Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1916 — THREE BALLS IN PLAY [ARTICLE]

THREE BALLS IN PLAY

Each Infielder Has Pill and Chases a Base Runner. One of Most Humorous Situations Ever Witnessed on Baseball Field —Umpire Finally Straightened Things Out. The foUowing humorous story of the baseball field is related by Bill Speas, outfielder of the Portland team of the Pacific Coast league, and probably is one of the most humorous things witnessed on a baseball field. Incidentally, story has been told and retold by \prominent players in the two major leagues. “You might not believe this,” says Speas, "but I’ve got several clippings to prove it. It happened In 1906 in the Pennsylvania and Ohio league. I was playing with Mansfield, and Doc Bailey, the old-time Columbus pitcher was doing the pitching for us. Our Opponents had us beaten, about 40 to 0 when one of them hit a ball and slammed it down the right field foul line. The umpire threw in another ball, and he knocked it foul again. Then he hit one at me in left, and after breaking my neck to keep it from rolling into the next state, I got it and threw it in to the plate, only it hit the grandstand instead. “Well, in the meantime, the fielders had recovered the foul balls and the shortstop had one running a man down between second and third, and the second baseman had the other trying to catch a man between first and second. The catcher was chasing the ball I threw in. It looked like a fire in a Chinese laundry the way everybody was running around. I was almost sick from laughing out there in left field. “The umpire eventually ruled the foul balls out of play and held that the ball I threw at the grandstand was the right one. But that does not change the fact that there were three balls in play all at one time.”