The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-08-05
BARONS IN LOOKOUTS HOME;
MOBILE MEETS THE TURTLES
HENRY GRADY WAS
BASEBALL WRITER
MANY YEARS AGO
BY }. WELLINGTON yANDIvER

a great DIdtOT. ktflllS diltA WIllcit Altii
W Grady of Georgia was always a Iowa
BILE spontaneous, grown lif hoy, full of
life, frolic and FIN lie was a lover Of
all manly sports, especially OF baseball.
and in the early seventies he esteemed
himself no mean performer with the bat.
Grady was shortstop for the Fastime
club of Rome IN 1872. The PastiIne had
crossed bats with several cross road ag-
gfesations and village teams, who bare
ly knew the subtle distinctions between
town ba1l-"cat and the national game,
and on each CORY field the Pastimes had
borne off the honors, unit that nine in
the seven hilled tGlvn of Rome grew real
chesty. The Paslilnes concluded they
were the real stlff-the only champs. In
looking around f1r more clubs to wallop
it became apparent that Georgia didn't
have them. SO they discovered a little,
flea bitten. barelcgga1 team over In Ala
bama that had licked GfGsden, oxford,
Montgomery ana II rev other amateur
mines. more by accident than otherwise.
and had assumed &c ne airs under the
name of the II!ghlan1 city club Of ITALIA
dega. So they challenged the Talladega
kids. and lay awake at nights for fear
the Alabama cl,tb would get scared and
refuse to accept the ehai enge.
In those days the pltchel delve ed the
ball with straight swing Of the arm,
and a foul bah caught on the first bound
put out the batsrian. Cares began about
noon and closed ;,lcsg alout SHUTDOWN,
the scores running, al the way from 10
runs upeto 800 or ,ietter The Pastimes
chuekled and sniseered When the fool
Highland City club committed suicide by
accepting the challenge, and they came
down like the vol % tn, fold with dire
threats to make thu Alabama club eat
out of their hand like white mice. on
May IL 1872, the ciaNs ilned us as fol-
lows: Highland city, Bownan, shcrtstop;
Blackburn, first base: Woodward, LEI.
field; Knox, second bast Thornton center
field; Vandiver, pitcher; Johnson, right
field; Butler, cate Ter: McLin. third base
Pastimes, Grady wv. s., catcher; Eattey,
pitcher; Grady III W., shortstop; Proc
tor, first base; Waters, right Geld; Todd,
third base; Ramey. second base; Gregory,
left field Ross, Inter field.
The score on the completion fthe ninth
inning stood Highland City A, Pastimes
81. Here is the account OF the game writ
ten In the Rome Commercial by Henry
Grady, dated May 10, 1872.
"ralladega and her people, How nine
little men marched up the hill and then
marched down again.
There was a pretty good crowd of us,
and at about O'Clock at night we reached
Talladega, little city on the Selma road,
where the original inventors of baseball
live. One or two citizens met us at the
depot and apologized for thu baseball cub
not being there, as they were practicing
by moonlight on their grounds for the
next days game
We stroled up to the III. /. Criswen
House, where we found the immortal
Chriswell sleeping on the &C unter, his love-
ly form wrapped in the draperSN of a
Howe sewing machine circular. He was
walked; we bedded, and dreampt OF the
morrow this dreaming Of the morrow
was what ruined us). ,rhe next morning
We naraded the streets when Bayard
whispered down the line. ''Poys, let us
try and not look pra4d. 1t will hurt the
feelings of this little village, and even
when we beat the game, don't let us
MAKE fuss about it, Just let's take the
ball quietly. and give three cheers for
the defeated club (paor felows) and go
homo But we couldn't help it, We felt
so grand that we took on a stock of pride
that lasted us till the END of the eighth
inning. At that juneture we eat 1000
"unble pies
The game opened lively, Rome ran
ahead We've got a soft thing, boys"
sans out our captain; SO We had-too soft
to keep in this hot wetthe~ 1t spoiled on
ou- hands about thu fourth. nnirg. and
from that time until the end of the game
we caught the loft,est hallelujah tina
over fell to the lot of nine poor n,ortals.
In short-excuse these tears--they licked
us! We are going to lick them as soon
as We can-in my opinion this will be in