Gryphon 1957 - Adm.monash.edu.au

• CAUTEC DEFEATS YANKS IN BASEBALLThree American warships were in port. In the newspaper appeared aphotograph of a sa ilor playing baseball and the caption read that thesailors had one complaint - they wanted to playa baseball match againstAustralians.So, on a Thursday afternoon , twoteams took to the baseball diamond, oneteam consisted of American sailors, theother team was from the honoured establishment of Caulfield Tech. with two" rinq-ins" from Swinburne.The match started with mu ch excitement,especiaIly from the spectators,who, it appeared, hod never seen Americansand who thought they were somethingto be stared at in amazement.Neither team scored in the first innings,but in the Yanks' second inningssomethi ng went wrong with our fieldersand they sneaked a runner a cr oss thehome plate. After thi s, their pitcher, agiant negro with plenty of stea m in hisarm, was taken to the doctor with numeroussa fe hits, the best of these beingtwo home runs, one by Alan Anderson,and ex-Cautec student now at Swinburne,the other by John Flood .Both teams were rather excited afterthi s exh ib it ion of bat-wielding, theYon ks being worried to such an exte ntthat changes were mode and numerouspitchers, catchers, first basemen andthird bagmen we re tried in on effort togain an advantage over our predominantside.They met with some success, however,not because of their fielding or botting,but only because of e rro rs we mode inthe field and, at on e stage, looked likecoming close to us, but the result of thegame wa s ne ver really in doubt.The final score showed us so for infront that we nonchalantly forfeited ourlast in nings.After the game we were d isc ussingvarious things with the boys (whosecountrymen hod invented the game inwhich they hod been disgraced) and tryingto " bot " a few American cigarettes,when we heard their feeble excuse fortheir defeat. A small negro in the s idetold us, " - few of tho guys got t oqeterdarn at tha ship this marnin' and pickedtho team so we didn' ha ve tho cha nceto practise."This would have been the weakest explanationever, but, all in all , both teamsenjoyed a very tense and exc iti ng game.The final score wa s 16 runs to 10runs so it was a close enough game to bever y interesting.42