STL All Sports

Boom-Boom Beck's reputation for throwing line-drive hits against enemy bats got into strange places, as is indicated by the following story. Several of the Brooklyn players were invited to visit a hospital to talk baseball with the patients. Boom-Boom accepted gladly and; accompa- nied by a doctor, came into one of the wards where he was immediately surrounded by eager faces. He began to talk about pitching, when he was interrupted by one of the patients.

"Yah, go on, ya bum," jeered the patient. "You're the guy who's always getting knocked out of the box!"

Boom-Boom left the ward in confusion. On the way out, the doctor started to apologize. "I'm sorry," he said, "I should have told you that was the psychopathic ward." And then, as if it were an afterthought, he added, "Say, you know what? That was the first sane remark that fellow's made since he came in here!"