1915: Hartington native makes name for himself on Omaha diamonds

May 7, 1915

OMAHA — Up to last fall, few Omaha area baseball fans had heard of Lucien Shook. He was a newcomer in the city as far as baseball was concerned.

But suddenly, toward the close of the season, his name began to appear prominantly in reports of the amateur games.

The headlines read: “Shook pitches one-hit game.” Another headline read, “Shook strikes out 22.

With notoriety like this, soon the amateur baseball world began inquiring about this Shook person who pitched for Mercantile League teams on Sunday mornings and for the Mickel Victrolas on Sunday afternoons.

Lucein Shook, 21, came to Omaha from Hartington where he played with the town team for several years. He started pitching about three years ago, playing in the outfield previous to that time. He isn’t a big fellow, but has a tremendous amount of speed for an amateur. In two games he has pitched this spring for the Kennedy and Beselins, Shook struck out a total of 34 men.

The old fallacy that the curve is more effective than the straight, speedy ball doesn’t hold with Shook.

Lucien Shook is a grandson of M.C, Oswald, and a nephew of Herman Oswald, formerly employed by the First National Bank of Hartington, but now of south Omaha.