Only the official scorer’s records showing the standing of the
candidates were considered, but it was generally the fellow who had the
best record for any given position who got the chance to pull off the
thrilling plays, because only the good players can do the wonderful
things.
When the talk turned to fielders who had been famous on some of the old
Lowell teams, it wasn’t long before they were telling stories about
great catches made by some of the fielders on championship teams of
years gone by.
On such occasions Fred Larke never forgot to tell about that great
catch made by Jimmy Ryan. How he in one game jumped clear over the
fence in right field which separated the bleachers from the playing
field, and caught a fly ball while falling into the crowd.
Johnny Everson then had to tell his story of Hughie Jenkins’ greatest
catch, when he was playing short in one of the Biltmore College games.
There was an enormous crowd out. The stands wouldn’t hold them all, so
they were let out on the field and there were so many that they crowded
close to the base lines. In the ninth inning the score was tied, one
out, and Bill Everett of Biltmore College on third. The batter hit a
high foul ball into the crowd back of third base. Some of them were
seated but most of them were standing. Jenkins hustled across from his
position at short, hurled himself through the air without paying any
attention to the crowd, caught the ball fair and square and then fell
in among the spectators. That made two out, but Hughie was after the
third one. Bill Everett touched third after the catch and started for
home. Hughie couldn’t see but he guessed that Everett had started. He
climbed up out of the crowd, stepped on the people he had knocked down,
and threw to the plate without looking. The ball went straight into the
catcher’s mitt and Everett was out easily. In the next inning Lowell
won the game.
[Illustration: “Jenkins hurled himself through the air.”]
Then, of course, Miner Black had to tell his remarkable catch story
about Jimmie Siegel in a twenty inning game with Eastern Pennsylvania.
How in the eighteenth inning with a runner on first base, the mightiest
hitter of the Pennsylvania nine drove a hard hit ball to left center.
Just at that moment, however, Siegel had put his hand in his hip pocket
to get out his handkerchief, as the day was hot and the game was a hard
one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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