The Day George Busk Missed the Ball

THREE INNINGS LATER, in the eighth, the Green notched its only other marker when...Capt. Poppy Bush discovered that Desmond's line drive was too hot to handle and started running away from it after the ball had dropped to the ground."

So reported Alan Parsons '50 in The Dartmouth on May 17, 1948.

But former Dartmouth third baseman Richard Desmond '49 remembers it differently. It was the bottom of the eighth, with Yale leading six to one and Dartmouth runners on second and third. Desmond hit a sharp line drive which was curving toward the right-field line. As he recalls it, the future leader of the free world dived for the ball, "but it hit the top of his glove and shot off the glove into right field." One player came home, but Dartmouth could not sustain its rally, and the final score remained 6-2.

George Bush was spared the ignominy of adding a fielding error to his 0 for 4 batting performance when Desmond was credited with a base hit on the play. "President Bush was an outstanding baseball player in his time," he remembers. "He wasn't a great hitter, but he was known as an outstanding first baseman."

As for the President's version of the play, we've contacted the White House and will tell you as soon as we get an answer.

Was the ball really too hot for Poppy to handle?