And again more memories

It is a saturday morning here in sunny Florida. I have been a little under the weather but recovering very nicely. Just a bad cough and cold or something. Saw the doctor for some antibiotics and all is getting better. Except for the sore ribs from coughing. But it has kept me from posting the memorys. I have a couple more that may be of interest, so here they are.

I remember sitting for hours at the feet of our father and grandfather as well as assorted others over the years in the yard of Dick's ranch while the spun there stories and probably tall tales. I believe I was witness to one of the oldest forms of history, the oral historys and tales that were part of our family. I do not know if I can even remember a small portion of the content of those hours. But will always remember the time spent and the enjoyment I received listening to those older men talk. They told stories about hunting, baseball, and just general goings on in the community. Some of my memories come from there, but others from different times.

I have been asked and it has been postulated by others that Tom was a baseball player. Yes, he was. At least according to him and as I had heard no one else deny it, it must be true. He came from a family that played a lot of baseball. His brother Charles and he did play on the same team according to one of the stories. Tom may have been a pitcher at one time, but the one story I definitely remember was when Charles was pitching and Tom was the catcher. He was a great believer in use of psychology and prevention being the better than a cure. So, as I remember the tale, he had only one good throw to second from the catcher's position. Supposedly he had a sore arm for some reason. But anyway, when it came time to make the throw to second after the warm up pitches, he would make the throw from the catcher's crouch behind the plate. The second baseman would put his glove on the bag and Tom would hit it dead on from the crouch. Now wouldn't that make you think twice about trying to steal second?

There is also the story about stealing home plate. Now I have investigated this one because it does require a knowledge of the rules of the game. I was an umpire for a season and at the time, I read the rule book to determine if this was possible. And, dear readers, it is. The way it would work was when a runner got third base, and the score was close or tied, or when it was advantageous to get one run, the procedure was as follows. The runner, as I heard it being Charles Miller, would take a good lead off third. This was always something that we were taught to do. Give the pitcher something to think about besides pitching. But never get farther than two steps and the length of your body away from the bag. Anyway, there was a special sign for this maneuver. I don't know what it was, but trust me, there had to be one. The batter would also have a part in the play. He would take a wide stance at the plate. And as the pitcher was getting ready, the runner would break for the plate at full speed, hollering at the top of his lungs when about half way done the line. He would then slide into home plate between the batters legs. This would cause the pitcher to throw to the plate rather than balking and the catcher to come out to get the ball. This was the beauty of the play. The batter would not move as according to the rules of the game, he has a right to swing at the pitch. So he does. Not hard, but just hard enough to tick the catcher who is coming out to catch the runner. This constitutes obstruction to the batter and awards the batter first base and the run scores between the batters legs. Now this may be a little bush league, but it is strickly legal according the strict adherence to the rules of the game. And it is something I learned from Tom.

It also seems that during the 1930's, when the Pittsburgh Pirates were world champions, some of the players of that team would vacation in the Burnett county area after the season was over. At least that is what I have been told. And being true sportsman and loving the game, they would become involved in pickup games with some of the local lads, Tom being one of the locals. This is how it came to be that he played on the same field as Pie Traynor and Burleigh Grimes, the reputed last of the great spit-ball pitchers. It must have been a good game because I was told that Tom was offered a chance to play minor league ball for the Pirates. But he turned it down because he could make better money doing whatever it was that he was doing at the time.