The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-10-04
Cincinnati Enouirer.)

| Ever since the alfalfas made their great
! tWenty-slX straight games finish in Corn
troopers league ana won the champion
/ snln from the ClOverdales Dy hair o.
one Der cent have been opposed to post
season games, said HOme-RUn Hagger-
Nv. There nOtnlnS III EN-. Play IN
/ YOUR own league finish J.tt the season,
whether Won finish first or eighth. and
tnen back 90 the woods or The railroad or
Inc corn huskin2 OF fail pluWlng for
YOURS. But sidesteD the DOst-seasOn SC
+ Iies ana let sm hit the backstoD.
That was a thrilling windup we made
that year Raggie Van Rensselaer, and
LamD HVmeS worked like machines every
Other daV and simply couldn't be touches
/ L caught every game without the sem
+ elanCe of a PASSED ball or an error ana
Z batted at am $50 clip. The lntlell worked
I like clOckwOrk and the & rec urtfieiders
only missed two flies in the Wtent y-SiN
games. and thew made no difference in
the scoring. SO it waG-no wonder we felt
eiated when we Dulleu down the prize
money Josh Hapgood gave us for winning
I the remnant and made preparations 10
disband the next day-
"But DOWN in the southeast corner o.
. Glover county there was an ambitious
little town called BALDWIN, which was
representeG Ov nine in the Apple Belt
league The PLAYERS We're mostly young
Fellows who were earning their first real
money at baseball and DIDN'T put up q
very sparkling article of the game, but
Baldwin was crazy over them. Though
thev'd only finished fourth in the Apple
Belt league they had the nerve to chaI-
lenge the Alafalfas to series of games
FOR the championship of Glover county.
and the Baldwin RoOter which was the
name Of their paper. raised a purse Of
800 to be given the players of the win
ming team
HaPgood Wanted the $3.50.
ITO saw that we We're easer to get at
them is putting 1t mild. Josh HapgOou
had a look OF heavenly bliss IN his eyes
mat II does d man good to see when he
read their challenge, Wien ne came to
the 500 part of il he almost cried for
90 i hone ne said as he read the let
ter. L hone they haven't used up all
their money and will have little left to
put down on the side
That hope was echoed by all Of us and
we quit Dlaving poker and Kelly pool
with our money SOS we'd have more
that we could double uD.
The series was arranged to be the best
three in five gameS-the first two to be
PLAYED at Alfalfa, the second two at Bald
WIN and the deciding game, if necessary,
on a neutral field. An umpire from the
SunflOwer League in Kansas was secured,
and the series began.
I'VE took the two games at Alfalfa. be-
fore big crowds. bv scores Of Z to 1 and
Reggie and Lamp and though they played
well i'm the field we batted their pitchers
hard enough to win without trying at all
And then we went to Baldwin. One
bets we'd got Op would come our way.
We got into the game that Gay before
bowling mob OF 1000 people and got played
to q standstiu You never saw reversal
of form like those Baldwins showed. But
as we would. cOuidut lose en- anG
Reggie got his bumps that day for fair
After ten DESPERATE eart-hreaklng
humns the BaldWins won il to Is, be-
cause Pinch Hobbs made wild throw 10
first I'm the tenth with two down and
man on third Pinch made so few errors.
thought that he was excused and we
looked forward to taking the next days
A Kind of see-saw.
That was the same kind OF a see-saw
fight First we were ahead. and then
they were. They batted last and that
won. for in the ninth Jimmy Harrison
and HeunCssy, our left fielder, came to-
gether going for j fly and let in two
runs. So it was up to Us TO play the de-
Gliding game on neutral grounds
And that's where the mistake was
made. In agreeing to that neutral
grounds proposition Josh HapgOod had
made the worst error OF his baseball ca
reer He had Jet his love for gold run
away with him. temporarily. and it
caused a whole lot Of trouble.
You see. there wasn't another baseball
ground in Glover county. and neither nine
would agree 20 play i'm the other town.
So they had to find ground, and they
picked out a level piece O meadow mid
way between Baldwin and Alfalfa. rOped
off the playing field and started TO play
the game.
Game Was For Blood.
"That game was for blood. We batted
like fiends, determined 10 win back the
laurcls we'd lost iu the last two days.
and the $3.50 besides. But for one thing
we could have won eGsiiy-that was the
condition of the ground. Wed been used
10 playing on nice skinned diamonds for
ten years. some of as, and getting back
10 rough stubble was TOO sudden a
change. IL didn affect the Baldwin
players. for. as 1 have said. they had Just
broken away from the corner lots with
their beer bottles and stones all over the
fields, and could play on the rough
places There was a wild strawberry
bed i'm front of second and a blackberry
bush for Pete Brown to pick wild throws
from back o first. A couple of ant hills
in front of short made il possible for
Pinch to add to his error column and the
Baldwin left fielder picked a couple of
budding three baggers off a tree in that
gard m Hennessy couldn't get onto the
trick. and those that the Baldwins sent
10 him there scored Tor home runs.
Last but not least. there was a nice
clean mud puddle in front o third base