Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-25
THE CHURCH LEAGUE
EVENING STAR CUP WON By THE
GUNTONS.
Temple Defeated for Championship in
Last Game Of the Season Be-
fore Big Crowd.
Standing of Church League clubs:

Standing of Church League clubs:
s s:::ss i i Sly; ::;; IS
Before an immense throng Of about 4,5OO
enthusiastic fans the maiden season of the
Church Base Ball League closed yesterday
afternoon. and the gray-clad boys of Gun
ton are the proud possessors Of The Even
ing Star cup and the winners of the cham
| pionship, after one of the most spirited and
| closely contested races ever witnessed in
| amateur or professional base ball history.
| Early In the season the Temple Reds and
| the Gunton Grays assumed the lead and al
ternated in setting the pace, until Gunton
gradually drew away into an apparently
safe lead. with Temple still holding down
| second place.
Then the Blues of Fourth and Tigers OF
Sixth, with strengthened teams, came up
with a rush, and, within week of the close
of the playing schedule. any one or tne
| four teams was a championship possibility.
Just previous to this stage OF the race II
became necessary for Temple to fill vacan-
cies on it's team and the new players added
80 greatly, both to the batting and fielding
strength of the team that the Red Birds
steadily decreased the gap between them-
selves and the Grays, and with the assist
| ance of dual defeat administered to the
to the front. Then followed a defeat for
Temple and a victory for Gunton, which
placed the two teams on even terms. an
event so unusual that no precedent could
be found in base ball record for several
years back upon which to base future &C
ton.
A vote taken at meeting of the board OF
directors resulted in a majority of one in
favor of one instead of three or more games
to determine the championship
The game has been played. F'ulcher got
his" and the Grays are the champions.
The elasticity of the constitution of the
taken advantage of by all Of the teams in
the league. but the Gunton management
evidently came to the conclusion at the
eleventh hour that while it had added its
share of new men it did not receive its
quota of playing strength thereby, and
placed five players in the field who had not
participated with the Grays in any previous
contests. Any criticism of Gunton on this
account however should be tempered with
the remembrance that the GrayS, with the
exception of the addition of one or two men,
besides two who were put out or the
game by injuries continued with the major
portion Of its old team after other opposing
teams, not including Temple, had greatly
strengthened by additions, both Gunton and
Temple being the last to profit by new play
erS.
AS hned up yesterday the two teams sp-
peared about equal in strength, with Teni-
pie having perhaps shade the better OF IT
on account of having a team composed Oh
men who had played many games togethef'
and with a pitcher In the box who Is con-
sidered by many o fthe wise ones as the
best amateur in the city.
But it was Fulchers ON day, ana ne
was bumped harder than at any time this
season. The new players on the Gunton
team have faced him in the District League
and other games aQd he has been almost
uniformly successfA In letting them down
with slim batting averages. He has taken
part in only one game against Gunton, on
June 81 when he saved the game Tor
Temple by holding down the GrayS to TWO
hits in the three innings he pitched, but yes
terday both Asquith and Speakman, who
could do nothing with Fulcher in the pre-
vious game, hit him just as hard as the
recent Gray acquisitions, and even Langley,
who has been batting poorly all season, got
in a single. s. Seay was the only Guntonite
to go without safety, although he hit the
ball every time up and was robbed OF
two-bagger in the first inning by sensa-
tional one-hand catch by Anderson on the
edge of 'Kenesaw bank"
On the other hand, Seay was in excellent
FORM and the Red Birds who had averaged
twelve hits off his delivery in the four
games Of the regular schedule were able to
do business with the stick for only half that
number yesterday, and those were widely
scattered.
The Reds also accorded their twirler
wretched support. and fattened Gunton's
run majority by their frequent errors.
While the score was very one-sided the
game was intensely interesting on account
of the Importance of the result. and the
players Of both aggregations gave the spec
tators plenty OF opportunity for bursts Of
enthusiastic applause by startling plays. In
addition to Anderson's great catch, Babson
pulled in with his bare right hand a
screeching liner from Langfey's bat. Dono-
van In center almost trespassed on the left
gardeners territory on a beautiful running
short. and Langley was all there with the
goods at first. Boyle also added zest to the
game by his terrific batting. and Langley
stole to third while the pitcher had the ball
Harding performed the remarkable feat of
not only maintaining his big batting aver
age of .449, but by hitting at 800 clip
nosed out King of Fourth for premier stick
ing honors and the prize offered for that
event. his figures being 450 50-51, against
an even $50 for King.
Rea beat out bunt In the fourth inning
and on the first ball pitched pilfered second.
On the next delivery he attempted to pur-
loin third but Speak nailed him by
good margin with the result that Green and
Rea are tied for the base stealing prize,
with twenty-three each.
Temple started in like a winner. scoring
twice in the first inning. on a two-bagger
by Much. bump on Harding's anatomy
and the only error of the game for the
Grays.
But Asquith. the first Gray up started the
bombardment on Fulcher. Speakman,
OBrien and Sebastian fell in line and four
runs crossed the plate. After that 1t was
easy. the Grays getting two hits in the
second inning, three in the third. four in
the fourth and one in the fifth. and two
in the sixth.
Shoemaker singled in the fourth and
romped home on Anderson's two timer.
Harding started of the eighth with a
single. but the Reds were shy with their
bats and the Grays were all over the field
and the first championship race of the
Church League race was all over, and the
winners of the first game Of the season
again defeated their first opponents in
the final contest and can now revel in
of victory from The Evening Star cup.
The score:
Gunton. R.H.o.A.E. Temple. RH.o.A.E.
Asauith: sb ! Lay; ss:.... TT
O'Brten, u Harding, c. 1
Sebast'n ,2b ! 3 Babson. Sb o 1 o,
Reilly S. 8 o Fulcher D.
g; Seay. .; g g 9 Rea. 2b..-: 9 / :