Omaha Buffaloes · Omaha, Nebraska · 1922

Scrambled Sports

Scrambled Sports by Wag, from the Omaha Bee of May 4, 1922. House cleaning day in the Western League, a shortstop bound for the Toledo Mud Hens, players who sit around on rainy days and win conversational pennants, and the news that Wichita's nicknames now include Witches, Izzies and the brand-new Isbergs, in honor of Owner Isbell and himself.

The Omaha Daily Bee of May 4, 1922 ran a sports column under a hand-lettered heading that promises nothing tidy: “Scrambled Sports, by Wag.”

The lead item is roster news delivered like weather. “Shortstop Julia Mee and Pitcher Harry Baumgartner of the Omaha Buffalo herd have been released,” Mee heading for “the Toledo Mudhens, American Association club, at Kansas City this week,” with a squinting little photo captioned simply “Mee.” It was “house cleaning day” in the Western League, the column explains, each club trimming to sixteen players for the rest of the season.

Then Wag warms up. There’s boxing gossip, a “Kid” who “plans to get back into the public’s eye by running for sheriff,” followed by a two-word verdict: “Barnum was right.” And this meditation on rain delays, which has not aged a day: “The great trouble with rainy days in baseball is that the players sit around and win conversational pennants. Two days’ rain in succession gives a ball club so much opportunity for mental speculation that it sometimes takes a couple of defeats to put them in the proper state of mind again.”

The closing item is the keeper. “Joe Berger, manager of the Wichita club, says that his club has several old nicknames that are standbys, namely Witches and Izzies, but the latest is Isbergs, in honor of Owner Isbell and himself.” Berger plus Isbell, blended into Isbergs. The owner in question is Frank Isbell, late of the White Sox, and the Witches name got plenty of use anyway. One column over, the same page carried an ad for that afternoon’s Omaha vs. Wichita game, Isbergs and all.