HOUSTON — On a train ride through Texas, one pitcher had life throw him a curveball.
It was May 12, 1908, and the Houston Buffaloes baseball club from the Texas League stopped in Hillsboro, which is between Fort Worth and Waco, during a road trip.
Sitting near Houston pitcher W.E. Hester was a young woman with an infant. She asked if he could hold the little boy for a few minutes so she could see a friend. He said yes and she never returned.
Along with the child, there was a box with a note inside asking whoever had the child to please adopt it or find someone wealthy who will.
It was signed, "The wretched prayer of a ruined girl."
Thankfully, the story gets better.
Hester kept the little boy and the baseball team made him a mascot. Some of the state’s wealthiest families offered to adopt him and ultimately the club’s third baseman and his wife adopted the child.
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