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3 Nature Boy, Prince Jo and Birmingham Sam The comedy of James "Natureboy" Williams was part of Dad's Clowns from 1955 to 1964. Initially, he played barefooted, in a dress, wearing falsies, and was billed as "Clowns Firstbase Ma'am:' He wore a question mark for a number on his back. No one seriously thought he was female, and no one took him as a female impersonator. He simply played baseball well, but in different clothing. Natche was a combination of all prior Clowns entertainers. His first few years, he performed with Tut and Ed Hamman and learned from them. After Tut was gone, he was part of many Tut routines in either the Tut or the Bebop role. The hilarious incongruity of his portly physique and deft athleticism was personified by his ability to leap high in the air as an infielder 's throw approached and come down in a perfect split while making the catch. Once a game, Natureboy batted with his back to home plate, jumping around to hit only after the offering left the pitcher's hand. His antics cannot be separated from those of infielders Prince Jo Henry and Birmingham Sam Brison. Prince Jo Henry said his ideas came from God. If Mozart was right that he merely scored the music God put in his head, maybe Prince Jo was right too. The most popular skit for Prince Jo was the bats-in-the-pants routine. Customarily, Prince Jo played in checkered Bermuda shorts, a Clowns jersey and a white navy rain hat pulled down around his head. Usually the second at bat of each game, he wore loose-fitting flannel coveralls held up by suspenders, and took a called first strike. Stepping out of the batter's box, he put the knob of the bat against his eye like a wooden spyglass, closed the other eye and squinted up the surface of the bat like a carpenter inspecting a board, turning it gently in caressing hands. Perceiving an imperfection invisible to others, he tossed the bat toward the dugout, reached into his pants, seeming to try to hide NAT U REB 0 Y, P R INC E J0 AND B I R MIN G HAM SAM 35 his actions as though doing something illicit, looked both ways to assure himself no one was watching, and slowly and seductively slid a second bat up out of his pants. As crowd laughter approached crescendo, he surveyed the second bat, discarded it, and slid out a third, then a fourth, then a tiny souvenir bat, then the leg of a female mannequin, taking his stance and wildly swinging the appendage menacingly toward the pitcher, then pounding it on the plate, swaying his body wildly and defiantly like an elastic wand. Only when the umpire confiscated it did Prince Jo realize what it was and cringe in embarrassment. Sometimes, he'd augment the plate appearance by pulling something else out of his pants: a broom, a fishing rod, an oar, a pool cue, and then he'd slide out two more bats before he finally had a keeper and finished his at bat. Prince Jo, whose early career in the Negro American League with the Philadelphia Stars was followed by two years of minor league ball, joined the Clowns in 1955, the year after they left the Negro American League. He was a good-fielding, weak-hitting third baseman his first two seasons with the Clowns, before turning to comedy to seek a raise and assure presence in the starting lineup, if not at God's behest, certainly bestowing grace on the Clowns' comedy sanctuary. He got his starting position and his raise. Whenever caught in a rundown, almost always intentionally, Prince Jo pulled a base from his pants, stood on it and argued he was safe. One of the Clowns' great improvising comics, he took a bad call strike at a 1957 game 1attended in a poorly lit former minor league ballpark in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As the pitcher released the next pitch, Prince Jo pulled a lit flashlight from his uniform and followed the pitch into the catcher's mitt with the light, piercing the umpire with a baleful look as though stating, "I damn sure hope you got a better look at that one!" The umpire called ball, and the fans howled. It was the only time he ever did that, and the crowd of just over 1,500 were the only ones who...

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