| Show r f Y L a 4 a ar aN r N ti 0 C New N w York Tort pat PoeL Poet service B Baseballs Baseball's Tribute Brings Hope Game Will Uphold Trust Is little wonder that I I- I could not recognize the feeling 1 have not noi felt Celi that way in years So I Just stood there here and watched the strange procession winding around the Ule lie Polo Grounds On they came In barouches Ian lan daus buggies drawn by lone horse horses and by pairs Cops marched ahead arrayed in those queer old helmet helmets and long belted coats of a gash era There were ladles ladies in dresses dresse so gay that even now it seems sad sac their fate tate has been some lonesome corner in a costumers costumer's shop There Then was a band that might well have played under tinder waving torches while Manhattan whooped it up for Til Til- Tilden Tilden den and Democracy Ibele was was- was wonder of ot nil all wonders on this ver very baseball field where luck has be hayed haved so well of a late late a carrIage drawn by two white horses In the tho bo boxes near the dugout sat sa baseballs baseball's veterans DS hands gnarled by many a B foul Coul tip or hard bard spec sped grounder clasped tightly lightly in their laps Some of them hem still are in their theli prime as life Ute Is reckoned in most mos businesses ses Others were taking i belated grateful glimpse of a pa- pa parade pa redo raile that long since has passes passed them by The faces Caces of all of then them some some deep wrinkled some Cull ful had fleshed fleshed bad that hat leathery look loos which never fades Cades from those win who have spent many busy hours squint squint- squintIng squinting ing lag into a hot sun Memories of ot yellowed newspaper clippings came back as I 1 watches watched them There was Jim Mutrie a i t shrunken little littIe man with bristling white moustache Jim they say Is ninety two and so he be does not see ses much baseball now Indeed they thes also tell that the last time he be cams cam came over from Staten Island he be was so sc s puzzled by unfamiliar scenes tha that he was lost before leaving the Battery Battery Bat tery and so never reached the Polo Pole Grounds at alL But it was Jim whose eyes e es still flash as in better days dar who managed New first pennant winner in 1883 There was Arlie Arlie Latham boon boor companion of oC John McGraw I and still proudly em employed by the game he served so well Arlie came into baseball In 1872 and U rt i It was Mutrie l who brought him to New y York in 1879 1870 It 11 wn was then that he came j jy of to know Smiling I Mickey Welch who h S J I Y for Cor all that he be beI A 1 i J pitched the towns town's I McGraw first Polo Grounds game In 1883 sits sits sturdily beside him hirn McGraw v would 11 e a liked a scene like this Old time players had bad an appeal to him that I was Irresistible He ne chummed with and helped them whenever they needed it There also were men of later baseball generations Otto Knabe that once that was in the days when he he played second tor for the PhIllies fad when hen he manage managed the lament cd td Baltimore was Terrapins Terrapins was one of f the most hard bard boiled as well as asne one ne of the most capable of or players George Smith also sits serenely George as few people recall Cali now v although It has bas been a amere anere amere I mere nere thirteen years ars since ho lie left lert the he game also was an athlete with horn It nas was unsafe to take lib lib- liberties lib liberties Now a sedate school teach teach- teacher as hr-as er as Indeed he be was vas during most of if his seas seasons In la the big biff time time-he time merely chuckles when reminded of bat feud waged for years with nth J avau an an of the Cards There they sit Harry Marry Courtney probably less than forty even een now rut ut ten years ears removed from base basel l iii 11 and a rising young man in Wall Vail WallS t jc-t Jocko wields fields who starred ith pith Hh both Pirates and Giants Dan Dan- Daniy Dan ny ny iy Murphy great areat outfielder WIth the he Athletics of ot the more cd d Infield I r loose McCormick mick mick pinch hitter extraordinary of the ire Giants Ia ts They sit there watching tiny smiles miles proud and wistful upon I tightened lips On the field they are re w witching watching so sa Intently Innings are re to be pIa placed ed cd as they were sixty I years ears ago But this his da day is some some- something something thing hang else There is a silence while the bugler blows lows taps Now I know now this tooling feeling that has hasiot not come over me for tor years Sports and nd war are alike in far more things than hen ethics I Too long ago I 1 used to 10 watch thin lInes lases of or men in gray pray and bloc blue pa- pa pa parade rade ado down the streets of a tiny Mar land lanil tonn town on an afternoon late lale laten In n lay flay I I- II II I I 1 hope bope b continues to keep I Its is Memorial Memoria day trust as well v elL |
