Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1925-07-02

i E.
/ Wells: in fact he was to. Portage,
just what George Dodd was to Bar
aboo. At that time Mr. Wells was
a full grown, curly haired boy, and
| possessed a good personal appear
ance. From all | could ever OBJ
serve, he always played the game
square also tried to make his
men do likewise, although this was
at times difficult to do. His great
ambition seemed to be to win the
game by good hard playing, and il
he could not win it that way, he
was perfectly willing to lose. Mr..
Wells probably had the distinction
I of staying in the game for a longer
period than anyone else in this
vicinity, as he was still playing
some in the middle eighties. We
understand that he is still a resi-
dent of Portage, and if so, it would
be a safe bet that he would be
found among the fans at most any
i game.
Probably the hardest fought bat
tie for base ball honors in the early
days, took place at the Portage fair
grounds on the Fourth of July,
about the year 1876. This was in
the nature of tournament, and
four teams from surrounding towns
were entered.
The Baraboo club on this occa-
sion was led by Rollie Noyes; and
as a matter OF course J. H. Wells
/ had his picked nine from Portage.
Mansion was represented by as fast
team as they ever possessed; and
the invincible Asa mccall was
also there with his "Scott Boys" of
Cambria, every last one a full
| blooded "mick1e" Scotchman.
The grounds were amply large
enough for two games to be play
ed simultaneously, so in the fore
noon Baraboo played against Maus-
ton, and Portage against Cambria.
Baraboo and Portage won the
morning games, and in the after
noon these two teams played Off
the tie. This was a very close and
holly contested game, but the Bara-
boo boys finally won out by 2 very
small margin.
Mr.. Noyes pitched both games
very effectively and the catching
was done by a colored Pullman
/ porter named Johnson, who was
surely an artist behind the bat. The
catcher in those days had no pro-
lection in the way Of mask, or chest
protector, and to avoid being hit
by foul tips, etc, they depended en-
i tirely on their ability to dodge. This
he did with remarkable agility, Of
ten smoking cigar at the same
time. Among others in the game
from Baraboo were lie Grand Lip
4 pitt, Oscar Brandenburg, Dell
| Brewer, and Andrew Daubner.
I At the supper that evening, Mr..
Wells, with a nicely worded speech,
presented a silver cup as a trophy,
to the Baraboo boys, and Mr.. Noyes
/ responded in behalf of the latter.
l do not know what became of the
cup, but it certainly would make "a
very interesting addition to the
/ collection of the Sank County His
torical Society.
| This tournament at Portage was
no doubt the biggest event for Bar
aboo in it's entire base ball history.
BY HARRY SLYE
Three Famous Players
Baraboo could boast, and did
boast, in the old days OF three
famous ball players. They prob
ably were not above the average as
all around players, but each one
had a speciality in which he ex-
celled, and to the best of my know.
/ ledge they were never outclassed,
in this vicinity at least. One was
a remarkable batsman, another
was a fast base runner, and the
other was long distance thrower.
The batsman was Henry Langdon
generally known as Long Lang
dom. He had already established
quite a reputation on the field west
of the court house square, by driv-
ing a ball from the home plate over
into the jail yard between second
and first streets, the old stone Jail
at that time faced ON First street.
But the climax was still to come.
Up to this time they had never
been able to make a bat that quite
suited Langdon, but thinking that
it would be worth while to DO SO,
they finally, after much experiment.
ing, produced bat that Langdon
declared to be just right, The
material was native willow, It vas
just the right length, just the right
heft, and it had just the right spring
i to If so AFT the next game Langdon