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A crowd of 25,000 welcomed Boston Pink Sox pitcher and Falconer native Hugh Bedient again to Jamestown in October 1912 after profitable the World Collection.
Picture courtesy of Chautauqua Sports activities Corridor of Fame

EDITOR’S NOTE: The next article appeared in The Submit-Journal on Oct. 23, 1956, commemorating the day — Oct. 19, 1912 — that Falconer Excessive College graduate Hugh Bedient returned residence after main the Boston Pink Sox to the World Collection championship.

Forty-four years in the past Hugh Bedient got here residence a conquering hero.

October 19, 1912. That was the day 25,000 of Hugh Bedient’s associates, relations and admirers gathered to cheer to an echo the hometown hero of the 1912 World Collection.

No space residents, the press of the day mentioned, had ever been given such a hometown welcome earlier than or since.

Now, greater than 4 many years later, Hugh Bedient should have heard the ringing cheers, felt the backslaps and relived the reward as he sat silently thumbing by way of a myriad of images, applications and scrapbooks.

Hugh Bedient
Picture courtesy of Chautauqua Sports activities Corridor of Fame

They had been boxed and piled in the course of the lounge of the neat Bedient residence close to Levant — a spot that may quickly be residence not.

Now it’s Oct. 23, 1956. The yesteryears are gone, however as a clever man as soon as wrote: “Recollections are of the gold that endureth.” And now the Bedient’s are transferring once more.

“We moved round rather a lot when Hugh was enjoying baseball, however we’ve been settled right here a very long time,” Mrs.Bedient, a deft fast lady who defies time, known as from the kitchen.

“I suppose it is going to be for the very best,” Hugh mentioned elevating his head from a yellowing scrapbook. “This place is fairly giant for her to maintain up, so we’re transferring to a smaller home at 14 Phetteplace in Falconer. It looks like shedding an previous good friend, although, as a result of we’ve been right here for thus lengthy, you understand — ever since 1917.”

PITCHED IN FOUR GAMES

Hugh Bedient is pictured together with his Boston Pink Sox teammates after profitable the 1912 World Collection.
Picture courtesy of Chautauqua Sports activities Corridor of Fame

The Boston Pink Sox beat the New York Giants, 4 video games to a few, within the 1912 World Collection. Hugh Carpenter Bedient, who was born in Gerry, little greater than an excellent fungo hit from the place the Bedients have made their residence for 39 years, appeared in 4 video games.

He pitched within the second, third, fifth and eighth contests. (There was a tie sport).

The fifth was his shining hour. He beat the Giants’ nice Christy Matthewson in a mound duel that has gone down in World Collection annals as one of many 20 biggest.

That’s the reason the huge throng was available to greet him when Hugh and his spouse stepped from the previous DAV&P practice at Falconer.

They cheered him, feted him and paraded him in an nearly countless chain of formal and casual events, dinners, theater dates and miscellaneous public appearances.

NO POLITICIAN

“It began when the practice left Dunkirk,” Hugh remembers. “We’d cease and somebody would name for me and I’d exit and take a bow. Somebody within the automobile mentioned I should be a politician lining up a stumping program. I advised my spouse in the event that they ever heard me make a speech they’d know darn effectively I wasn’t a politician.”

To the younger, 1912 should appear so way back. William Howard Taft was president and Jack Johnson was heavyweight champion; Jamestown was getting ready to welcome residence one other hero, John Eke, nice hometown star of the Olympics; Col. Theodore Roosevelt had been shot by John Schrank and had spent a restful night time in a Chicago hospital; Bulgaria and Greece had declared struggle on Turkey and Abrahamson-Bigelow Firm was providing kids’s raincoats for $.98.

THE PARADE

The large parade was led by “Morgan B. Kent’s large car” to steal a quote or two from the Jamestown Night Journal, which had displayed the World Collection linescore all through the basic in huge block letters throughout the highest of web page one. Hugh and his spouse rode within the B.F. Merriam automobile accompanied by his dad and mom, Mr. and Mrs. O. D. Bedient.

The press of 1912 studies a committee of younger males scattered vari-colored fireplace alongside the parade route and one other group bore an enormous signal which learn: “Bedient? Who’s he? He’s the man that put the county on the map! Bedient, the Delight of Falconer! Bedient, the Big Killer! 18 innings, 10 hits, 2 runs.”

There was the Moose army band, the Spanish-American Conflict Veterans Band, the Gerry band, the Swedish Gymnastic Membership in addition to a dozen impartial musical models. Murray Johnson led the previous Falconer pupil physique within the faculty’s yell simply because it had been given when Hugh was a fantastic pitching star for the schoolboy 9.

Fifty or extra automobiles had been within the parade which proceeded alongside Third from the First M.E. Church to Cherry, down Cherry to Second, to Principal to Brooklyn Sq., up Principal to Second to the junction of Third the place it disbanded. The committee accompanied the Bedients to the previous Samuels Theater (now Shea’s) to see the musical comedy “The Spring Maid.”

Issues, it appeared, had been simply beginning to jell.

Lots of jammed their manner into the I.O.O.F. corridor the following night time for a banquet honoring the person who had crushed Matthewson. A intelligent skit paired the “Bedient Baseball Bugs” in opposition to “All Different Bugs” to hint Hugh’s baseball profession. Participating had been George H. Bohman, Bedient’s catcher at Falconer Excessive College; Howard Bailey, Mrs. Ira H. Johnson, H. Carl Benson, James Pullan, Ray C. Johnson, Emil A. Jacobson, George Raynor, Dr. G. F. Smith, Choose Harley N. Crosby and Dr. William O. Smith. The reception committee was composed of Mr. and Mrs. Merriam, Mr. and Mrs. Judson Wright, Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Ames and the Bedients.

FIRST GAME

Hugh Bedient pitched his first highschool sport of baseball on April 26, 1905. He beat Jamestown Enterprise Faculty. The rating was 12 to 10. In 1906 he didn’t lose a highschool sport, fanning 160 batters.

On July 25, 1908, Hugh toed the rubber in opposition to Corry in what resembled a really extraordinary baseball sport underneath very extraordinary circumstances. When it ended a world’s report for strikeouts was within the books. Bedient had fanned 42 males in 23 innings, profitable Three to 1. On Aug. 3, 1908, he pitched an ideal no-hit, no-run sport in opposition to a Youngsville 9.

Then got here Fall River, Massachusetts {and professional} baseball, a draft name to Windfall the place he because the membership’s prime chucker in 1911, sharing honors with Jimmy Lavender, later to shine brightly with the Chicago Cubs for a lot of campaigns.

Jersey Metropolis bought him from Windfall on the finish of the 1911 season for $750 and offered him to the Boston Pink Sox for $5,000.

20-10 RECORD FOR SOX

Hugh Bedient went into the 1912 World Collection with a 20-10 report however he was a particular underdog the uncooked, foggy day he confronted Matthewson within the fifth sport of the sequence in Boston, Oct. 12. However the climate fitted Hugh’s blinding velocity and he gave up simply three hits, one a double by Fred Merkle that saved the Giants from a shutout.

It was a historic season. Walter Johnson of Washington set a report with 16 consecutive victories and Ty Cobb of Detroit repeated as American League batting champion with a .410 common. Shoeless Joe Jackson, then of Cleveland, chased him in with .398. Cy Younger, biggest pitcher of all time, retired after 22 years in baseball, Clyde Milan of Washington stole 88 bases and Washington received 16 straight video games on overseas diamonds, a report that also stands.

Out of that welter of epic baseball historical past small surprise a tinge of greatness rubbed off on a 23-year-old child named Hugh Carpenter Bedient from a rustic city and lifted him to the heights. And small surprise 25,000 rushed to laud him. It was an period that revered greatness; when man’s sense of worth remained undimmed.

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