TIME
October 5, 1970 12:00 AM EDT
The hippies began to gather in a Houston schoolyard last week after an early morning rain. They spread their blankets and ponchos on the wet grass and talked quietly among themselves. Then a police paddy wagon and a pickup truck pulled up and the cops leaped out. There were yells—”Let’s get the freaks!”—and the police proceeded to beat the young people mercilessly. But the confrontation’s results were recorded on a score card instead of a police blotter or hospital admission form. They were playing softball.
The game, touted at precinct headquarters and in the pizza parlors and coffeehouses of Houston’s hippie neighborhood as “Freaks v. Pigs,” was the idea of Patrolman Jim (“Beer Can”) Kilty. Largely because of the cops’ good humor, the game was a huge success. The law showed up wearing white T shirts with PIG stenciled on the back and a drawing of a hog on the front. From their pickup truck they pulled a squealing porcine mascot. One of the officers told the kids that the pig had a “long name, but we call him Herman for short.” Houston’s police chief is named Herman Short, and the patrolman’s sly grin was not unappreciated.
A crowd of 2,000 collected to watch. The contest was highlighted by charges of police brutality when a line drive from a cop’s bat stung the pitcher. The kids tried to get the cops’ crew-cut pitcher ejected for throwing a greaseball, and the police puffed on imaginary marijuana cigarettes and floated around the base paths. Law-and-order prevailed 24-5, but a rematch was scheduled, and there is talk of having the competitors join an amateur softball league.
ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaqpOdtrexjm9vbHBha4Rwxc6uq6FloJ60tHmRbWSfqpWWuLR5lGg%3D