The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-06-03
BASEBALL In THE
SMALLER TOWNS
QUEER LITTLE LEAGUES THAT
HAVE EXISTED IN VARIOUS
SECTIONS OF THE COUNTRY.
GAMES PLAYED IN TWILIGHT
Beginning Of 500 League in Northern
Michigan Where Game Depends on
Miners for support-Hlrlng Of Pro-
fessionals That Spoiled Social Or
ganization-Sehedule.Maker in Ohio
Who Had His Trosbles.

Baseball is played wherever Ameri-
cans go. There is not village, or
hamlet. or crossroads town or coun.
try school house that does not boast
a ball club. From April to October
baseball is played from Maine TO low
en- California, and from the Aleutian
Islands to Florida, writes Hugh Full
lerton.
In most cases the contests merely
are single games, or series between
rival towns, but the idea of a league
playing a regularly scheduled series
of games always has been recognized
as the fairest way of deciding the
merits of team. The result has been
the organization of some of the oldest
little leagues ever formed For that
matter, some of the big" leagues,
even up in Glass A, sometimes are
strangely and wonderfully made up.
| recall the Southern league one year.
! believe Ted Sullivan organized 1t
that season, and the makeup was
fearful The league consisted of Lit
tie Rock, New Orleans, Birmingham
and Evansville, Ind, as the western
half, and Charleston, Savannah, At
lanta and Augusta as the eastern
Imagine that on Southern railways.
One of the queerest leagues ever
devised and one Of the most success
full in a small way was the 500 league,
of Northern Michigan, which now has
outgrown its swaddling clothes. The
league consisted of Calumet Lake
Linden and several other towns, all
within the radius of few miles. The
men wao made the schedule figured
the there was no use in wasting the
long summer twillghts that prevail In
that latitude, so they arranged the
games on that plan. Besides, up in
the copper country baseball depends
on the miners for support. So the
! schedule was made for evening games,
to be played after supper.
The miners would come out on their
shift Mt six o'clock, the games We're
called at $3.50, and finished about $40.
In the twilight There were few games
stopped by darkness.
TO meet the demands OF the night
workers day game also was played,
Lake Linden would play at 500 in the
afternoon, and run down home for the
evening game. The plan proved quite
u success.
Many Of the smaller leagues--ones
that are unknown to the powers Of
baseball, and that do not aspire TO
protection under the national agree,
men1-are composed of two or three
out-oftown professionals, and the rest
of the team Is made up OF home talent,
playing for the honor of being on the
team. A queer feature of these leagues
IS that at the start they do not ex-
! pect to make money. They are organ
iZed TO hold up the honor Of different
towns, and usually they are backed
by sport-loying, business men. An
other strange thing is that, in the first
year, almost all the clubs make mon
ey. instead of losing. and, after that,
growing confident, they attempt base
ball on a higher commercial scale and
fail.
One of these leagues was organized
in the early sos down in Virginia.
Charlottesville, Raleigh and -four other
towns, close together, organized
teams. The first year the league ruled
that no man should play on any team
who was not resident of the county
in which his team was located There