From the Archives IT’S A FACT! Nowadays, a baseball’s - TopicsExpress

From the Archives IT’S A FACT! Nowadays, a baseball’s velocity is measured by radar gun. Years ago, however, it took some ingenuity. “Bullet” Bob Feller’s fastball velocity was legendary and a novel way to measure the speed of his fastball was tried in 1940. A Cleveland policeman, riding a motorcycle at 86 miles per hour down a Cleveland street passed Feller and was given a 10-foot head start. Feller’s fastball reached the catcher’s mitt with three feet to spare. Using that, it was estimated that Feller’s fastball traveled somewhere between 98.6 and 104.4 miles per hour. So, was it “Bullet Bob” or “Rapid Robert?” You decide. 115 YEARS AGO The river at this place was never more beautiful than now, but the scarcity of boats prevents its use to any great extent. * * * A party of Perry sports went fishing Thursday night on the banks of the raging Coon, and fished and fished and fished by the light of the beautiful moon. This far matters were of a poetical nature. Then came the prosy part. The sweet antis-scented bait didn’t work at all and the only bites they experienced were mosquito bites. 80 YEARS AGO If some farmer would drive onto your yard, unleash a lot of dogs, cut up your lawn, pick your flowers, break the limbs from your trees, tear down your fences, shoot the windows out of your house, cripple your stock and leave the ground littered with bottles, what would you do? Chances are you’d do the same thing to ordinary farmer feels like doing when someone from town comes out and makes himself at home on his farm. You’d get darned mad, just as Art Garoutte gets when people with no regard for the rights of others trespass on his land, turn a bunch of dogs loose with his livestock and shoot holes in the “keep out” signs. And here’s a gentle warning for any readers of The News who are guilty. Stay off the Garoutte-Nichols place unless you have permission. Trouble awaits you if you don’t. 25 YEARS AGO Isolated thundershowers Tuesday night brought temporary relief to parts of Dallas County, but much more rain will be needed before moisture levels return to normal, according to state crop and weather reports. * * * The Adel Public Library is participating in LAGBRAI (library’s annual great book read across Iowa) this week. * * * Sheriff Jerry Tiedeman staved off a primary challenge to capture the Democratic nomination for sheriff. In the only other contested local race, Pat Manning of Granger won the Democratic nomination for District 3 supervisor.