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THE IMMORTAL“Oh, well,” said a guy at All-Star headquarters, “if the infieiders’ feet blister they can tell Marvin Miller. I’m interested in bringing back the old-style hitter like — who was that slugger in the minors who hated lefthanders so? John King? The one that saw that lefthanded beggar and —”Fred Russell of Nashville and Clark Nealon, Houston, spoke together:‘‘Fiddler.’’“It was a blind fiddler,” Clark said. “He was sitting on the curb with a tin cup beside him, playing the violin. John dropped a-quarter In-tlie cup, walked on a. fewst_ep,s,„ing lefthanded.’ He went back and got his quarter.“ ‘Fifty thousand lefthanders went to France,’ John used to say after World War I, ' and every lousy one of them came back/“The only manager who ever sent up a pitch-hitter for John was Runt Marr, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, I think. It was against a lefthander, of course, but even so John was so mad that when the club turned him loose Runt had to lower his release papers to him on a string from the second - floor officeGREAT EXPECTORATIONS There was a respectful silence. Then Clark said: “Another one of those spitball controversies came up a few years ago while Frank Shellenback, the old spitter, was still a coach with the Giants. He and I got to talkingabout the spitball.“Frank said, ‘You know who was the patron saint of spitball pitchers? Old John Pieus Quinn/“ ‘Why?’ I asked him.“ ‘ Because he could load on the fly/ he told me.” Holding an imaginary ball, Clark brought both hands up past his face, spitting as they went by.“Beautiful,” he said.
Newspaper Details
Aiken Standard
Aiken, South Carolina, US
Mon, Jul 27, 1970
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Monte N.
NA, NA 08 Sep 2023
Other Publications Near Aiken, South Carolina
Aiken Daily Mail
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