Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1916 — HUB PERDUE HAS GONE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HUB PERDUE HAS GONE

Passing of Baseball Comedian and Pitcher Is Regretted. True Son of Dixie and Born to Bask In Warmth of Sunshine—Probably Worst Batter In Game and the Best Story Teller. The passing of Hub Perdue, who has forsaken the baseball arena to assume charge of his property in Texas is regretted by fan and player alike. Hub is a true son of Dixie, born to bask in the warmth of the sunshine, and it was the great misfortune of his life that he was forced to spend the greater portion of his major league career as a member of the Braves in cold, bleak Boston. Hub is no less famous for his ability to tell a good story than he is for his strength in the pitcher’s box or his ludicrdus weakness at the plate. Perdue was probably the worst batter in the history of baseball, and -the best story teller. Here is a yarn spun by Hub at the time ot his transfer from the Braves, then a joke aggregation, to the St. Louis Cards.

“Sah, I done heard a gentleman remark as how these yere Braves were a fighting team. Huh! Why the only thing I ever saw 'um fight was the ball. Yas, sah, dat’s so. I’m jus’ a’gwine to tell you all that they was ferocious like an oyster. Suttenly they was the perlitest lot of ball players I ever see. “One day down yonder in Pittsburgh I was a’-pltching my head off and the sco’ was sto 2 agin us. Come our half of the seventh and the fust three bat-

ters get on. It was my turn to- hit, and I figures I’m due cause I ain’t had nn hit since the spring befo’. Iwent a’-running to’ my bat and, man alive, I spe’ct I’d jus’ ’bout make a home run and be a hero. I gits my war club and starts fo’ the plate when I detects the Pittsburgh players earning in, an’ all a-laughin’. “Yas, sah. Dog my cats if ever one of those base runners hadn’t done gone and let those Pittsburgh fellows push ’um offen the bags and tag ’um out. And worser still, everyone that was ketched was ’pologizing for bein’ in the way an’ interfering."

Hub Perdue.