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Show SEREAT PIONEER PITCHER I TRIMS CLUB OF "RINGERS" jljlred Sullivan Tells How Radbourne and Taylor i Helped Hawkeye Town Win Just Revenge. By Ted Sullivan. X, E BOUT thp 'act of tho '70s and tV rnriy ':.) il.m was a ;?rpat fife Kctk o anion? the -mailer ilirs of the Khwest. and purroundinj: nliMjW. to je in" on each otlier outside play-' play-' frnni Chicago and ot.hoi nties. two were two cities in upper Iowa " But were bitter rivals in 1j)baH, !wKamriv Decorab nnd Cresco Die huh-lyjft huh-lyjft of one of thoe. oities was to brine: Bt plarevs to their town. i;n t Il-th ""'ECbs le.znporari'v. and then bet on thcii Snb acampt tbeir rival city. Chicago OflErafl the. niarkol for tbir, mip' ol Prinnr in plavert'. " Duruie tbi-, p ' r-Mcular r-Mcular summer Deennili made a mnroh 2SKith Crr-.'o for certain Hate The Decorab manager wont to Cnv VAaeo immediareK an-1 .ei-urr.-'l five t'bi-' Ego nity players, ,-rd ;hv- them tou- May iobs in various pla'jH 1,1 1 ,,r (,,ty. Writh the pretensions of making I hem A yregular residents. Cresco was honest tt2& its intentions and pxi.eeb'il 1 JRivc 22Kittle with it- regular team, rhey rgd no idea , the tr. of tltr :-Mcr fyBtty to collect outside plan r.s to beat 1 tAt'that time the wbulr couiirv went (iAark mad in botnnc - n l-.jsoljall il Hajffind of bets were offered on liei-orali JBy those thai were on the -'inside. ntftKod knew of lb" nvn "import who Kd fake in1,- in Decorab The tfrr-at Jpjne finallv came off, and poor Cresi-n "loeht it. good aud hard on the b.lfiny Kchanec and can e near hankmpi mil: U Ame of the Cresco farmers asKTbe whole, idol was revealed after Ba came Reveugfl was planned in :: i r' Ken with Deeorah. and revenge it Nfcould be .m. I no mi -take The termors i'fiKrand Cresco and citizens of that jrJEwn said Decorab mid si iff or ''or the "jjHsatJtic V leveling man from iJHkibuone. I '1- ' f 'he ' hief vie tims. and this scheme of Deeorah was to he off'ot and he would do the whole planning. a . REVENGE be did ba doubly ami trebly. As a return match was arranged, a deep pint wh laid by this jastntp traveling man from Dubuque. , Croaco said nothing to Decorab about her counterfeit play era. hi she wa to do some "tinging in" herafcltf and a rinc that would hoard -ill over tho. state. Oa thp other hand Decorab was npf satisfied by retaininB the five original origi-nal Chicago playere, but reinforced tbeni by two mori from the prairies of that -ifv, making in total seven. ' res co. however, with the traveling brIob' man a their manager, went deep and ingeniously Into their scheme to get srjuiire with Dororah. The Dubuque team of 1870, of which tlie writer wa the organiser and man-aeer. man-aeer. was restiutr on its oars after winning the ehanrpionanip of the north, west. The Dubuque team was eonvposed of Tom Sullivan of 8t. Louis, Bad-bourne Bad-bourne Lapham, ioftus, Coniiskev the two Gleason brothers. Btlh Taylor an I Keis. The great ftad bourne was on the threshold of his grefttness. This wa the year before be joined the National league, and be ias readi for any scheme wh$Te there v. as fun and a little pay. Billy Taylor, who died some rears ag" in Florida. ws one of the most natural ball players that ever donned a uniform. lie domonst rated it afterward in Pittsburg hv pitching one dnv and patching the next Well, CUOSe two were the battery that the traveling man engaged, Rad was ever in bis element when it came to the task of making pretenders pretend-ers lav flown their bats. At that lime - he could ffiv fifty strikes to a Chicago Chi-cago City league player and he wouldn 't touch the ball. All arrangements were made for Taylor and RadboOTne to go to Grsaao on a farm near that rity and remain there until the day of the mat'-h. Thrir line of bupiuesa was to WatCh thr- ntlnr farm hari'lr. tons hay, etc.. and partuko of the cream of the farm, Those two great men of the Via 1 1 field have patted out of the flesh, but often dul the great Radbourne convulse con-vulse me with laughter, describing his life on that 1'nrm while waiting for the groat game. a RAD and Ta.lor could play a Reu ben and play it well. They were treated on that farm like kings and lord, and all (.resro wap chuckling chuck-ling to themsplvps on the card they had up their sleeves for Dacorao, Here was the position of the two citiej one week before the match. Herorah had seven (Jhicsiv players with the addition of two or three of her own. Deeorah pal watrh on 'rrs.ro to see if thej ware getting env new men, but no new faces were seen on the team while I reaco was practicing tor the great, match. Radbourne and Taylor ne er appeared with the rsco team wh:jo they were practicing noro whs an atr t Wysterj about the Pirtrr city that Dcfoiah could not. understand. Creacq held their taeroi well as this traveling man had dosed all leaks. The game waa the talh of th;u aeOtion the eotintry, nnd CreBCO took every liot thai Deoorah could muster, Men had all and ci:rv confidence in Had-botirne Had-botirne "il T.i.lor Thev knew they were robbod hy Decorab in the las! game, ami they were bailing hot to gel even Decorab h:id detectives in Creaco up to t.hc afternoon of the gaiUQ, hut no ne faces were seen. what could this meant C'reace was backing their club and never r-poke M any new players, The travejing man hud arranged for the novel appearance Of Radbourne and Taylor od the day of thp game. The great dav of the match opened up liright and iear. From early morn to noon wagons were pouring into fresco loaded with peo- ple iron) thr sttrrounding country to lee the game that was the topic pf conversation for three ueok.-. Excursions Excur-sions on the railroads came up from Decorab with peopP who were eager to bet rin their invincible team. hij-t before the game began two of I 'riincnf 't hl-'ori, 4 -.l, T-- rah made no objection wheu C'resco summoned a couple of Pig ''farmers" to lake their places. There was an immense im-mense amount, of money, and horse;?, bel on the game, and the Oreseo people said it. was an awful shame that Decorab De-corab should have Bacfc n soft thing. Finally the. Cresep mauagcr ca'led out; 'Sena down yotjl two men, Mr. Jenkins, from that, load of hay. I 'li put them in the game anyway." At this call Rad and Taylor toppled down from the load of hav, and powerful-looking powerful-looking men they were at I hat time of their life. All eyes were now riveted on them. The number of Cresm people "that were in the play" cheered and cheered Rad and Taylor. Those two men had their overalls on, but before going to the field thev divested themselves of their outward heavy shirt?. The Chicago Chi-cago players commenced to laugh as thev saw them descend from the load of ha. They might have heard of Radbourne and Tavlor, but thev never saw them. The Crescoes took the field, an. I as ' Rad " went toward the box that sullen, dogp-ed and indifferent appearance ap-pearance which was ever characteristic p him somewhat impressed the Chicago players. AS big Taylor donned the mask Partner Jenkins called out, ''Don't hurt yourselves, boys, you know we. commence threshing tomorrow," tomor-row," As Radbourne faced the first. Chicago hitter he smiled with that defiant de-fiant air which always lit up the countenances coun-tenances of two men iu their different professions. One was John Ij. Sullivan Sulli-van as he looked across the ring at his opponent, ami one was Charles Radbourne wheu he first faced a batter. You can call it hypuotism, magnetism, magnet-ism, or anv other "ism," it was there just the same. Radbourne showed it in the many years that he was in the National league. Sullivan demonstrated it. in 1 lie twelve vears he was champioD of the world. Rad opened up this game by calling out to Taylor: 'Hold up your hands, Billy! Belt high over the plate, I want to shoot three, or four balls over It ou that cigarette batter." Talk about being on the double track of the B. & O., between Baltimore and Washington, and your train standing still waiting for the cw York Lightning Express to pass, which she does with a "zip," then you'll have a faint idea how Rad sent the first hall over the plate ou this Chicago pity league batter. Red and Taylor threw all their ardor ar-dor nnd iollity into this game. This batter fanned out and glad to leave the plate, when Taylor calls out, "Come on here, yon mosquito batters from the prairie grass of hicago; I want some of the atmosphere fanned away from here." Holy Moses, their hearts failed. They knew they were up against the veal thing, where tbey camo from or i liow thev got there they knew not. Radbourne looked at them: he shot I hem high and he shot them low, with curves and bumps thai made tbeU sja-hick sja-hick while thev were at the plate. He-ret He-ret i red the side on strikes. heer upon cheer went up from all I Creaco when thev saw the doom of their bitter opponents. As Decorab went to the field Taylor made it worse liV telling them to go out now and show the people how to pick up a ball with one finger. TH V. hicago players realized now what thev were up against and it affected their entire plBying. Tavlor. j the first baiter up for Cresco. drove a ball high and dry over the wagons in center field into a small creek. The fresco players now took heart I when thev saw they had a sure thing ! on their tricky opponents and com- Qicnced to bat. The Peeorahs, who j were catching balls on their fingers be ! fore the game, were now catching them Ion their shins and bounding them out j into the field Radbourne, who was al-i al-i ways n good batter drove liners and grounders through their "lace cur- tain 1 infield, ! Everything ras going against PecQ ; rah heifer skelter. The firt inning netted Cresco seveB runs. All through Rad kept striking the Chicago crowd I OU! and Tavlor, with his kidding, kept telline them the kind of balls that were ' coming. The Deeorah crowd saw they ' were, out jobbed and outwitted and commenced to leave the field- The game finally ended up bv a score, of 22 to 0. When the game ended, the Cresco people went stark mad. They took Rad and Tavlor off the field oil their shoulders. Thev pulled Farmer Jenkins off his hay: tbey took the hay I as a souvenir hv tbo order of Jenkins and lit it lip as a bonfire by his orders to commemorate the victon Rad and j Taylor were brought inte the city and made heroes. They paid those two men and very well. They kept them up in that, country for a 'while before tbey let them go, but it settled forever any M muring in" of outside players in Hint part of tho country. |
