The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-11-12
ued. If those young Indians aren't q
little more careful I'll have Reilly after

little more careful Ill have Reilly after
them"
"As l was saying" he resumed.
ignoring the cause of the interruption,
II felt as If we boys were being
crowded out by the regular mems
clubs, but my heart went clear below
zero after had been playing 10 years
longer. and was quite 4 young man
think it was in 1857 when the base-
ball associations organized and framed
up regular rules. Then pretty soon
there were little books afloat. with the
national rules in them. Everything
got onto cut and dried basis. No
more chance for personal opinions.
When any good. old fashioned squabble
comes up. out comes rule book from
somebody's hip pocket. Brooklyn
came to the front with Il pretty good
club about this time and had series
of games with New York on the race
course at Flushing. l.. l. The family
was about moving to Chicago. but dad
and saw one good game between the
old New Yorks and Brooklyns before
We came away"
How did it compare-honest, now?"
Honest. now. bub. there was no
comparison. With that six-and-one-
half,ounce ball. rubber center. covered
with yarn and leather; bat as long as
you want it: pitcher moving around
as free as you please, just 50 that he
kept IS feet from the home base; no
splitting on balls. twists or outlaniish
curves. but straight pitching; all he
had to do, according to the rules, was
to get his ball as near Us possible to
home base No comparison between
then and now"
Il should think" put in hub. that
such rules would not freeze game
very stiff. or even have bothered you
very much"
ut was bad enough to have the
rules" persisted the veteran, but
those were lively games compared to
what they are now. With stick long
enough to reach ball within ten feet
Of you. and such a lively ball that the
good hitters could knock 1t hundred
games to watch! And they had scores
but the biggest scores that remem-
Der were run up in Illinois. The diff
ference makes me tired" said the old
gentleman, YEARLY. IF you can have
a twenty-inning game, with a score OF
9 to l, like that one between Chicago
and Philadelphia last year. you think
it's great. In the fifties and sixties.
when the Knickerbocker Mutuals of
New York, the Battles of Brooklyn, and
the Illinois Rockfords were playing, it
wasn't real game until after you'd
piled up from fifty to 100 runs"
Easy, dad. Don't mix fish stories
with baseball
True as gospel, and the records
will prove it, although when I came to
Chicago, with the family, the daily
papers weren't giving much attention
| to the game. was looking over the
old Press, Democrat. Journal and Trib-
une the other day and not a report
| of baseball game could l find for
81, though l know the Unions were
organized the year before. Ny crowd.
the Excelsiors, came in about the same
time; also the Atlantics. and there was
a husky club of country lads from
Downer's Grove. The great ball
! grounds in those days were at the cor
| ner of what is now Harrison and Hal
sted, Washington and Sheldon, and in
front Of the old Bulls Head tavern, ut
! Ogden avenue and Madison. But as l
| said, for number of years the papers
| seemed to give the game the cold
shoulder. Cricket and boating had the
lead. The Chicago Regatta and Cricket
| club, fathered by her majesty's British
consul. had the monopoly of the sport
Ing columns with an occasional old
fashioned prize fight in a saloon-fine,
! S. side.
| We'll. when did the Chicago papers
| commence to timber up!'
THE first record could find was in
the old Daily Democrat of Sept. IA,
| 1885," replied the veteran baseballist,
with an air of satisfaction. II not Of
| pride. 1T preserved in the public
| prints the great game between the
! Unions and the Excelsiors-30 to IL
| rather small score, but fine game.
| remember We had couple of young
physicians for scorers, though we
didn't need their professional services,
though several squalls came up that
the rules didn't seem to quell-nor the
umpire, either. Later the Atlantics got
to be the Chicago champions, but for
/ several years were made miserable, as
we'll as all the other local clubs, by
that interior gang Of clerks and coun-
try boys. the Rockforis-Al Spalding,
pitcher.
Still we were all amateurs in those
days. and the clubs of Chicago. Rock
ford, Freeport, Evanston, Madison,
Wis, and some other cities, in the last
year of the war, when good many of
the boys were coming home after play
ing with hotter balls than they ever
handled in the diamond-I think it was
In 1865 that they formed the North
western Association of Amateurs. OF
course. was then out of the game
and in business, but still was mighty
glad to 80 to O game. l went and
hurrahed with the other old boys, when
the old Dexter grounds were opened in
June, 1867; but l am sorry to say
that the Rockfords gave the Excelsiors
a trouncing. commenced to get lit
tie resigned to professional baseball
when, after these amateur champions
of the northwest had beaten the Ma
tionals of Washington-the eastern
championship thought the earth was
theirs, they were tanned in four games
by the Cincinnati Reds, the first sal
aried team In the country, and for a
time invincible.
The Rockfords of 1869 were worse
than ever. The papers were now full
of baseball, and they all agreed that
when Chicago was up against Rockford
she was simply pudding. That year
the Rockfords won 20 out of the "a
games they playei-the Cincinnati
Reds won the a; they made a total
OF ,S12 runs against 287 for their on
ponents, and, to give you an idea Of
some of the games, they won from Har-
wards by 40 to 10, and the Libertys of
Springfield brought about that meeting
In the Briggs house in 1869. when Pot