Before Wrigley Became Wrigley: The Inside Story of the First Years of the Cubs? Home Field by Sean Deveney

Author:Sean Deveney [Deveney, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Baseball, Essays, History, Non -Fiction, Sports & Recreation, Statistics
ISBN: 9781613216484
Google: CG2CDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1613216483
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2014-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Lazy Days

On Saturday, June 20, Hal Chase was at Comiskey Park on the South Side, manning first base for the White Sox. He went 0-for-3 with a walk in a 5–2 win over Red Sox ace Smoky Joe Wood. The next day, his locker was cleaned out. Rather than his usual two-block jaunt from his residence at the Warner Hotel over to the Sox’s park, Chase went north to Sheffield and Addison. He was no longer a member of the White Sox, as he saw things, and by chance, his new team—the Buffalo Federals—were in town to play at Weeghman Park. Chase arrived just after lunch, made his greetings, and was measured up for a uniform. He got in a few minutes of practice before the start of the game, and only a few of the 10,000 fans at the park recognized him. That changed, though, as the announcer moved from section to section around the park, using a megaphone to inform fans that Chase would be playing first base in place of Joe Agler. “Each section in turn gave loud cheers,” the Tribune reported. “When Hal went to bat the first time, he nearly stopped the show. The whole crowd seemed to join in the applause and it was continued for fully a minute, until Hal acknowledged it with an appreciative touch of the cap.”1

It was no accident that Chase made his debut on a Sunday—the courts were closed, so even though Comiskey had knowledge that Chase would be jumping, he couldn’t file an injunction to keep him from playing. The Buffeds played in Chicago again on Monday, but by then, Chase was already in Buffalo, hoping to stay one step ahead of the courts. His first home game would come on Thursday, and “Hal Chase Day” was greatly advertised around the city. In the meantime, the Federals had to keep him out of sight of Organized Baseball’s agents, because if he could be located, he could be served papers. He was met at the train station in Buffalo and taken across the Canadian border to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he and his wife “spent several days sojourning at the Queen’s Hotel and enjoying the beautiful scenery.” On the day before his Buffalo debut, he was taken across the river to Grand Island, and then to the outskirts of Buffalo. Once Buffeds officials snuck him into the park (a rumor that Chase was dressed in women’s clothing to dodge O. B. agents was denied), Chase was hidden in a toolhouse. Antsy fans had no inkling of Chase’s presence until it was his turn to bat, at which time, the toolhouse door opened, Chase emerged, and “the stands burst into a roar of approval.”2

Of course, while Chase had been hiding out in Canada, Charles Comiskey was on a train from Chicago to Buffalo, accompanied by Ban Johnson’s secretary, Robert McRoy, and attorney Ellis Kinkead. Having signed the indemnity bond for Chase, Comiskey was seated in the stands when, after the first

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