Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1916 — HUB PERDUE HAS GONE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HUB PERDUE HAS GONE

Passing of Baseball Comedian* and Pitcher Is Regretted. True Bon of Dixie and Bom to Baek In Warmth of Sunshine —Probably Worst Batter in Game and the Beet Story Toller. The passing of Hnb Perdue, who has forsaken the baseball arena to assume charge of his property tn Texas is regretted by fan and player alike. Hub la 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 tn cold, bleak Boston. Hub Is no less famous for his ability to tell 8 good story than he is tor his strength in the pitcher’s box or his ludicrous 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 of his transfer from the Braves, then a Joke aggregation, to the St. Louis Cards. ■ “Sab, 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’ agwine to tell you all that they was ferocious like an oyster. Suttenly they was the periltest lot of ball players I ever see. * "One day down yonder In Pittsburgh I was a’-pitchlng 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 no hit since the spring befo’. 1 went a’-runnlng to' my bat and, man alive, I spe'et I’d Jus’ ’bout make a home run and be a hero. I gita my war club and starts fo’ the plate when I detects the Pittaburgh 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 _ 1- tha haoa find *lllll pusn um oneu tut? ungo out And worser still, everyone that was ketched was ’pologlzing for bein tn the way an’ interfering."

Hub Perdue.