Thanks a lot, Scott.
Ken Burns has that same quote in his baseball documentary, and it's just perfect. I think Wikipedia has it in its entirety:
"On August 2, 1907, I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw in the ball field. He was a rookie, and we licked our lips as we warmed up for the first game of a doubleheader in Washington. Evidently, manager Pongo Joe Cantillon of the Nats had picked a rube out of the cornfields of the deepest bushes to pitch against us. He was a tall, shambling galoot of about twenty, with arms so long they hung far out of his sleeves, and with a sidearm delivery that looked unimpressive at first glance. One of the Tigers imitated a cow mooing, and we hollered at Cantillon: 'Get the pitchfork ready, Joe - your hayseed's on his way back to the barn.'
The first time I faced him, I watched him take that easy windup. And then something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn't touch him. Every one of us knew we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park."
Yikes.
Either way, I can't even imagine what it must have been like to face him. Especially as a righthanded batter with his sidearm pitching...I'd go down at least four times an at bat for sure.
And yet, like Cobb said, he just looks like a kind and gentle man...
Graig
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