Baseball Played In Truck Costs $100, Ruins Diamond

Camden Courier-Post, April 25, 1928

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It must have been that Nichola Caruso had a suppressed desire to become a great baseball player, for yesterday, when he wanted to give himself a little lesson in automobile driving, he piloted his truck over to a diamond at Broadway and Everett street. It was only a short time before that a crew of city employes had left the lot after spending three days levelling it, mowing it, raking it and rolling it. But how was Caruso, a fruit dealer, who lives at 1131 South Fourth street, to know that? "Pick a flat level stretch of land for your practice driving," read the correspondence course on "How to Become a Great Motorist in Ten Lessons by Mail." "Where could there be a flatter, more level stretch of land than the Broadway baseball diamond?" Caruso asked himself. Back and forth he went. When-

Camden Courier-Post, April 25, 1928

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ever he forgot to tag a base he turned around and went back. He was just completing home run No. 26 when Daniel P. McConnell, deputy director of parks and public property, appeared on the scene. "What're you doing?" shouted the city official. "Playing a one-man game of baseball," the fruit dealer is alleged to have replied. "Get a truck and you can be the other team." When McConnell tried to chase the neophyte motorist, Caruso got the idea the ambitious man was trying to compete with him on foot. It was some time before an arrest took place. In police court today the South Camden man was fined $50 for malicious mischief and was ordered to pay the city $50 for the repair of the diamond, which seems to prove there are ways not to learn to drive a truck.

It must have been that Nichola Caruso had a suppressed desire to become a great baseball player, for yesterday, when he wanted to give himself a little lesson in automobile driving, he piloted his truck over to a diamond at Broadway and Everett street.

It was only a short time before that a crew of city employes had left the lot after spending three days levelling it, mowing it, raking it and rolling it. But how was Caruso, a fruit dealer, who lives at 1131 South Fourth street, to know that?

"Pick a flat level stretch of land for your practice driving," read the correspondence course on "How to Become a Great Motorist in Ten Lessons by Mail."

"Where could there be a flatter, more level stretch of land than the Broadway baseball diamond?" Caruso asked himself.

Back and forth he went. Whenever he forgot to tag a base he turned around and went back. He was just completing home run No. 26 when Daniel P. McConnell, deputy director of parks and public property, appeared on the scene.

"What're you doing?" shouted the city official.

"Playing a one-man game of baseball," the fruit dealer is alleged to have replied. "Get a truck and you can be the other team."

When McConnell tried to chase the neophyte motorist, Caruso got the idea the ambitious man was trying to compete with him on foot. It was some time before an arrest took place.

In police court today the South Camden man was fined $50 for malicious mischief and was ordered to pay the city $50 for the repair of the diamond, which seems to prove there are ways not to learn to drive a truck.