Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-04-30
Three Eye Ball Clubs Ready for
the Start-Off To-
morrow.
GREAT CONFIDENCE PREVAILS
Augustana College Made Good
Showing Against Lombard
Yesterday. o..

pennunt with hOck ISldIlu at decatur,
Cedar Rapids at Davenport, Dubuque
at Rockford and Joliet at Blooming
ton. After playing two series the
scene will shift and then Rock Island
will be at home with Bloomington,
Davenport will be at Cedar Rapids,
Decatur at Joliet and Rockford at
Dubuque.
Thus each will open at home in Il
weeks time and interest throughout
the league will be enlisted at an early
date. The performance of the vari-
Gus teams in the first few games will
be watched very closely. Owing to
the new towns that have been intro
duced into the circuit and the great
changes that have been made in the
teams of the old towns the relative
prowess Cf the various aggregations
is matter of greatest uncertainty.
Much Confidence shown.
1t is interesting to note the degree
of complacency with which the peo-
pie of the different cities are watch
ing their teams and awaiting the be-
ginning of the race. All, with the pos
sible exception of Davenport, are be-
having very much like the man with
four aces apparently endeavoring to
conceal their citation from the others
and biding their time when they will
reach after the pot. In Davenport
the situation is rather ticklish and
the knockers already have their ham
mers out. If Davenport does not win
something in the first games there
will very likely be a big white frost
down at the west end of the city
some fine morning. The fans are not
happy over the performance of the
team in the exhibition games.
Are Betting on Hill.
Out at Cedar Rapids the papers are
Dragging about the team and con-
graduating themselves that Belden
Hin has a better team than at the
beginning of either of the former sea-
sons. Rockford, too, seems to feel that
Hugh NicoL has lost none of his cum
ming in picking out winning bunch
of ball players. Dubuque and Joliet
do not appear to be at all alarmed
about the outcome. At Bloomington
the papers are following the usual
custom of lauding the team to the
skies and then expecting it to do all
that has been promised for if.
But, most of all, Rock Island en-
thusiasts are probably now interest
ed in Decatur The people of Mana
ger Netherlands town also seem to
think they have something up their
sleeve which they can spring at the
proper time. They are reasoning ii
L..
Haute and Terre Haute beat Bloom
ington, while the last named in turn
laid out Joliet. That looks pretty
rosy for Decatur. But Rock Island
fans can follow the same line of rea-
soning: Rock Island beat Peoria,
Peoria beat Milwaukee and Milwau-
kee showed Decatur under so deep
that the fans of the latter city admit
ted that they had been trying to play
ont of their class. Question:: What
ought we to do to Decatur?
Decatur Wins Close Game.
Decatur, April 30.-Decatur had the
game we'll in hand when Joliet came
to bat for the last time. \ lucky hit
ting streak, coupled with Pitcher
Methods wildness and stupid play
CT iiiSNs dhONCh AilC NASlNpAS " TIC AhN
score. But the home team won the
game back in their inning. the final
figures being to z. The score:
Decatur .......20 100000 is 9 1
Joliet O2OOOO5-7 Il 3
Batteries Method and O'ConnOr
and Hoag, Noskoil and Reading.
Rockford and Sioux Falls.
Rockford, April 3O.-Starl1e's three
base hit in the eighth inning at time
when the bases were full saved the
last exhibition game to the locals.
Score:
Rockford ...OOO3OO3 Isl 9
Sioux Falls -. ,102411OOO- IA z
Batteries-Swaim, Blanford; Beed-
les, Starke.
Augustana Makes Good showing.
In the game with Lombard college
on the college campus yesterday af-
ternoon Augustana was beaten 3 to 1.
In view of the record that Lombard
has as one of the crack school organ
izations of the state and the showing
the team made in Davenport, the Au
gustana boys feel that they did eX
ceedingly well, and they are encour
aged to believe that they will make a
very creditable record indeed during
the season. The work of the Angus
tana battery was especially effective
yesterday, Gustafson striking out II
of the visitors and Nordling playing a
good game behind the bat. The one
run of the home team was earned.
while the visitors obtained two of
theirs ON errors. The two teams lin
cd UP as follows:
Augustana = Nordling, c; Holland,
Id; Peterson, 2b; Moberg, 3b; Davis,
IS; Johnson, cf; Lindberg, IF; Ander-
son, If; Gustafson, p.
Lombard = Bourgeois, 2b; Snyder,
IS; Hughes. p; Andreen, 1b; Hart
grove, c; Dixon, If; Mertes, 3b; Tip
ton, 2b; Jensen, CT.
Score by innings:
Augustana ......000O0eOO1 Al
Lombard ........OOOOO21 4 1
Augustana plays on the local