fatally hurt the ball boll was still clutched sn i his hood hand Peculiar Baltimore Mishap Hughey Tennin s the old Hil mole star had an odd accident at Washing Washington ing ington ton once He lIe was slaving playing short arid and went tearing back of third after a tei teia a foul roul fly fl fi The field sent seats there are art low and protected in front by b 1 a 1 triple row of wires Jennings made a wild running jump after the ball just as a it was wa falling alling nto the bleachers and got ot it In one hand He had leaped in m instinctively to avoid a collision with the low fence and he went between the wires and remained suspended tl th those o kicking and struggling but still hold holding ing lug the hail ball b Beyond 1 a few cuts and scratches he lie escaped injury r f c y Perhaps the oddest odd st accident that ever happened on the ball field was on 01 the Baltimore grounds The outfield fence fn e there thero was huIlt slanting that is there t h re was an fence nee and in Inside side ido that was a platform slanting from the ground to the top of the fence at an angle of about s degrees Probably it was intended to put seats there but it was used for signs Wil ViI Willie Willie lie Keeler playing in the short right field used to run up un that fence fenee and arid catch fly balls bails man many times but one day da in a game against St Louis he I miscalculated J Jim in Clemments hit a aline aline aline line drive over to right light high over oer head and the speedy little Hale fel Id fellow fellow low dashed for the fence and started to run along it after the manner of cyclists ts riding on a sloping track go going going going ing higher and higher He saw that the ball was yas going over oer him and made madea a last despairing d effort but could not hot reach Then too late he tried to save himself and for an instant went sprinting along the very top of ot o the fence then d The crowd sat aghast for an instant then some of tlC tie players dashed for the fence but before they reached it Keeler a little disheveled climbed d UD up and slid down Into the grounds amid a roar of cheers r K Bill Dahlen came near ending hs lis baseball career in a strange way He was at third w with ith Lange at bat when Dahlen started to steal home coming at top speed as the pitcher was wt wind ing up to pitch The TIle game was against New York YorI and Roger Bre Bresnahan nahan then thena a youngster was catching Batching Dahlen relied on Lang LangA to help him and Lange did stepping backward as if to avoid the pitch just as Dahlen carom carolin caromed ed d across the plat plate in safety safet The steal cost him bun dear for Lange step ed on his leg and a shinbone cut resulted in blood poisoning which came near cost costing costing costing ing him a leg Tucker Treed red by Fans I Tom rom Tucker was the victim of an J Jodd odd accident In PIttsburg once Back of first base and just off the foul lne is isa isa isa I a gate through which spectators ai are e admitted to the field in case of great i crowds and one day a bounder rolled foul and w went ent under that fence with 1 Tucker iu in wild pursuit He tore open the gate ga te dashed down the alleyway alle way I and got the ball then started back I but the gate had swung shut and four fout or 01 five fi ardent Pittsburg rooters were holding it there Wagner Vagner who hit the bull ball was tearing toward third when wh n Tucker attempted ted to climb the gate He reached the top and then the root rooters rooters rooters ers swung the gate open ODen with Tom Torn on top and held him there the therun therun therun run was scored Even Tom laughed as s he came back up the field although bruised and scratched e r I An odd accident happened one time when the Cincinnati team was playing I an exhibition same game at Wilmington t 0 O the town which Charley Chancy Murphy recently made famous The game was L i played in the fair grounds and the back stretch of the track was I cut through a clay hill bill During the game Bug Holliday rapped lapped a long drive to right and it went over the bank and disappeared down the cut Bug Bu making a home run The next batter batten stepped up U the pitcher pitched and then there was a commotion the right fielder field r had disappeared He was found on the track trac with all the wind knocked out of him where he ran over the edge of the high bank in pur pursuit pursuit pursuit suit of hit |