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Show L "fYlEAjRS AMONG THE BUSH IMGUTf"'' NKP f"A"! I . , : 1 1 1.; 1 l n t -i h:lc a blight poling T,i.;i,i oil their payroll named ilamlil Klliott. Hi' is ;i catcher, ;1nd because of his pugnacity ,., ; .,;u';;tl fighting spirit, ho long has ,,. Known as "Kow.lv." The torm i little r ou i; l . because Harold isn't o.; 'u' 's mc'dc a fighter who i-Vi'-'lo "ill and does everything with , 1 liore v:is .some dii-kerim; ;uul I'innllv Ko,l: lsl:ind oll'ered to Lrinlo ;i n Indillii 1'lnver lliev lin, ir Klffoli. Kowdy lu-nrd ;il,oiit lliis inij promptlv s.'i vod noliee tlmt " nn or on von'r 1'le will 1 st.nnd to l.c lindrd for nn liilinn." Tluit settled nuilters in a linrrv :in,l Hie deal fell tliroiih. lonninliam drnl'ted i:ili,,il the fol-lnwin fol-lnwin I'nll, n ml from there lie went on to Hie Pneil'ie t'onst le:ine, and tlieiu-e i'V - - .y in the hounds of itoo.i sportsmanship to '.Mill; that end about. Liiiott had a )riee of jSo plaeol on :..s heaj. at oiie time in his career, hut j - VTi : whole lot more than that 't now, in these days of. lew eateh- ers of the top rank. Back in lilt's' Elliott ivas plnvine with the Kowaneo team of the reutral association. He joined the Illinois jh'.h in h'Oli. and the incident I am sneaking of took place during the win-ter win-ter of that -eear. ! Price Is Too High. The Kock Island team was she a catcher during that winter, and in an offer: to brueo up Vor 1 Si 0 1 coimmmi-c:iro.i coimmmi-c:iro.i with me recardina a good lively v.tojT b:U'ktop th.ey could get. Klliott ruavs had looked proniisiiie.to me and iiis name naturally suggested itself To a:e. o 1 wrote to Hugh Hill, president of tiu1 Kewauee v lub, asking him what ;iicy wmhl let Elliott go lor. Wo '11 take So I'or Elliott." he wired 'c:KK. Those terms I submitted to R.vk : isia'.hl, only to be told they thought ; :he sum was too lunch to pay. went, into the big langues when Chicago Chi-cago got him. Ivowdy is a most likable voting fellow nnd, in ndditiou to beiug'a good ball player, is a business man. With some of his surplus money he invested in a prune orchard in i'alifornia a short distaiue north of San Francisco. The lust time I saw him he was kidding about this .and remarked: "Hive nn' about three yours more at a nice salary and I'll lie well fixed. I '11 ha e if 'so t hat, 1 run go out. and eat breakfast off my own trees. Plenty of Alibis. The subject of alibis in the minor leagues ever has been a source of great amusement to me. About tho funniest one I ever heard pulled came up one time in Ottuniwa, lown. They have nn iron fence out. in loft 1,'iebl, or did have, that runs across the foul line and on out to the outer fence. In a game played there ono day, n highly important game, too, there was n ball hit on n line out in that direction. direc-tion. The umpire culled it. ft fair ball and that had a great deal to do with the home team's defeat. To prove it was a foul ball they hud a photograph taken of the dent, in tho fence the drive made, although 1 remember re-member very well there were dozens of similar dents nil around that particular spot! Fights the Umpires. lust the other day in St. Paul 1 ran into a real old-timer whose name will recall some good old days to the baseball base-ball fan who dates back a few years. It was Tim Flood. . famous in a good many circuits as a. great player and u epiaint character. : And, by the way, Tim is one player who has the dist auction of having mado four homo runs in one day. These wore not made off a major league pitcher, however. Tim is now located in .lop-lin, .lop-lin, Mo., the same place thnt gave him his start in baseball. Tim was playing up in the same league in Canada whore 1 had a team unit Tim at the time was just as scrappy and pugnacious as tfny player in the game. He seldom steppeil over the .proper bounds, however, but he would battle with an umpire to the limit. One dav it came about that he just stepped over the boundury and the argument, getting heated to the breaking break-ing point, he struck the umpire. Now it. so happened that such a thing is a serious offense across the border and the gendarmes Hwarmed in iminediately and took Tim away to the baslile. We hail a whale of n lime trying to sipiare it, hut there was nothing doing nud Tim was gien thirl)- days in jail. Now, that wiih a horrible situation, but I'anada. isn't like the states and there was no getting away from it. Flood had a young lawyer engaged and from day to day he dropped into the. jail to see Tim and tell him what a bad thing it, was and how justice had been perverted per-verted and how it would only be, a matter mat-ter of a eouplo of days bei'ore he got him out, of the fix, etc., etc. Licks Lawyer in Jail. This got rather tiresome to tho rough-and ready Tim, who was fretting badly under the restraint. So the next time the young lawyer called and, spun the same yarn of hopefulness about, what was fining to happen in a day or j so, Tim, exasperated beyond measure, just naturally turned to and gave the lawyer a severe trouncing. It all happened right in the jail, too, and, believe me, it didn't help Tim's case a bit! Thev got Tim out finally, but not until after ho had served his full sentence. Are Not Aviators. A. little while back I fold you a story about "Doe' Andrews, who was with r l GtT YOU Lf 1 0T Or Iffi fN j -r 1 . the White Sox for a time. Andrews and Tim Flood were great pals. The story I told on Andrews was about, how J he and tiio first baseman kept rushing up to the platoon an al I em pie, I bunt that didn't, come. Andrews finally said to the pitcher: "I'ut. il. right, over Yfi'ii I had Ihe Oltuiuva h-um v.e )osMwd a you ug ejil rlicj- named ,1 n Link, who t ;n ft mighty oud lad, lie a ii en r lies t worker buck ol' Die and let; him biinf ; !on ', you bpo we T J , 7.0 U have him Htirrounih'd " r r "t Vt Andrews was the hero nf a J'amous . JT C(Y f v remark to a new eatclier, who .was just sr Ql f -ti V i breaking into that, particular league. r T Kjr -rf- A i ndreWM w'ik tilnvimr third base and ' "" ' ' and let; him biinf ; don ', you bpo we have him HtirrouTnh'd " A ndritwH was tht. hero of a J'amous remark to a new eatclier, who .was just i breaking into 1 hat. part icnlar league. 'Andrew was dayin third l;asc and three men attempted to steal that, base during the afternoon in an effort to try out the new ralcher's win. The eatclier threw villainously hih oaeh time, and Andrews had to leap liitfli to "top the throw. After tiie third one liad come up that way and was barely bloeked down, Andre; wh, after but, and in a mild sort of n way was a pretiy ood hitter as well. lie had the knack of popping the lall just over the heads of tin; inJ'ielders and, beinn a last runner, could beat out a lot of the hIovv grounders. On tht! team at the same time wo had V:V..1,YtR an too I zfVI WOWIHt HIT? j ' :' hC- '' ' GtT? CALLtO COT , returning the ball to the pitcher, walked up to the plate and said to the catcher: "Say, young feller, they slide in this league; they don't fly!" Catcher Envies Drives. One of the oddest things I ever saw come off on the field bobbed up one dav in the season of, JOliJ. Despite the fact, that'it carried a tinge of sadness, there was a Jot of humor in the situation, situa-tion, and those of us who knew the inside in-side facts of the case got a huge laugh I out of it. tsonie craekin ood long hitters. There were .Babe Borton, Tlauk Severeid and two or three others who swatted the sphere so hard! that drives over tho feneos for the full circuit -were not at, all unusual. . j .Vow, Link always wanted to become ! a. lon hitter, but there was that some- ' thin about him that prevented this, i lie used to stand on the coachiiifx lines j and watch the other boys drive out the j ions: ones. Then he would sigh and 1 shake his head. li If I could onlv drive out one of : thorn, just one. ' he used to tell me. I "It in.r-,1, l,i: I In- -.ran.!- .t f.-i'l...' I" tin: ivnrM tu Unit nl'l .ill -:iil in-; i.vi-r. tin- fi'iii-i: off ynii r :.i i.-K. I ' - I i-nul'l jii-f in :i ! c nut- i.f tlio-'1 ih't'-'' I M In: I I'm' li.'..iiv:-l man ... 1 1." ivorM. ' lint In' - li it 't, ai.'l ahhui.li In' -ni-tii.i.vil tu I. at urui.ii'l .Ii'". ami ..'1)0 In-faili-'l i.ttvrlv tii ina!.: any Ion;.' Tui n' lu'p. Jm iai-t, u In n In: ot. a I.' liaL''i-r it was jurvlv lji"-a'i'-.' of I'i'-! Mivi'.l in l r.'i'hiny out, a Mi!ojo. All tliaf s.-a-iou In: l-.i'it on moa 11 i n aliont lii failure to f.'.-t that, oii' drive, ami oft i'ii it sr:i'ini'ij to Ji.fl Ik-. vas on tlio vito of tf-ar.s. Tlif 'an l:n'-'v about it ami iii'i) to 1 I -1 liim a littli'. wlii.li diiln 't iiufiro.!' liis fi-plin':- in tlo: fi.-a.-t. Tlmt wintiT v.i' ii,o-i"l of T.ii.i; to th" ' 'lintoii train, ami thu following spring Clinton opi'ii.-.l with n in tin- -first .lories of tin' si-ason. Un hi yory fir-.t trip to tin.' plato Link lan.li"! on a rooi'il liall. ami, Mire fiiou'h, lin hfiif it what looki'.I to La: a mile over tin: li-ft l'ii:l.l r'eino. I Link lookp.l in the prr-ato?t snrpris'1. anil our pan all juini:'l up and boan yelling wildly. Link started rather )ne-ehaiiically )ne-ehaiiically JVtf first base, at the same-time same-time never taking his. eyes off the rap- . iillv disappearing ball. '"'That's it, Joe; that's it, old hoy: , ' OulO only hit 0F ONE- ' ; . j;o to if!" my gaDg yelled at liim, al- though the hit was made against us. Link trotted down the line, still gazing gaz-ing after the ball. He missed first base by a matter of at least seven feet: in fact, never came anywhere near to touching the bag, and the umpire, not -so intent as Link was in wat.-hing the ball, saw the lapse and promptly called ' him out for cutting the base! |
