The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-08-13
BY UNFAIR MEANS.
Billings Robbed Of Well learned Game
al Miles City.

Billings Robbed Of Well learned Game
at Miles City.
The baseball club went to Miles
City for a game Sunday, and as the
score reads, was defeated 10 to g. The
local team has suffered defeat rather
plentifully this season, but heretofore
has accepted the result resignedly and
with as much grace as could be sum-
moned under the. circumstances. The
members have readily conceded that
the victorious team played better ball
than they, swallowed their medicine,
and tackled the next applicant. Not
having me the Miles City team this
year, the boys thought it no more
than justice to let the Custer County
Invincibles pluck their little plum
from the tree SO heavily laden with
easy fruit. But they certainly did
not anticipate getting boquets handed
to them in the amer in which they
were showered by Captain Smith, aid
ed by the shortsightedness of the field
umpire at critical moments.
With Is hits to Miles nine, six
shut-outs to Miles four; fewer errors,
and cleaner, better ball-playing general
ly, it certainly goes against the grain
for Billings to be credited with the
loss of the game, when half of Miles
City's runs were due to a direct re-
pudiation of an agreement made be-
fore the game between Captains Bah
cock and Smith. 1t was expressly
agreed that a wild throw to third and
first should give the runner only one
bace, but when the play came up and
the ball went out into the woods be-
You'd first base, three of Miles runner
were allowed to trot home, and Smith
valiantly maintained that in his fer
tile memory he cherished no reccollec-
ton of any such an arrangement as
the one above alluded to.
This play occurred twice. and while
the Billings players were responsible
for the ball being thrown away, this
did not furnish al excuse to rob them
of five or six runs in direct contraven-
ton of an express stipulation between
the captains of the opposing teams.
But the umpire, when appealed to,
proved an alibi and there was moth
ing to do but throw up the game and
quit or give Miles the benefit of a half
dozen unearned runs. The latter
course was chosen, and the Alkali
Flatters landed on the Minneapolis
whirlwind for a sufficient number of
runs to place them one to the good in
the ninth inning. With two men gone
and two or base, Taylor threw to
Samlin on third, mistaking him for
Butler, the third baseman. The ball
met nothing but empty air, as Butler
was playing for the batter several feet
from the base. Again the umpire
could not see that Samlin was desc
Grating any of the rules of polite So
ciety in standing on the base when
he should have been back Is feet on
the coach line. This very natural
mistake of Taylor's cost two runs and
gave Miles the game, after being out
played in every respect from start to
finish.
Had the boys taken a lawyer to pre-
pare a written contract, and had
Smith been placed under bonds they
might have done business with the
husky Milesians, but since ball-play-
ing. and ball-playing alone, could not
win, they were defeated in a close
and exciting game which was theirs,
and which they had no license to lose.
A good and enthusiastic crowd was
in attendance, and the Miles City
band furnished the music for the oc-
casion. The boys were most hospit-
ably entertained, and aside from the
small potatoes presented them as
above mentioned, are well satisfied
with their trip to the Custer county
metropolis.
THEIR PALE FACE FIR ..