Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1912 — SOME CLEVER TRICKS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOME CLEVER TRICKS

Harry Davis Tells of Shrewdness of W. R. Armour. - » ■ Bill Had Box of Live Balts to Use When Batting Rally Was On, but Athletics Were Wise and Kept Ball In Game. "They used to pull off n lot of tricks In the American League that are tabooed now,” remarked Harry Davis, Cleveland’s new manager, recently. "They did not stop with signal tipping deVices, but they worked in a rabbit ball now and then, cut down the pitchers’ box over night, cut down or raisedthe Hue toward third base, let the hose run all night on the base paths or on the grass near the plate. Clark Griffith turned that last trick on us one day when he was managing the White Sox. Thought he would make it difficult for our third sacker to field bunts, but our pitcher anfl Cross got-every one, while Griffith himself Slipped™ fn the water and soaked his uniform. “Bill Armour was a man of whom we were always suspicious. That suspicion dated from a time I was with Providence in the Eastern League. The Rochester team had a faculty of batting out victories in the eighth and ninth Innings and we made up our minds that a rabbit ball was working. We finally told our third base coacher to go to the Rochester bench between innings and keep watch. Sure enough. He discovered that they were tossing out a live wire toward the end of games when Rochester was behind. “They confessed then and wd kept their secret on the condition that they tip us'off as to where they got the live ones. So, the next day I visited the shop, which was located in Rochester, and there on a bench' was a package of balls directed to W. R. Armour. ’7 called the attention of the old German who ran the shop to the package and he admitted that it contained lively balls. .. “‘But,’ he said, ‘they are only for practice.’ " ‘That’s all right,’ I told him. ‘Just give me a few dozen—just fbr practice!’ And I got them. "But,.from then on, I felt that Bill Armour would bear watching when it came to pulling off a trick now and then. Finally, we caught him. It was In 1904. Waddell and Earl Moore were having a battle right- It was 4

to 4 when we finished our half of the ninth. Hickman was the first man up for Cleveland ip the last half of the ninth. He smashed the first ball on a line, but Hartsei went back, to the fence and grabbed ft Larry picked the next one and Dave Fultz made a wonderful running catch. Now Cleveland had not been hitting Rube that hard up to that time and I passed the word around that whoever made the third out should keep the ball and see that it was still in play when the tenth inning began if the,Naps did not manage to win out Then Flick hit it on the nose, but Sox Seybold made the best catch I ever sAw him make, a one-handed stab in right center.- — remembered what had been said and he brought the ball in and never handed it over until Moore was ready to pitch. We did not intend to let Cleveland have a chance to throw it out of the lot. -Then came our half of the tenth and we scored ten runs. And Bill Armour never ran in another rabbit against us.”

Harry Davis.