Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1910 — SAY BUSH IS AMERICAN LEAGUE’S BEST [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SAY BUSH IS AMERICAN LEAGUE’S BEST

IF EVERY player on the Detroit team could play ball like Ty Cobb and Ownie Bush, the Tigers’ shortstop, there would be no doubt who would Win the American league championship this year. But Jennings isn’t fortunate enough to have a team of Cobbs and Bushes. Consequently there is some doubt whether he will be able to overcome the lead Philadelphia has on him at present. Fans are figuring however that the Tigers will finish as good as second. > Bush has been a great help to the Tigers ever since he donned the Detroit uniform. Some of the experts say he is the greatest shortstop in the American league. He’s a sensational player and covers a world of ground. Nothing seems too fast for him to at least get his hands on and the batsmen of opposing teams have had many a safe hit spoiled by his work. Bush’s worth as a fielder doesn’t show In the averages. He reaches and break down so many hits that another shortstop would never get near that he is charged with many errors. His all around ability makes him the star shortstop. He is a good hitter, one of the best men in the league on the bases and plays the bag wall in addition to his marvelous fielding ability.

“Sheriff Mullen, of Navasota, Texas, was the most obstinate club owner T have ever met,” says Jimmy Gilman. “There are people, I am sorry to say, right here in Cleveland, who actually doubt the full and absolute truth of some of the stories I have been telling about the curious and wonderful things that happened in the baseball fields down In the big state, but every resident of old Navasota will swear to what I am about to tell you now; “Ted Sullivan sent us down from Dallas to Navasota one day to play Sheriff Mullen’s team. We had been guaranteed $250 and, as all our expenses were to be paid, we took along only two new league balls. The Navasotas came on the field with only one, making three altogether. “The outfield in Navasota was simply one big pasture where Sheriff Mullen’s horses, pigs, cows and sheep grazed at will. Among the animals was a pet broncho, and I noticed while we were at practise that this broncho would start in mad pursuit of every ball batted out near where he was browsing. He chewed up two or three old balls used in the warming up period and I began to get suspicious; “ ‘Please take that palfry to the stable and lock him up,’ I said to the Navasotas’ owner. "‘Not on your life,’ Mullen said. *He’s got as much right here as the umpire or you yourself. Moreover the home team makes its own ground rules down in this section of the state. Don’t forget that. No, sir, broncho stays right where he is.’ “It meant SIOO extra for us if we won the game, but there was nothing for us to do but to abide by the home club’s rules. “So far as the game Itself was concerned it was a cinch from the start and we had them 17 to 5 at the end of the second inning. “All this time the broncho had been nibbling grass out near the fence and paying but little attention to the players. In the third inning Virgil Garvin, the Navasotas’ pitcher, hit a fly that was muffed by our centerflelder. The ball rolled out by the fence, where it was immediately gobbled up by the broncho. *

“Another new ball was put Into play, and the next batter up for Navasota drove a three-bagger to left center. My outfielders had no chance to retrieve the ball, for the broncho was after it as soon as it left the bat and had chewed it into a shapeless mass ten seconds after it struck the ground.

The umpire called it a home run and we let it go at that. “We were still far ahead of the home team, but I had forgotten that we had but one more ball. In the next inning there was another long drive to left center, and once moi b the broncho pounced on the ball. The outfielders seized the anima; l and tried to wrest the ball from its mouth, but the sphere had already been well masticated and was beyond redemption. The game had to be called before five innings had been completed because there were no more balls.* “The fans demanded their money back because they hadn’t seen a full game, but we afterwards learned that this was just a little bit of stage play, put on for the purpose of fooling us. “The umpire declared it no game and we finally compromised by accepting $l5O instead of our $250 guarantee, and our SIOO extra money, and all cause I could find nothing in the book of rules to prevent a club owner from pasturing a ball-eating broncho in his own outfield.” It was a full year before I had a chance to get even partially even. Then, one day, we played the Navasotas in Texarkana. Our half of the ball park was in Texas and the other half in Arkansas. One of Sheriff Mullen’s players got rough with one of my men and was arrested. Mullen tried to get his player acquitted on the grounds that the assault was committed in Texas and that there was no law on the statute books of that state making'the assault a misdemeanor. “I got a.surveyor to take measurements and he found that the assault really occurred in Arkansas and Mullin had to pay a $lO fine.”

Five times in the history of baseball has a first baseman gone through a game without having a put out. In the contest between Pittsburg and Chicago recently, Hofman of the Cubs did not have a put out His only chance was a throw from, Tinker and he dropped that It was the first time in the history of the game that that record has been hung up. Here are the other four marks: July 21, 1861—In New York City, First Baseman Mutuals in a game with Alpine. ' August 6, 1891—McCauley, first baseman of the Washington American a»> soclation team, in a game with Columbus, 0., club. May 23, 1906 —Jlggs Donahue of the Chicago White Sox, in a game with the New York Highlanders. August 12, 1906—Emerson, first baseman of the Monson, Mass., team in a game with the Stamford, Conn, club.

Bill Dinneen, who at one time was a star pitcher for the Boston club, more recently with St Louis, and now one of Ban Johnson’s umpires, is making good at that Job. Dinneen is right on top of all the plays, and there never will’be any overruling of decisions while he is at work with Tom Connolly. They both work together very well. Dinneen has been going along so well that the American league has boosted his salary. In view of the fact that the new home of the White Cox in Chicago Is very large, and It will be possible to hit a home run to any field Inside the fences, it Is believed that they will be at a disadvantage, for it has been some time since Chicago had a homerun hitter of the caliber of Harry Davis. Sam Crawford, Stanage, Engle, Jake S|ahl and others. Hughey Duffy, however, says that he Intends to remedy that fault next season, having Instructed the scout* W sign up nothing but home-run hitters of the “Home Run Haggerty" and "Swat Milliganstripe.

OWNIE BUSH.