The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-30
SPEAKING OF WORLDS SERIES s- WELL, YOU
 WE'RE, WEREN'T YOU?

epeaAfng off the world's3 serious . asR doubE1ess you were. didkyou know fl1ait the first of these interesting tour nanaents was pulled off just half a century ago this month We'll, twas. During the Civil War baseball was all most defunct in the United States, bu it tEhourtshed in Canada, and it re- v4ved quickly as soon as the great struggle between North and South was ended In 1865 th4 baseball play CTS he1dka convention, at which Ar thur PueSGorman, afterward United States Senator from Maryland and promInent1y mentioned as Democratic candidate for the Presidency, was elected president. Nearly hundred cihbe were repr scented. among them several from Canadian cities and from as far west as St. Louis and Leavenworth.s In the fall of that year the business men of Detroit, where the. basebalIs fever ragged furiously, decided to invite all the clubs of the United States and Canada to take part sn a championship tournament. The s'serious'' attracted teams from a number of eastern and middle west ern cities, and Canada had four clubs, representing Montreal, Quebec To r0ntO and Handlton. Greatly to the cllagrdn of the players and fans of the was captured by Canadian bunch, the Hamilton Bnkn owns
 fOf course, that was an amateur tournament as professional baseball had not yet been launched, and it was not until nearly 20 years later that the first professional worlds series was pulled off That was in 1884, and the contestingi clubs were the Provi- dence team. fpennant winner of the ] National League, and the New York Metropolitans. who had caapHur'ed the bunting in the o1d American Associa- tton. Proddence won three straight vfctorf es. A purse Of $1s000 was hung up by the late A. G. SpaIding and Chris won der Ahe,l the immortal St. Louis nagnate, to be divided equally between the players of the winning club. The losers got nothing, and the victors less than $1OO each.
 The first worlds series was captur- ed by Providence largeIy-because of the pitching prowesss of Radbourne and Sweeney Radbourne was prac- tfca1ly the Providence team. s1n 1884 he worked like a horse, twirling 72 games for a percentage of<.838 in the regular season, and was largely in etrun enkaI in winning the gonfaIon for the Rhode Island metropolis. Few pitchers in the garness history have bourne He was about the first box man to use change of pace,'' and mixed the fast and slow ones in a manner which bafhed the best bait LeTS- lie ndQ ITe1QSnQOuS speed, aO1I he saved his arm whenever possible, and his headwork was wonderful He often gave passes to prevent the stars Of the opposing batsxnen from lead ing off in a subsequent inning, and he originated dozen tricks of the trade which are still in use. Charley Sweeney. who was Radbourne's sub stitute as pitcher for Providence. was also a great twirler. In 1883 Sweeney established a record of 21 strikeouts in a game against Boston, although some authorities say he got only IS. Admitting that 21 is correct. it stands as a worlds record in major league ball, for the nearest approach to it was made by Hugh Daley, with the Chicago club of the Union Associa- ton in 1884. when he famed 20 Bos- ton Unions.
 Keefe and Lynch were the. twirIers for the Metropo1tans in the first pro- fessional worlds series. Despite his failure in this series, Keefe was 8 treat pitcher, and with the Giants led t1e league sin 1888. Sir Timothy Keefe, as he was called by the ol0- time fans, had almost perfect con- troH and tremendous speed, but he also used slow ball with great success.
 Radbourne and Keefe-yea. sBo. <Eey were some pitchers.