Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/334

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304
AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME

here for.' Holmes retorted. Umpire Lynch noticed that Holmes was talking to the crowd, and ordered him to keep quiet. The player promptly obeyed. Then Clarke, of the Baltimores, made a hit and, when Nops struck out, the visitors took the field. As they did so, Freedman hurried from his private box in the grandstand down onto the field, and almost ran to the bench where Joyce and the New Yorks were making preparations to go to the bat. Umpire Lynch saw Freedman and went over to him, at the same time asking what was the trouble. 'Lynch, I want that man Holmes thrown out of these grounds,' exclaimed Freedman, white with rage. 'He's insulted me.' Lynch claimed he did not hear the alleged insult and refused to remove Holmes. Freedman, still in a rage, secured the services of a detective and a policeman, whom he ordered to eject Holmes. Umpire Lynch called, 'Play Ball,' but Freedman declared that the game could not go on if Holmes were left in the game, and then Lynch gave the game to Baltimore by a score of 9 to 0. The crowd cheered the decision, and then a large contingent surged around Freedman, demanding the return of their money and yelling at him at the top of their voices, calling him a cheat and threatening him with bodily harm if he did not return their money. Freedman was at first disposed to refuse; but the threatening attitude of the crowd finally forced him to submit. As he moved away he was hissed by over a thousand people. One man yelled, 'You ought to be expelled from the League. You're killing Base Ball in New York deader than a herring.' This sally was received with marks of approval and more hissing. Holmes was escorted off the grounds, but was not arrested."

Another of many contemptible acts of ineffable meanness on the part of Freedman was his treatment of Mr. Henry Chadwick. In the course of his duties as sporting editor and writer on sporting topics, Mr. Chadwick took occasion to point out certain flagrant abuses in the management of the New York Club, whereupon Freedman wrote a letter to Chadwick, accusing him of ingratitude in criticising the New York Club while he was a recipient of its "bounty." It seems that the League had voted Mr. Chadwick a life annuity of $600 for what he had done for the game, and Freedman was not above assuming credit for the fact and berating the good old gentle-