Only the official scorer’s records showing the standing of the candidates were considered, but it was generally the fellow who had the best record for any given position who got the chance to pull off the thrilling plays, because only the good players can do the wonderful things.
When the talk turned to fielders who had been famous on some of the old Lowell teams, it wasn’t long before they were telling stories about great catches made by some of the fielders on championship teams of years gone by.
On such occasions Fred Larke never forgot to tell about that great catch made by Jimmy Ryan. How he in one game jumped clear over the fence in right field which separated the bleachers from the playing field, and caught a fly ball while falling into the crowd.
Johnny Everson then had to tell his story of Hughie Jenkins’ greatest catch, when he was playing short in one of the Biltmore College games. There was an enormous crowd out. The stands wouldn’t hold them all, so they were let out on the field and there were so many that they crowded close to the base lines. In the ninth inning the score was tied, one out, and Bill Everett of Biltmore College on third. The batter hit a high foul ball into the crowd back of third base. Some of them were seated but most of them were standing. [Jenkins] hustled across from his position at short, [hurled himself through the air] without paying any attention to the crowd, caught the ball fair and square and then fell in among the spectators. That made two out, but Hughie was after the third one. Bill Everett touched third after the catch and started for home. Hughie couldn’t see but he guessed that Everett had started. He climbed up out of the crowd, stepped on the people he had knocked down, and threw to the plate without looking. The ball went straight into the catcher’s mitt and Everett was out easily. In the next inning Lowell won the game.
[“Jenkins hurled himself through the air.”]
Then, of course, Miner Black had to tell his remarkable catch story about Jimmie Siegel in a twenty inning game with Eastern Pennsylvania. How in the eighteenth inning with a runner on first base, the mightiest hitter of the Pennsylvania nine drove a hard hit ball to left center. Just at that moment, however, Siegel had put his hand in his hip pocket to get out his handkerchief, as the day was hot and the game was a hard one.
Jimmie, of course, started after the ball, and made an effort to pull his hand out of his pocket while running. It wouldn’t come out. He jerked and jerked and still it stuck. Meantime the ball had to be caught on the run and Jimmie had to make a try for it some way. He leaped in the air, twisted, stuck up his left hand and caught it with his back to the diamond. Jimmie threw the ball into the diamond with his left hand. Strange to say his right hand then came out of his pocket easily. He wiped the perspiration off his face, grinned, and the crowd went wild for they realized why he had gone after it with one hand.
After such talks the “freshies,” who had made some pretty fine catches on the back lots at home, always made a resolution to do something equally startling when they got on the Varsity, and the candidates at Lowell this year were a good deal like all the other freshmen candidates who had gone before them in this respect. This really was a good thing for the boys, although, of course, many of them never realized their ambitions for such fame.