Birmingham state herald., 1897-04-23
AND NOW FOR THE PENNANT National League Base Ball Sea-
 son Has Opened. GAMES HOTLY CONTESTED In Some Instances and 0ne-Sided lE Others Cinoinaat and Chicago Play
 Ten Innngs


 League base ball season for 1897 opened l today in the various league cities under | pleasing auspices. The weai her was all
 that could be desired. and lne total si.- l tendance reached the enormous figures i of 61,430. Philadelphia led with 17,O14. 1 As a rule the scores were clese, and the i games fpotly contested. The opening con- l test in Lais city was witnessed by nrge 1 audience, among whom were Speaker l Reed and number of other politicians, l as wel as a great many society people. | The Senator's and Bridegrooms were eVsn- | ly matched, and bus for De Monsreviile's l wild throw in the sixth inning, the home
 team would undoubtedly have won. LA number of New York en nuslaSts 1 journeyed to Philadelphia and saw lne | Giants taken into the camp to the tune | of to 1. The game was rather dull and 1 long drawn out, and on the part of the 1 New Workers was romeWhat unS-oaQlly 1 and poorly played. Their four errors, all l wild throws, gave the local club their
 runs. In the seventh inning Taylor and 1 HallEan reached first on wild throws i by Davis ard Joyce, and La Joie then
 sent both home with a three-bagger drive 1 to left center field. La Joie scored on 1 Deihanuy's hit The Phillies lost a
 chance for several runs by careless bare l running. Rusfe joined the New Workers today. He is in excellent condition and will begin practice with the team tom0r- 1 row.
 At Baltimore the champions defeated
 the Bostons in the presence of 13,000 en- l thushasts. For six innings excitement 1 ran high. klobedanz who replaced SN- | vetts in the middle of the sixth, showed i great speed but proved wild and inef- 1 fective. The season was opened by pa- 1 rade of the home and visiting teams l through the pr.rcipal streets of he city. l Tine procession was headed by the Fifth | regiment band and drum corps, and fol- 1 lowing them came hong line of hand 1 some equipages bearing Manager Han 1 Ion, Treasurer Von Der Horst, h5st 1 of prominent ettizecs who devotees of the ] game and the players. A handsome float i draped in red, while and blue held aloft l the Temple cup anl tn penants of 1894, 1 1895 and 1896.
 ! Tine strong Cleveland team met defeat 1 al the bands of Louisville, the "tail-snd- 1 ers'' of the league. The latter outp1ayed { their opponents beth in the field and at , bat. The CleS5laniS scored their first | and only run in the first inning on Burk- ett's sfngls, a sacrifice, Frazar's wild ! r5tch and infiefd hsit. For the remainder | of the game Frszd.' had the Spiders at l his mercy, allowing them but .hrse sin l g4es. Young pitched great ball until the l sixth inning, when four singles and sacrifice nsitted three runs. Mayor Todd l pitched the first ball acros5 the plste 1 and then made Q shor. address to the players of both teama
 IL required ten innings to decide the game at Cincinnati After q hard fight the Reds won by a score of to T. In the eighth inning the score stood Gin einnau and Chicago 6. In the ninth Irwin hit hard one to Peffer who passed it to Decker, allowing Irwin to get to third. Ritchie then hit for two bases stole third and scored on Schriever's grounder to Dahlen, tieing the score Ritchie's playing was the feature of the eyo,, -4e, .t51 three bagger in the tenth. Peffer went out to Rhines. Griffiths flew out to Burlkie and Thornton scored, leaving the score; Chicago ', Cincinnati 6. Tn the Reds half Miller hit to left, Pietz went out to Decker, Vaughan hit for three bases bringing Miller home. Irwin then hit to Dahlen and Vaughan scored. The smallest crowd of the day, 1000, gathered at St. Louis, where the Pitts burg Pirates defeated the Browns. to l. The visitors played a stronger and bet ter game than the home team and earned their victory. The game was called at S:45 D. m., Pittsburg taking the field. The first inning was featurelcss, except for the retirement on strikes of Smith, Pitts burg's star batsman, In the second both Pittsburg and St. Louis scored. That was the last of it for the Browns. Pitts burg scored easily in the sixth and picked up two more runs in the eighth on Bro dies double over first base. In all the cities there was the usual parade and concert at the grounds. Following are the scores: Washington .....2 0 o 0 0-4 Brooklyn .......0 0 0 0 20-5 Patteries-Meye and Mcclure; Payne and Grim. Umpire-Hurst Time, 2:40 At Philadelphia:
 Philadelphia .....1 0 0-5 1
 New York ........O 0 Q 0 0-1 Batteries-Taylor and Clements; Do l heney and Wilson. Umpire-Emsle. Time, 220.
 At Baltimore:
 Baltimore .....1 2 *-10 IS Boston ...........2 0 0 8 0 0 O. 10 6
 Batteries--Ioffer and Robinson; Stiv- etts, Klobedanz and Bergen. Umpire Lynch. Time, 2:05.
 At Louisville:
 Louisville ......O0O Q 3 O0-S O Cleveland .....1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1 4 2 Batteries-Frazier and Wilson; Young and Thinner. Umpire-McDermott. Time. 1:45.
 At Cincinnati:
 Cincinnati 100000 22-S 10 4 Chicago ......1 l 20 1 0 o 0 1-7 Il Batteres-Ehret Rhines and Pietz; Griffith and Kittredge. Umpire-Sheri- dan. Time, 200.
 At St. Louis:
 St. Louis ....O1OOO OOOO-1 6 2 Pittsburg .......0 % 9 s-4 9 Batteries-Donahue and Mcfarland;
 Killen and Sugden. Umpire-McDonald.