Showing posts with label Ely Nevada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ely Nevada. Show all posts

Saturday, August 24, 2019

August 24, 1919 "That this pass was successfully negotiated without accident considered remarkable". Ray Caldwell remarkably continues pitching after being hit by lightening. U.S. "Invasion" of Mexico continues

On this day in 1919 the Motor Transport Convoy negotiated Shellbourne Pass.
Not too surprisingly, four wheel drive FWDs came through the best on this days' travel. 

The unit made it to Ely, Nevada, after 77 miles over 8 hours, fairly good time by the standards of the convoy.  They arrived mid afternoon after once again failing to to take a Sunday's day rest, and camped in a municipal campground that was already a destination for tourists, showing how quickly motor tourism was advancing in spite of the poor state of the roads and the primitive condition of the cars.  Shoshone Indians, who have a very small reservation near Ely (which is not noted by the diarist) visited.

On the same day, pitcher Ray Caldwell was hit by lightening while pitching for the Cleveland Indians in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics.  Caldwell was knocked unconscious for five minutes but upon being revived asked for the ball back and resumed playing.


He completed the game, having pitched 8.2 innings and threw the winning pitch.  The blast of lightening knocked the hat off of the catcher and players and spectators at first thought that Caldwell might have been killed.

Caldwell was a great pitcher but was notoriously personally erratic, being an alcoholic and having, a self destructive streak. That would result in his having a shortened major league career, after which he played in the minors.  His reputation as a drinker and a partyer was a deterrent to teams picking him up.  He became a farmer, railroad employee and bartender in his later years and, in spite of his early life, lived to age 79.

Caldwell worked as a shipbuilder during World War One, an occupation taken up by a variety of baseball players as it allowed them to continue playing baseball rather than being conscripted into the Army.

In other news, American cavalry continued on in Mexico in search of bandits.  Mexican Federal troops were reported to be engaged in the same activity.


The intervention was apparently causing speculation in Mexican newspapers about various ways that the U.S. might more fully intervene in Mexico.

This Sunday edition of the Cheyenne State Leader also featured an article about "Jap" immigration.  A current newspaper would never use this pejorative slang term, but this was extremely common for newspapers of the era.

The paper also had an odd line about a woman whose "husband brings home the bacon" being "the better half of a good provider".  That's is hard to discern now, but what it referred to was the reluctance of a lot of women to leave their wartime jobs and resume to traditional pre war roles.  This was an issue at the time as it was felt that it was keeping men out of work, their traditional role.