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Show j: Flagstead Rates as Great $ j;j yTTCHF.R, third sa.-ker, shortstop, out J I fielder, lumberman, steam filter, raiser y "- of game chickens and English call i ducks, and addicted to sightseeing with an JJ jmli ition to make a trip around tht world I That's Ira Flagstead. star hard-working out-yi out-yi A fielder of the Boston Itcd Sox. V J liated as one of the greatest outfielders J In the game today. Flagstead works hard J because lie knows no other way. He always J has worked hard. lie always has rried to J give his employei the best he had in him i and thats why the Boston fans remembered J him with a "Flagstead day" hist summer. J Flaggy is more than a mere center fielder J For several years he has been tanked bj - K2-i v rookie or crude gardeners at Fenway field ra Fapstead and it has been Ira's voluntary task to try to ' J ! in till in them soiut idea of how to play the outfield without wearing ! a mask and protector to avoid being hit by misjudged fiy halls. In fact. ! Boston writers often have referred to him as the "Sox Outfield." $ JJ And yet Flagstead was ever thing but an outfielder before he ! J became one of the best fly catchers in The land. There was a ball field J !! across the street from his home in his native town of Montague. Mich.. X and he was the town team's catcher at the age of sixteen. Then, he listened to Horace Oreelev's advice and went West. Be JoJ put in two years in a lumber mill In Little Rock, Wash., moved to JJ Olympia, Wash., first as a mill worker, Jien as a steam fitter. Incident- 'J ! ally, he kept on catching. Finally, at the age of twenty-four, much J later In life than the average player breaks into the pro game, he. $ X signed with the Tacoma team of the Northwestern league nni! caught X j and played third base and the outfield. A, He batted .3S1 and found bis way to Detroit, which farmed him out J J to Chattanooga after using him behind the bat in one exhibition game X pj Me hatted .381 in the Southern league also, and back to Detroit he "J X came to remain four seasons and then be sold to Boston, where he has V i.'iven his best ever since despiti discouraging conditions. X , For instance, Boston outfielders seldom shift for various batsmen X "Why is that?" retored Flagstead. "Because we have had so many X J young pitchers lacking in control. Behind a pitcher who has control j X like Sam Jones, Ulile, Pennoek. Braxton or Hoyt, an outfielder has J some idea where the ball is to lie pitched and to what field the battel X X should hit it. But when you are behind a 'young pitcher who just hopes that his offerings will be strikes, you just trust to luck you are playing X J the batter correctly." J X Oh, yes, he is one of the few ball players who does not play cards $ (J Does not even read during the baseball season as he believes it might X X affect his batting eyes. And be spends his winters fishing for salmon and trout ard raising game roosters and call ducks. Such a life, he X opines, will keep him in the majors for a few more years "J" X |