In Douglas

Old dishonors are unpleasant to think about; they have an odor in the memory like the faintly sour stench that rises from a trunkful of athletic gear that has been shut up a long time. But everyone remembers, if reluctantly, the baseball scandal of 1919, when certain players of the Chicago "Black Sox" were found with big wads of money under their pillows which a gambler had paid them to "throw" the World's Series. The gambler is now a respected Realtor, but those players -- athletes, as fast and heady as ever spit on a bat -- were ousted from organized baseball. One of them was Buck Weaver, a third-baseman; another" was first-bagger Chick Gandil. They stepped behind the curtain that hid Hal Chase, perhaps the most graceful ballplayer that ever lived, who had also left baseball with a cloud on his name.

In the far West, as everyone knows, there is no "organized" baseball. But the towns of Fort Bayard (New Mexico), El Paso (Texas), Juarez (Mexico) and Douglas (Ariz.) have teams which play in the Frontier League., Last year Chase went to Douglas, played on the team. The local Chambermen of Commerce told him to get better players and offered to ' pay for them. He sent for Weaver and Gandil. The Chambermen began to pay out $10,000 a month; the three unfrocked players began to win games for Douglas. Chase plays center field; Gandal is at first; Weaver at shortstop is the best of the three. Quick on his feet as a puma, he covers a huge amount of ground; his batting average is over .500; gangling cowboys ride hundreds of miles to yell at him; gamblers, preachers, saloon keepers, dance hall girls from the honkeytonk towns across the border bet their dirty money on his team; the Chambermen of Commerce are glad he lives in Douglas.