Show iseff hf isS 4 ff 7 va ye 0 da X EAD PLAYS MAJOR 1161 DIAMONDS ase 0 o aj furo by JACK LELIVELT former util ty man washington team and one of the hardest hitters in the business now starring in international the worst mistake I 1 ever made was in trying to be too wise as an out fielder I 1 would have gotten away with it clean and saved a ball game but tor for the stitches on the ball and it if I 1 had it would have won instead of lost a game for washington the team as all shot to pieces and we were shifting men around and a around round to try to keep a respectable club in the field every day some one would get sick or get hurt and they chased me from infield to outfield from right to left and from first all aro ind the infield looking for some place where I 1 could play I 1 guess I 1 had bad played left field only a few times but one day N ile waiting out there I 1 hit on a scheme the stands on the old gro ads came out into left until the corner of the seats was only about six feet from the foul line and often fair balls would hit inside of third base curve out just miss the corner of the stands and disappear entirely rolling out of sight of the umpire and infielder fielder la down a hill to the fence ho no one could see alter after the ball passed that corner where it went before go ing out to play left I 1 would hunt up a CO lale of fair practice balls and plant tl oe jack Lefi lelivelt velt them along the seats on the ground tor for use in case anyone anone hit the ball down that way ale e were u ere playing de troit and I 1 ad the tigers beaten by one run late in the game when delehanty came to bat a aid id whipped a hit down just inside of third I 1 tried hard to get over to cut it off before it could pass the corner of the stands and for an instant I 1 thought it would hit the boards and angle out it just skim med past the corner and went on and I 1 went in fit pursuit I 1 ran out of sight dug one of the hidden balls out of the grass ran out and threw to third driving del back to second the ball he had hit was rolling doan toward the fence and I 1 think I 1 could have stopped him at third had I 1 gone after it I 1 felt pretty good until the pitcher got the ball and I 1 heard jennings yell at the umpire to let him look at it tl TI e umpire took the ball from the pitcher glanced at it an instant toss ed it out to the bench and motioned delehanty to go on home the only trouble was vas that somewhere we had acci acet mutated a b inch of national beag e balls to practice with and the stitches on those balls are all one color while bile on the american league balls they are red and white I 1 had thrown in a nat onal league ball and we dian didn t have a chance even to ar gi gt e the case copyright 19 9 by W G chapman chadman |