The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-03
A A s BALL STORY.
When New York State Was All Torn Up
by Rival Clubs.
ON the Chicago Chronicle.


From the Chicago Chronicle.
There was a time many years ago
when Corning, n. Y, thought its base
ball team was some shucks. That was
the time when every town which boast
ed anything in addition to a railroad
station and a saloon had to have a
baseball team. when championship"
games were played or every prairie in
the land, and when every young man
considered himself a coming Arson.
Corning had a baseball team, but IL
was not alone in its joy. Hornellsville
had a team which every local Hornells-
william lowed could beat anything
that ever stepped on a diamond. They
had pitchers IN Hornellsville who could
throw compound curves, they had
catchers hat could catch anything
hat ever came over the plate. They
had base-runners who scorned to run,
but slid all the way around the dia-
mond; they had outfielders who could
catch flies while running backward
and in the act of jumping over rows of
spectators. When the Corning team
was mentioned i'm Hornellsville a hol-
low, hooking laugh ~resounded through
the town. IL a Corning man heard the
baseball nine of Hornellsville referred
to he vas moved to mirth.
OF course this state of affairs could
not last forever. The tension grew SO
strong that something had to break.
When Corning played Hornellsville
everybody in each town went out and
borrowed money to bet on his team.
The umpire was regarded with cold
suspicion before the game and had to
have police protection from the adher-
ents of the losing nine after the strug-
gle was over. Corning suspected that
Hornellsville was ringing in profession
al players from the league teams. Hor-
nellsville had an idea that the bats of
their players were creased secretly
by emissaries of the Corning team. III
a player of the Corning team fell down
and sprained his arm a few days before
a match game everybody in Hornells-
vile said he did 1t to make way for
a substitute who had been secretly
training in some mysterious place for
months. IL a Hornellsville man Glanced
to be obliged To bury his mother-in-law
on the day set for a game, the Corning
crowd sal that he had IL all fixed for
her to die hat day in order that his
place on the team might be taken by
some player of unsupported strength
and ability. Every game was followed
by about eight private fights between
gentlemen who began by arguing about
the merits of the mines and ended by
reaching for the viscera of their oppo-
nents.
Things went on In this way for most
of one season. n near its close the
two teams had broken even" Each
had won and lost an even number OF
| games from the other, and the excite
ment grew so intense when the time
approached for another game that the
fire department vas held In readiness
for an instant call. day or night.
Money which had been laid away in
Corning banks for months was drawn
to blum men from Hornellsville. Base
a fans" from that place sold real
estate to get money to cover the coin
produced I'm Corning. And then IL was
discovered that a nefarious plot was on
foot.
Syracuse and Rochester were having
the same kind OF a fight. These TWO
cities had teams which were
OF the international eague including
some Canadian centers. and the feei-
ing between them was high. Rochester
men had been known to suspend ousi-