The age-herald., 1902-04-27


 N W slowly made their way out of the baseball park yesterday afternoon mutter- ing monosyllables of disguest and disap- pointment.
 l There was no shouting no roofing hut l on every lip hung the worst of all baae- ball words-"rotten." Chattanooga play ed rotten" Birmingham played rotten and the crowd which stretched from field J to field felt rotten"
 l The assembly of fans represented prac- l ticnlly every class of Bir1ningham's pop ulation and began crowding into the park long before either team had arrived. There were society women galore, busi- ness men, politicians, working men and plain every day rooters. There was a good natured rush for seats at the start and sang1line of success everybody felt l jubilant.
 The thought of Chattanooga defeating the idolized Coal Barons was, preposter- 1 ous and when President Nicklin tossed the first ball over the plate the fans. fair and unfair made themselves com fortable, ready to see the extent of the drubbng. They did sec a drubbing, but it hit the wrong spot, and when in the eighth inning Chattanooga began to pile up runs with Birmingham presenting a listless exhibition of fielding, the crowd was simply stunned. Twas q rude awai- enjng from a dream, and the only ex- pression that could partially sootho was the inalegant rotten"
 No Features Of Merit. | There were no features of merit throughout the listless contest. Iris true the Coal Barons upset Mr. Dolan's ideas of pitching, and batted the ball over the 1 field, interspersing singles with two and l three ggers, Chattanooga in the mean time presenting the most horrible ex- hibition of ball playing ever seen in Bir- | mingham All of this, however, ayailed them nothing, as Mir. Moss, the Birming- ham shortstop, made three inexcusable
 errors that disgusted the crowd, and as the baseball rooter would say, put the
 Barons way up in a sycamore tree" MT. 1 Taylor, who is manager of the garden in | centerfeld, followed suit with two errors,
 which were cxousable on account of the rough ground, but cost runs just the
 same About this time, MT. Smith, a
 dealer in speed. grew tired, and six dinly hits, otherwise known as Texas Leaguers," were 1erved up by chatta- nooga, ard the score board grew obnox- l ious to the local fars. Chattanooga 12; Birmingham 10 was the finale.
 Crowds In the Street. Early in the afternoon great crowds l congregated on the street corners down town waiting for the baseball parade and anxious to see the players The process sion started at 2:30 o'clock from the Flor ence Hotel and was made up of President Nicklin of the Southern League and AL derman Harry Jones leading the way in a carriage. newspaper representatives, the Chattanooga and Birmingham play CTS and the Rooters' Club bringing up the rear. A long lean hog in crate was presented to the spectators as the em- blem of them that root"
 Arriving at the grounds the two teams gathered around the plate and Alderman Harry Jones on behalf of the ladies of Birmingham presented Manager Frank Haller with a beautiful wreath of flow CTS in the shape of a horseshoe. Right here MT. Jones made fatal mistake. Inadvertently he turned the shoe upside down as he handed it to the manager and defeat resulted. MT. Haller respond ed briefly thanking the ladies for the in- terest in the success of the Coal Barons. The crowd by this time had assumed enormous proportions. All available | space in the grandstands and bieachers was packed with perspiring humanity, and down each foul line in a semi-circular shape were several hundred men and | women. 1 The grandstands had overfiowed and l scores of pretty girls in outing costumes