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Show ICooleysox to Fight f or Flag, Despite Handicap Team Arrives Home Far Frm Discouraged and Boys All Believe They Still Have a Real Chance at Pennant ALT Lake's baseball athletes arrived home last night from Mon- tana, and instead of being a crippled and discouraged lot, they were chock full of hope and fighting spirit. Every one of the Cooleysox seems intent on either winning or proving to the home fans that it is not always the team's fault when it loses. Probably no baseball outfit has ever had a more trying trip than this one has been. It was a case of the state of Montana against the state of Utah everywhere. Montana teams when playing against one another, saved their strongest players until Salt Lake arrived. Hostile umpiring did the rest.. I Despite all this, the h'"me ttani If still within striking: distance of Missoula. Blankenshlp s apffrefratlon plays afralnst Qrcat Fells this week, and just at present pres-ent with I-Tlldebrandt and Kemnpfls ro-ing ro-ing the way they are, Great Fulls simply sim-ply oiitolassea Missoula, Manager P-fd has never heen so anxlouB to see Missoula Mis-soula win, as tlie manajteifl of the Butte and Helena teams have been. "Blub" Irby of Helena even went Into the box himself In one game with Missoula. The seemed to be no other way In which he could be absolutely certain that Missoula would win. Another reason why the boys feel hopeful hope-ful on their home pround Is that they have an honorable opponent. Nohodv Is quicker to blarney or to bluff an umpire tlxan McCloBkey, but 'Honest John" rleBplaea the arbiter who discriminates and everybody knows It. Without Intimating: Inti-mating: that the sobriquet "Honest John-' Is a misnomer, whoever christened Mc-CloFkey Mc-CloFkey would better have called him "Fighting John," for he. battles all the way through the game. Kono of the fans who were present when McCloskey walked up to the umpire and said, "Why. he has 'Salt Take' on his shirt." will ever forget the episode. It cost McCloskey $5. If Cooley had done that he would have been put In Jail or got something like that punishment. McCloskey. starting under the worst handicap of any team In the league, has built up a baseball machine as good as nr.v fn the Union association. He has Imbued his athletes with a spirit of fighting that even the Giants themselves might envy The Ogden team as It Is now constituted never quits until the last inning is played It looks like there would be some good baseball In this series. The Salt Lake players, smarting under what they feel ure was the rankest kind of discrimination discrimina-tion against them, are anxious to prove to the home fans that their playing is all right. They want to show their friends that with an even break they would have won more games. The pitchers say they have been compelled to put the ball over the center of the plate for so long that they have almost forgotten for-gotten how to cut a corner off It. In the great argument of today Stone end Perkins will constitute the batterv for Ogden. but the Stone part of It, despite the solid attributes the name Indicates, In-dicates, may be merely temporary. Nobody No-body yanks a pitcher quicker than McCloskey. Mc-Closkey. Erlckson "has been pitching a star game recently. It Is likely that ErickBon will succeed Stone long about the "lucky seventh," when the home team gets to batting. "Iron Man" Bittrolff will do the twirling twirl-ing for Salt Iake. and as he gets better the farther he goes he is not likely to be a temporary occupant of the slab. If he McCloskey in Action- is succeeded by anyone, Morgan will probably be at the head of the relief corps. Cooley has often been advised by fans to have Bittrolff pitch about five Innings before, starting In on the regular games. It often takes about that long to get him really warmed up. Buck Weaver has been under I he doctor's doc-tor's care again. The Montana trip always al-ways makes him HI, but last night Buck said he .would probably be wt. enouch to work today. There will be a double-header Wednesday, Wednes-day, which Is also "ladles' day " The extra game Is one of the rains day postponements post-ponements from last spring. Another double-header will be played Saturday. |