Baseball Freaks

Son Fouled. In the grandstand at Portland, Ore., sat seven-year-old Tommy Prothro and hundreds of others. Tommy's eyes were wide, intent, staring at the batter's box. Swinging his bat in the batter's box was "Doc" Prothro, agile third-base for Portland. Tommy, proud of Papa Prothro, knew he would hit the ball. Papa hit it. The ball, foul, glanced into the stand, struck Tommy Prothro just below the eye. Papa Prothro vaulted into the stand, carried his son to the dressing-room. Ice applications soothed Tommy. . . . The game went on.

Bird. A bird darted about in the heights above the Richmond, Va., baseball park. He dropped to a few feet above the grass and circled about. The figure in the middle of the grass twisted himself into a knot and out flew a swift, white object. The bird darted forward, saw the swift object coming for him, dodged too late, was hit by a pitched ball, died. Catcher Dayton of the Petersburg (Va.) nine caught the deflected ball. The umpire meditated, ruled the ball dead also*. . . . And the game went on. Frustration. In Manhattan, small boys made a street hideous with screams of frustration. Small "Hooley" Horrigan had hit a home-run. Small Peter Flack, outfielder, had chased the ball into an alley. Young Mr. Flack had not returned. He was traced, found coming out of the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants. He had taken the ball to a gatekeeper, pleading the unwritten law that urchins who find foul balls hit over the stands can present them at the gate, obtain admission to the game. The gatekeeper turned him back. Set upon, beaten, he returned the sphere scornfully. It was a "Lively Bounder," 25c ball.

Unique Ball. On his mantel at Lake Hopatcong, N. J., Joseph Cook, famed vaudevillian and Vanities funnyman, placed a baseball under a costly case of beveled glass. Asked by friends why he did this, he said: "It is the only baseball in the world not autographed by Babe Ruth."

* A dead ball is eliminated from the score of balls and strikes against the batter, as though unpitched.