The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1938-01-21
o. MI Montana
- Sports Tales
AITM of other days
Hy JOE L. MARKHAM Chairman Montana State Athletic Commission
of other dQus

The baseball rivalry that once eX-
listed between BOZeman and Livingston
perhaps antedateS that of any other
inter-clty national pastime war in Mon
tana: Those two towns waged and
ragged baseball conflict and enthusiasm
as early as 1883. Perhaps their baseball
rivalry began before that time. If so,
the writer has no record of it.
Browsing through the files of the
Standard of May. 1900, the conductor
of this column ran across a letter from
Frank Chrlsty, which tells of a game
played between Livingston and BoZe-
man on July 4, 1888.
The letter is as follows:
Baseball Crooks of 1883
Talk about early days in the base
ball business in Montana! Why, the
best game ever played in the state was
played at Bozeman on the Fourth Of
July, '89, and it happened just this
way: You see, there was a barber at
Livingston who was a great crank, and
him and a team was organized. Well,
over at Bozeman, Billy Fransham
and Staff Houston were the leading
baseball fiendS. Both were enterprising
and wide awake, and, of course, would
not allow Bozeman to be without rep
resentation. Consequently, Bozeman
soon had a team. In due time, a game
wac II LIN 4lSS OA1 OSSoAC
ton day, '88, which resulted very dis
%astrously for BoZeman. Nothing daunt-
ed. however, the boys in the valley re-
solved to get even, having learned that
their rivals had worked a little scheme
by importing three players from the
eaSt-James Cram, Ben Hill and James
Beardsley-so they laid for them.
New Team Saved Boss Bets
About this time Shorty O'Brien
and rvSa1f visited Ro7amon on6 paino6
a hearing with the 'magnates,' which
resulted in the organization of a new
team. We got down to business i'm
mediately n commenced practice on
June l for the next game, which vas
scheduled for the Fourth of July. The
city gave the usual celebration, and
among the list Of sports was a baseball
Livingston would come and get the
money, so we laid plans to keep them
from stealing it.
We started right in to select and
place our champions by taking - of
the farmer lads to the grounds, which
were situated at that time just to the
rear of Nelson Story's residence, and
the first evenings practice was a sight
I shall never forget. You see, OBrien
and I had made the contract in such a
name that if we did not win w got
no money; if We won, the purse was
ours. You al imagine u feelings after
the first 'tryout.' However, we were not
to be outdone, we had tried some few
good amateurs and the manager, Tom
Murphy, assured us that we had not
seen the best which proved to be a
fact. The following day we held a con-
sultation, selected and placed the team
which won the game and saved $125
each for Shorty and I.
Stars Were Numerous
Our first selection was a tall, slen-
der, light complexioned left handler
by the name of Keown, and it may be
Of interest to you to know that this
same left handler is now well known
as Major Keown. Well, if he goes to
war like he played ball in '88 he is all
right. Our next selections were Arthur
Place, Cox, Davidson, Fransham and
others. We also secured two good play
ers from the outside, whose names were
Greer and WEIGH. Our practice con-
tinued steadily until the day before
the game and on that eventful morn