In February of 1899 The Chicago Inter Ocean said of Charles Comiskey, then owner of the Western League’s St. Paul Saints:
“It is also proper to state that C. Comiskey is, all things considered, the greatest story teller in this profession.”
Charles Comiskey
The paper then related one of Comiskey’s favorite stories, told during that winter’s Western League meeting:
“’Speaking of ballplayers and their ways,’ he began, ‘did I ever tell you about my efforts to make a pitcher of the ‘Sandusky Terror?’ It happened while I was managing the old St. Louis Browns… It was in the early spring and I was in St. Louis waiting for my men to report for preliminary training. (Browns owner Chris) von der Ahe had trouble in signing his star pitcher (Dave Foutz) that year, and when I looked over the list I found that I needed twirlers and needed them badly. I told my troubles to Chris and he did his best to cheer me up. He told me, among other things, that he had sent a railroad ticket to a young farmer who lived near Sandusky, and from all accounts was a wonder. I didn’t enthuse, for I had had previous experience with these rustic phenomenons , but Chris said that a friend of his in Sandusky had bet him a case of champagne that the boy would prove a grand find.’
Chris von der Ahe
“’Next morning the boy from Sandusky showed up at the ballpark. He was one of the biggest and strongest chaps I ever met in or out of baseball. What is more, he had a pitching arm of tremendous powers, and after he passed the ball to me five minutes I saw that he had a world of speed and for a raw amateur, very fair control of the ball.’
“’Well, we started on a little training trip down South, and as a matter of course I took the boy with us. His terrific speed and his willingness to learn made him popular with the members of the team, and they spent hours in catching him. A week passed and I really began to think I had discovered the pitching star of the year. Things went well until we struck Mobile.. When we drove up the hotel a fairly good looking woman of 30 or thereabouts walked up the bus and caught my Sandusky wonder by the arm.’
“’William,’ she said, ‘I want to have a serious talk with you.’
“’They strolled down the street arm in arm while the other players lounged around the hotel wondering what it all meant. Half an hour later the couple returned. The girl went into the parlor, but the young fellow called me to one side.’
“’Captain,’ he said, ‘I have gone and done it.’
“’Done what?’ I asked.’
“’Married Louisa,’ he answered. ‘You see, she came all the way from Sandusky to teach school down in this part of the country, an’ she says she’s lonesome like an’ that playin’ ball for wages don’t suit her views. Me an’ she kinder liked each other when she lived up in Sandusky an’ we’ve been writin’ letters to each other ever since she left home. That’s how she knew I was with your club. Captain, I guess that’s all, exceptin’ here’s the 60 cents I borrowed from you yesterday. Louisa says I musn’t quit you owin’ a cent, and she gave me the money to hand to you.’
“’You don’t mean to say you’re going to quit the team,’ I gasped. ‘Why, we will make a pitcher of you and pay you good wages while you are developing.’
“’That’s just it,’ he answered. Louisa says I musn’t play for money. Says her uncle, who is a preacher in the village, insists that it is wrong to do it. Come in and ask Louis if I am not tellin’ you the truth.’
“’Well, I spent an even half hour in trying to induce that woman to change her mind, but she wouldn’t. She said she had decided to make a lawyer out of her husband and that they would live on the money she earned teaching school until he was admitted to the bar. Then she took her youthful husband away from the hotel and that was the last we ever laid eyes on the pair. Later in the day I made a little investigation on my own account and found that the woman, who by the way, was at least ten years older than her new husband, had taken the boy straight to the parsonage and married him before he had been in the town twenty minutes. I don’t know whatever became of the pair, but I believe to this very day that if the ‘Sandusky Terror,’ as the players nicknamed him, had gone back to St. Louis with the team he would have developed into another (Amos) Rusie. I have never forgiven that pretty school teacher for making him jump our club, and, what’s more, I never will.’”
Baseball History Daily 
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