The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1920-05-21
UTICA

Dear Mr.. Editor: This has been a
week of no news-nO deaths. no births,
nobody visiting, nobody getting mar
ried; all are busy in the fields and the
women are all busy cleaning house, so
you cannot get even little gossip to
report. Not liking to see the Utica
column come out blank, will have to
give your readers some old time news.
Some time ago an article appeared in
the Cambridge News headed ''Recol-
lections of Baseball Game" played
there so years ago. This article was
signed by O. j. o. Now am not so
sure who this o. j. 0. is, but think he
must be Norwegian, being he has so
many O's in his name. The article was
very interesting and it brought back to
my mind game of ball played 40 years
ago. This game was between the fats
and leans and was played on the public
square at Cambridge. am very sorry
] cannot give the names of all the
players as o. j. o. does in his article,
but / recollect J. H. Townsend, R. j.
Doolittle, DR.. Cargen and myself play
ed with the fats. Thos. Slagg, Hans
Olson, Ole Bilstad and Andrew Hanson
played with the leans. The game was
called promptly at l o'clock. The pub
lie square was not very large and some
what crowded and we did not only want
to play good game of ball, but we
also wanted to see that none of the
spectators were injured or that any
damage was done to property. So with
this in view our players were placed
where they could do the most good!
Now the 1st base was right in line with
Pollock's barn where all the spectators
were lined up. I was put on lst base,
not because could play there any bet
ter than many of the others, but on &C
count of my size / could give more pro-
lection to the spectators. Third base
was right in line with the dwelling
north of the livery barn and all the
windows on the front were exposed.
DR.. Cargen was placed on 3rd base, not
because he was such good 3rd base
player, but because he could protect
more glass than any of the others. A
queer thing happened on 3rd base-a
ball was batted up and'it was going to
drop on 3rd base. the DR.. held up his
hands but the ball went right through
and bounded off his bay window and
was caught by the shortstop. We
claimed that the batter was out be-
cause the ball was caught before it
struck the ground; the other side claim
ed it was a dead ball. We protested
and claimed it was impossible that it
was dead ball as it had bounded from
a live man. 1t was finally decided safe
and the game went on. There were
many home runs made. was poor
batter but what lacked in batting
could make up in running. had prac-
ticed this from childhood, and when a
young man l was considered quite
speedy, and / found it handy and that
it many times helped me out when
got into tight quarters; and still ad-
vocate to train your boys to be good
runners. Why should l, as handsome
a man as / was, stand up and take any
chances of being disfigured when
knew couldsoutrun him? Not on your
tintypei But | guess am getting
away from the ball game. The game
went on-no accident, no bad quarrels.
At that time you could call for hip
ball or knee ball and you could wait
until the pitcher gave you what you
called for. I used to call for hip ball
but in later years l called for ''high
balls" as they were easier to hit. The
crowd began to get smaller as many of
the farmers had to GO home for their
chores, and the game was finally called
off on account of darkness. After the
score keepers had figured up they re-
ported the score stood II to IS in favor
of the fats. In those times game
was gagged by the number of scores
made, and when the baseball history
of Christiana is written this game will
be given prominent place. This was
the good old times when we gave the
people CD hours of baseball excitement
free of charge, and bought potatoes for
Csc bushel.
Most Respectfully Yours,
C. o. Tellefson.