Clipping:Stashing an extra ball under the bleachers
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| Date | Wednesday, August 7, 1889 |
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| Text | [from Joe Pritchard's column] The New York papers are now boasting of the movement that Lawyer O'Rourke “gets on himself” whenever a ball is knocked under the bleachers of the New York grounds in O'Rourke's territory. It is said that Jim skins under the seats and gets the ball in time to hold the man on third base. This is good for O'Rourke, but when Hugh Nicol's fast feats are considered, Jim is laid in the shade. Probably Jim can't remember just where he placed the extra ball. In an “under-the-seats play” a good memory is essential. While Hugh Nicol was a member of the St. Louis team he threw out several batsmen on hits under the right field bleachers, but he could not work the trick successfully unless the ball in play had been in use long enough to become dirty. Hugh would report for duty every morning, and before he left the park for his dinner he would place a couple, and sometimes three balls under the right field seats, and he knew just where to find them, too, when necessity demanded it. When a batsman of an opposing nine knocked the ball under the right field seats Hugh would go over the inside fence in a twinkle, grasp the hidden ball, and before the runner could reach second, “Robbie” would be waiting on the line, ball in hand, to retire him. Of course Captain Comiskey was not on to the scheme, and he has often purchased Nicol a good cigar after the game on account of his quick movements in returning the ball to the diamond. When Nicol played here there was no ground rule allowing a home run for a ball hit under the seats. Nicol will probably deny having practiced this little trick on the boys, but it is true nevertheless, because Dave Foutz whispered the story into my ear the last time the Brooklyns visiting St. Louis. Fact! |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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