DEAF MUTES PLAYED BALL.
At End of Unequal Struggle, Score
Was 24 to 8.
A V-shaped crowd stood in Swope park yesterday afternoon. Except for occasional handclapping, there was silence. Yet a ball game was in progress. There were no coachers. The batters slugged the ball and ran swiftly about the bases. Not once was there the old familiar "Put 'er here," nor the semi-hysterical "Third base, you chump."
Persons riding in automobiles and in other vehicles stopped to watch the unusual spectacle. The players gesticulated wildly. They made excitedly pantomimic gestures at the umpire on the occasion and snapped their fingers under his nose in a way no regular arbiter would "stand for," but never was a word said between the kicker and the kickee.
It was the deaf mutes' baseball game.
In spite of the absence of "rooting" and the wild applause which greets the usual base hit in the average game, the Kansas City Silents, who were playing the Missouri Selects, slugged mightily. At the end of the fifty inning the Missouri Selects gave up the unequal battle. The score was 24 to 8, even though two deaf mute mascots of the Selects, each 3 years old, "rooted" as loud as their small fingers would allow them.
