Humor Among the Minors; True Tales from the Baseball Bush

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... on an ambitious youngster. What became of my abusers? Oh! they are engaged in various positions. One is driving a dump-wagon and the others are not much better off. It was just such little acts as this of rewarding persistence with a position that made Ted Sullivan. His success as a promoter stands second to none in baseballdom. The leagues he organized are too numerous to mention, and hundreds of players owe their livelihood to him. In the games Ted would always appear in uniform and coach his men from the lines. His "Texas Steer" club had such a lead for the pennant at Dallas in 1895, that he would very frequently play in the game himself. One day at San Antonio Ted announced that he would pitch. We all looked upon this as a joke, but sure enough into the box went Ted. The San Antonio team fairly ran into themselves getting up to the plate for a shot at Ted's curves, but inning after inning went by with Ted still in the box. Ted and the umpire, who was working behind the pitcher, were fairly bursting with hilarity. "Here comes Bullet-proof Ned," Ted would shout, as a San Antonio batsman would appear at the plate. The batsman would grit his teeth and go out on an easy fly ball. The San Antonio batsmen, in fact, all of us, commenced to wonder how an old chap like Ted could last an entire game. However, Ted's and the umpire's hilarity soon became plain to us, for foxy Ted had sneaked up fully ten feet toward the batsman in the pitcher's box. Pitching from only fifty feet, he was able to keep the sluggers from hitting the ball and he was having a lot of fun out of it. In another game at San Antonio Ted had quite an afternoon with Crazy Schmidt, who was pitching for the Bronchos. Ted was...