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Show BASEBALL STORIES TOLD By PLAYERS and MANAGERS "It has been my luck," says Clark Griffith, "to see a largo number of peeved and angry people in this old game of baseball, particularlv Kn-tlcmen Kn-tlcmen against whom I bao been I lucky enough to do some successful pitching. I still think, however, that the maddest man I ever did behold were two grand old monoliths of the Boston team Mr. William Nash and j Mr. Thomas Tucker. The occasions on which I helped the furv of these I famous warriors are still green in my j memory, and can neer forsake me. "Old Tommy Tucker was pratt . nearly on his last legs so far as big i league baseball was concerned, and I hits to him were more rccious than I rubies and diamonds, when we bumped bump-ed together one summer afternoon. It was a big game, a most important one, and 1 really had to win it. I loved Tom Tucker much, but I loved I my salarv more The battle a? a hot one, running i along on pretty even terms till near the close, when we managed 10 fret a couple on the bases and good old Joe Anson did the rest with one of those murderous hits that they don't make now, the old man not being there to soak them. That Boston bunch was never whipped till the last rmn was counted out. and the) went altfr me strong in the last death Lilly. Fir.-t thinn I know the) had the cushions populous, two dov, n and I old Tom Tucker standing grimly at the plate. I worked him into biting at two wide ones, then fed 1 It f in two more which he refused to reach after. It was coming down to cases and no mistake. "Just at this juncture I happened to remember a trick of indoor basebnll base-bnll the enormous upshot which is ! 'it on an indoor ball by swinging it underhand, with the knuckles uppermost upper-most and the ball rolling off the palm. It causes a huge upshoot ball, but It Is not practicable for outdoor ball because, at the greater pitching d'.stsnce. the ball would lo6e all its speed lK?fore it reached the platter. 'I decided to throw the ball Just once, as a desperate experiment, and I threw It. The globule Fauntered along, way low, below Tom's knee-Hnc, knee-Hnc, and he stood scoffing at it Then, jur.t as the ball came parallel with him it leaped up and whirled over the plate, while the umpire yelled 'Stril e three.' 'Old Tom Tucker laid down his bat p.nd started toward me, with evidence of much excitement on bis face, but I was alreadv on my way. and was go-ine go-ine fast That night ho came to the hi lei looking for me. and publicly announced that he Intended to slay me on sight, but I was not in. and j he never got his hands u;jon me." One on Wagner I V lien Fred Clarke left home in Kansas for West Baden this spring his ranch foreman told him to cam i the message to Huhk Wagner that tjere are now tomn black pigs on the ranch. 'ml itii that introduction introduc-tion Clarke gave an expurgated edition edi-tion of the blc Dutchman's slaughter of cne of Clarke s -little red nigs. Wagner was hunting on the Little Pir.ite ranch when he espied two red piga a few weeks old on the whore of the stream down which he was gliding glid-ing In a skiff. It was a somewhat wild part of the ranch, and Hans had never seen any pigs of that color. He did not know what they were, and believing them to be a new kind of game he fired, killing one pig, The other ran into the Btrcam, and Wagner Wag-ner beat It with an oar. and then lifted It Into the boat. He came up t" Clarke's hern with one pig held by the tail, the other alive and kicking kick-ing under his arm Ho proudh exhibited exhi-bited his catch, and it was aome minutes min-utes before Clarke could control his laughter sufficient to instruct him ut.on the habits and the urs of the particular kind of wild animal he had found. Clarke's foreman Is a big fellow standing 6 ff-et 2 Inches high, raw-boned raw-boned and typical larmer. He stood In opeu-mouthed amazement while Wagner was exhibiting the piga and when the Dutchman's hack was turned the foreman turned to Clarke and with a disgusted expression on bis face said. "And they call u3 rubee " A Southern Story The discover; by Birmingham that I it had signed a Cuban player who is darker than the law allows at least It: Dixie led Wilson Mathews to tell a little story that he picked up while no umpire In the South tlan-ti tlan-ti league. 'The JaeksomUle club of the South j Atlantic league Is lone on Cuban ball playr-rs, said Mathews "Several of them have made good with the Jays ana the management h again scouring scour-ing the island for other genors I bane a vivid recollection of one Cu b-no with Jacksonville In the sprine of 1807 This fellows hair had a .tendency to grow in matted spirals. The spirals caused a deal of comment com-ment around the circuit and the dusky ' player was then required to keep bis head shaved by the management. Not understanding much English, the honibre kept his bean clean of wool, but carefully nurtured a fledging moustache. When the spinach had attained a week's growth unnoticed on a trip of the team on the road the same spirals were prominent with their presence. Manager Dom-inick Dom-inick Mullaney, who will risk his llfe as an umpire this year between Houston. Hous-ton. Dallas and Beaumont was the, manager of the Jays that year Big Mull was wise In his day and time He shipped th I In' --headed Cubano to the peaceful vicinity of New Haven Hav-en in the Nutmeg league, where the folks don't mind that sort of stuff." Ought to Change It. In the spring of 1909 Ducky Holmes took his Sioux City ball ciub on a barnstorming trip through Kansas to season the players for the pennant race. One of his pitchers at that time was Eddie From. The Indians, or Backers, as they were called at that time, were to open the season In V. ir hlta, so they made their last stop at Hutchinson, 42 miles from the "Peerless Princess." When regi&ter-Iri regi&ter-Iri the club members, Tom Fair- weather, who was secretary then, j placed From's name on the register at the top of the list, neglecting to write his Christian name, and In the "Pier column opposite he wrote the words Sioux City, la. Following From's name were those of the other players, with ditto marks under the "Sioux City " When It came time to "fall in the 1 ha;. " that night From found that he had no bed After making Inquiry he I found that the hotel clerk had taken his name for the preposition lndicat-I lndicat-I ing that the men following it were "from Sioux City." The big pitcher finally procured a bed all right, but I not until he had roused Falrweather ' from his bed and. the latter In turn awoke the clerk, who was compelled to give up his room to make a place lor the slighted pitcher. The magazines are still printing fearful and wonderful baseball fiction One of the latest has its hero, a col-I.ian col-I.ian of the 1912 crop, stand cool "-nd unmoved at the plate, never offering of-fering to hit at a ball, till the pitcher jh.d thrown eight in succession and lben. seeing that this exertion had tired the hurler, took a wallop at the ninth one. Out of six baseball stories I I nave lately read four still made the plot hinge on the old, old gag - j the heay villain asking the hero to (sell the game ?.nd five of the six had the hero winning with s hit In the ninth Inning. Sporting News. |