CREEP ME IN ST. LOUIS

May 25, 1924

We packed up the Chrysler outside Roy's house plenty early because they had to get to church, and after we gave him and his wife hugs and handshakes and Benny tossed every one of their kids up in the air we got to Sportsman's Park a whole hour before game time. This meant we were in front of the line and got good box seat tickets because the Cards had lost two straight and people seemed to be taking a break from them.

You'd think a matchup of Oescheger against Jesse Haines would give the Cards the edge this time but both pitchers threw nothing but big eggs for the first five innings. Then Oeschie completely lost it in the 6th. Bottomley, Hornsby, Blades and Clemons all singled to start the inning, one of those weird balk calls was thrown in, and before you knew it we were down 3-0.

Haines then pulled his own plug, and in a similar way. Holke and Harper singled to start the 7th, and after two more singles, a walk and two sacrifice fly pops, it was 3-3. Oeschie then settled down like nothing had even happened in the 5th, but the Phils stayed hot. Heinie Sand began the 8th with a smoky double off the left fence, Holke got him to third with a single, and George Harper, definitely our best hitter after Cy Williams, exploded a Haines pitch high and far and completely over the colored pavilion in right and we were up 6-3! We jumped out of our seats and made loud ruckuses because it was our last day in town and who the heck cared? We got plenty of nasty looks from the St. Louis fans and a few peanut shells flew by our heads but that was it.

At least we thought it was. Five minutes later as reliever Fowler was finishing up the inning for Haines, there was a loud girl's yelp from the aisle next to us. Guess who was standing there? Nope, not Rachel this time but Fraulein Ute from that Cincinnati "Bock-skellar"! She squeezed through the seats and dropped into an empty one beside me and blabbed her whole story. Seems that the Over-the-Rhine Boys went nuts in a bad way after blowing their third straight game to the Giants yesterday and started a riot in their neighborhood and cops were called in to beat heads and anti-German feelings which bobbed up a lot after the War happened again so Ute took a train out to St. Louis to "get from there away" and look for me even though she wouldn't admit it.

She said a lot of other stuff in my ear but half was in German. She smelled more like sweat this time than a mountain meadow, and all I was trying to was finish watching the game. Ute knew even less about baseball than that rich girl in Pittsburgh, and we bought her a lemonade and pretzel just to keep her from talking for a while.

Betts polished the Cards off easy and we'd won three out of the four from a tough-hitting team, but we were too busy trying to shake Ute to even care. I explained in the simplest English I could muster that I had to get back to Philadelphia because my mama and my fiancee missed me, and that's when she got even more crazy and demanded that Benny drive her all the way back to Ohio. He said forget that, he'd pay for her train instead but when she got back to the car with us we all stopped dead in the street.

Someone had broken into the Chrysler. The side window as smashed, and maps and papers and other things in the glove box were thrown all over the car's insides. Me and Benny were suddenly real scared because we remembered this had happened to our room in Chicago, so Benny told Ute to get in and we started driving the heck out of town. "Was ist los? Was ist los?" she kept yelling, while I was looking for the right map and the car was zooming around other cars and ugly dark clouds were straight in front of us and things didn't look too good.

We were a half hour back into Illinois when we saw a black car with its bright headlights behind us, getting faster. We drove through a small town, the thunderstorm hit and this car roared around us, blocked our way and Benny had to throw his brakes on. It was raining so hard we couldn't see who the driver was right away but he got out, threw Benny's door open and stood there holding a small pistol.

It was none other than M. Conroy Face, the Pittsburgh hotel detective. Asking Benny for "all that money." I looked at my friend. Not only had he skipped out of his bill at the fancy hotel back there, but he still owed a bunch of cash to Punky Schickelgruber from the Pittsburgh pool hall, and Conroy also collected for him when asked. Oh boy. Ute started yelling at him in German until he shot the gun in the air, pulled her out of the car and tossed her in a puddle. She got up, all soaked, and ran screaming off down the street of this little town I didn't even know.

Conroy then forced Benny to get out with his hands up and walk down this alley with him. I had no idea what to do. I thought about getting behind the wheel and running him over but I might've hit Benny and the alley was way too small.

So I got out and followed them. I heard kicking and punching and a horrible moaning and the next thing I knew Benny was hobbling back out with a real bad limp and bloody nose and said, "Get us out of here!" I was all confused and looked back down the alley and saw three big guys in overcoats and hats pummeling Conroy Face against a brick wall like they were going to kill him. There was another car parked at the curb, a big shiny blue one, and I saw a guy smoking a cigar in the open back seat with one of his shoes hanging out that must have been a size 20. Benny pulled me away and I jumped behind the Chrysler's wheel and hit the gas.

"Big Toe" Sam, Capone's St. Louis friend, had been watching over us the whole time we were there, which was sure a lucky break for us. Benny said that Pittsburgh Punky probably made payments to Capone, too, so this was probably the end of that business. I sure hoped so, as I did my very first driving lesson and learned the ropes in five minutes flat. Good night from somewhere going east, reader-people!
—Vinny

PHL 000 000 330 - 6 9 1
STL 000 003 000 -3 9 1

Other National League games today:

GIANTS 6-14-0. at REDS 4 10-3 (11 innings)
Thankfully the Pirates took a Pennsylvania Lord's Day off with the Robins, but the Reds find a way to lose a notch in the race anyway. And it's bad. For the third straight day they throw out a lead at the last minute, this time after a two-out error from Caveney and clutchy 2-run single from Kelly that was a long time coming. A double from Youngs and single from Kelly in extras off Jakie May finish off the Redd four straight and probably launch another day of German riots.

at CUBS 10-11-0, BRAVES 0-3-2
How bad are the Braves playing? Tony Kaufmann with his 82 hits allowed in 51 innings starts for the Cubs and Boston gets only three off him. They finish 1-15 for their trip and head home to play us now. Perfect!

NATIONAL LEAGUE through Sunday, May 25
Pittsburgh Pirates	26	10	.722	—
Cincinnati Reds	23	17	.575	5
New York Giants	21	17	.553	6
Brooklyn Robins	20	17	.541	6.5
St. Louis Cardinals	20	20	.500	8
Chicago Cubs	18	22	.450	10
Philadelphia Phillies	16	23	.410	11.5
Boston Braves	10	28	.263	17