Horseshoes | Page 4

slipped out of his hand and rolled about a yard away. Parker had plenty
o' time to get back; but, instead o' that, he starts for second. Hobby

picked up the ball and shot it down to Groh--and Groh made a square
muff.
Parker slides into the bag safe and then gets up and throws out his chest
like he'd made the greatest play ever. When the ball's throwed back to
Benton, Speed leads off about thirty foot and stands there in a trance.
Clarke signs for a pitch-out and pegs down to second to nip him. He
was caught flatfooted--that is, he would of been with a decent throw;
but Clarke's peg went pretty near to Latonia. Speed scored and strutted
over to receive our hearty congratulations. Some o' the boys was
laughin' and he thought they was laughin' with him instead of at him.
It was in the ninth, though, that he got by with one o' the worst I ever
seen. The Reds was a run behind and Marsans was on third base with
two out. Hobby, I think it was, hit one on the ground right at Speed and
he picked it up clean. The crowd all got up and started for the exits.
Marsans run toward the plate in the faint hope that the peg to first
would be wild. All of a sudden the boys on the Cincy bench begun
yellin' at him to slide, and he done so. He was way past the plate when
Speed's throw got to Archer. The bonehead had shot the ball home
instead o' to first base, thinkin' they was only one down. We was all
crazy, believin' his nut play had let 'em tie it up; but he comes tearin' in,
tellin' Archer to tag Marsans. So Jim walks over and tags the Cuban,
who was brushin' off his uniform.
"You're out!"says Klem. "You never touched the plate."
I guess Marsans knowed the umps was right because he didn't make
much of a holler. But Speed sure got a pannin' in the club-house.
"I suppose you knowed he was goin' to miss the plate!" says Hank
sarcastic as he could.
Everybody on the club roasted him, but it didn't do no good.
Well, you know what happened to me. I only got into one game with
the Cubs--one afternoon when Leach was sick. We was playin' the
Boston bunch and Tyler was workin' against us. I always had trouble

with lefthanders and this was one of his good days. I couldn't see what
he throwed up there. I got one foul durin' the afternoon's entertainment;
and the wind was blowin' a hundred-mile gale, so that the best
outfielder in the world couldn't judge a fly ball. That Boston bunch
must of hit fifty of 'em and they all come to my field.
If I caught any I've forgot about it. Couple o' days after that I got notice
o' my release to Indianapolis.
Parker kept right on all season doin' the blamnedest things you ever
heard of and gettin' by with 'em. One o' the boys told me about it later.
If they was playin' a double-header in St. Louis, with the thermometer
at 130 degrees, he'd get put out by the umps in the first innin' o' the first
game. If he started to steal the catcher'd drop the pitch or somebody'd
muff the throw. If he hit a pop fly the sun'd get in somebody's eyes. If
he took a swell third strike with the bases full the umps would call it a
ball. If he cut first base by twenty feet the umps would be readin' the
mornin' paper.
Zimmerman's leg mended, so that he was all right by June; and then
Saier got sick and they tried Speed at first base. He'd never saw the bag
before; but things kept on breakin' for him and he played it like a house
afire. The Cubs copped the pennant and Speed got in on the big dough,
besides playin' a whale of a game through the whole serious.
Speed and me both went back to Ishpeming to spend the
winter--though the Lord knows it ain't no winter resort. Our homes was
there; and besides, in my case, they was a certain girl livin' in the old
burg.
Parker, o' course, was the hero and the swell guy when we got home.
He'd been in the World's Serious and had plenty o' dough in his kick. I
come home with nothin' but my suitcase and a hard-luck story, which I
kept to myself. I hadn't even went good enough in Indianapolis to be
sure of a job there again.
That fall--last fall--an uncle o' Speed's died over in the Soo and left him
ten thousand bucks. I had