Once in a while he surpassed himself, and his report of a dull and uninteresting game was many times more exciting and enjoyable than the game itself. Such a game was the one the team played with Barber College along about the middle of April. The team had been going along pretty well in the half dozen or more games which had been played with the minor colleges, all of them preparatory to the bigger games toward the close of the season. Lowell had had a rather easy time of it up to the fourth inning, at which time the score stood 7 to 0 in favor of the Varsity. The game had been played in a drizzle of rain, the ball was wet, the grounds slippery, and errors were the rule instead of the exception. Fielders had tumbled over themselves chasing balls over the wet grass, and players who had attempted the fall-away slide could hardly be recognized on account of their mud-stained uniforms.
In the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, Miner had given way to Babe, as the game looked safe and Babe had an off day, for Barber secured six hits in the three innings, which, mixed with the errors, enabled the visitors to pile up five runs while the Lowell team was doing nothing in the tally line.
The game ended, however, with Lowell still two runs to the good and the game was ours, but this is the way Tim’s report of parts of it looked in the Reporter the next day after he had reduced his idea of the contest to writing. Here it is:
Lowell, 7; Barber, 5.
Jones, one of the big family, the first to swing the willow for the enemy, pushed a grass cutter to Hagner, who relayed it to the custodian of the first salt bag. Knight hit a sunscraper into the meridian and Gibbie pocketed it on the return trip. Wilson stung the pellet to Robbville, which Ty annexed without leaving his office.
Ross launched a Lusitania to Amberg, which broke down in midocean. [Everson loafed around the rubber] for four misfits and got them. Little Arthur stung a beauty over the near station, which took him to the first stop and opened the switches for Everson’s run to the middle junction, Hagner bumped a daisy scorcher to Joe, which the latter pickled, but it went as a sacrifice, as Delvin navigated to second and the Human Crab breezed to third. Ty swung his trusty locust against the first groove cutter and the horsehide stamped his initials on the Clubhouse flag pole, while he almost beat Everson and Little Arthur to the water cooler after his circle of the bags. Mr. Talkington, while waiting on four, was chased with three, and Larke sent one singing to the curve box, which the slab artist tossed to the initial sack ahead of him.
