CYCLING CLUBS TO PLAY BALL - San Francisco Call - October 30, 1897

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=== CYCLING CLUBS TO PLAY BALL ===
==== Bay City and San Francisco Nines Will Cross Bats To-Morrow. ====
===== Garden City Wheelmen's Five- Mile Handicap Road Race at San Jose. =====
====== A Straightaway Mile in 1:19-Gears of Next Year's Wheels-Club Events to Come. ======
The event of to-morrow in local cycling circles will be the joint club run of the Bay City Wheelmen and the San Francisco Road Club, to end in a match game of ball between the teams of the two clubs. Great rivalry has existed between these two teams for a long while past and neither was very anxious to take on the other in a match until reasonably certain that sufficient preliminary practice had been had to insure a pretty stiff game, so that when they come together on the diamond to-morrow something is bound to happen.
The Bay Citys and San Franciscos are neighbors, their clubhouses being situated within a stone's throw of each other on Golden Gate avenue. Captains Larkin and Lewis have arranged, therefore, for a joint club run, to leave the corner of Golden Gate avenue and Polk street at 9 A. M. After a short ride they will turn their faces toward the baseball grounds at Sixteenth and Folsom streets, where the great game is scheduled to take place at 10 A. M. The Bay Citys will probably play the two Halls, McGilvray, Menne, Fred Day, Haswell, Kanzee, Raynaud and Boeckmann. The San Franciscos will put in the Lewis brothers, Robinson, Barnett, Goodwin, O'Malley, How and Crayton, with a half dozen others to choose from. After the game a run through the park will be in order.
An immense attendance of rooters from the two clubs is expected, besides spectators from the other cycling clubs interested in baseball, who will want to get a line on the two teams with a view of playing the winner before long.
The Bay Citys have their dates well filled for ball games. To-morrow they play the San Franciscos, on November 7 the Centerville team, November 14 the Cycling Press representatives of this city, and on the 21st probably the Garden City Wheelmen of San Jose.
Second in importance in to-morrow's events comes the great five-mile road race of the Garden City Wheelmen, over the East San Jose course. It is a four-cornered course, and Roy Bridgeman holds a competition record of 13:03 for the five miles. At present the road is in poor condition. The entries and handicaps for the race are as follows:
Tony Delmas, Frank Cotter, C. M. Smith, Roy Bridgeman, scratch; Julius Smith, Ted Belloli, 25 seconds: George Thorn, Fred Burgess, Irving Ryder, 1 minute 10 seconds; D. D. Baker, H. Buffington, 1 minute 20 seconds; Jack Cady, Ed Johnson, Ray Johnson, V. A. Curlin, 1 minute 30 seconds; George Owen, George Osen, 1 minute 45 seconds; Robert J. Butler, "Pop" Thorn, 2 minutes 15 seconds. 
The regular monthly meeting of the California Associated Cycling Clubs will be held next Saturday evening. November 6, at the Imperial Club, 614 Van Ness avenue. At this meeting the matter of holding a coasting contest for the championship of the Pacific Coast will be discussed.
Recent advices from Australia say that "Plugger Bill" Martin recently rode a straightaway mile on an asphalt course in 1:19 3-5, which is way below the world's record. The time has not yet been confirmed, and we do not know how he was paced.
E. W. Peabody, the Chicago amateur, who is endeavoring to equal Zimmerman's record of 100 firsts in a season, as told in THE CALL last Saturday, has won his ninetieth first place, and has four more weeks in which to win ten more. He will undoubtedly equal and probably exceed the record.
A. G. Batchelder, the New York handicapper, has been sent to Europe to secure Cerdang, Bouhours, Chase, Linton and other crack racing men to enter the six-day and other long-distance competitions to be run in New York this winter. I have it from excellent authority that Powers and Brady, who are backing this project, intend to show with these men in all the prominent cities of the United States this winter and next spring, and have already got an option on the Mechanics' Pavilion, with the idea of coming to San Francisco. If they do cycling would receive a splendid impetus here, for these men are world renowned riders, and they now use electrical triplet pacing, doing away with the necessity of supporting big pacing teams.
Sigmund Bachmann, the Austrian cyclist, who has covered 13,762 miles on his journey round the world thus far, will lecture at Austrian Hall, 507 Sutter street, Sunday evening, November 7. Besides his lecture the programme will include music and recitations.
H. C. Johnson, who has represented the Pope Company here for the past two years, left last night for Springfield, Mass., where he is to remain. Mr. Johnson made many friends here, all of whom wish him success in his new field. A Mr. Clark of Detroit is his successor in the San Francisco house.
It is now plain that the choice which riders will be called upon to make next year will be between bicycles which, broadly speaking, may be divided into two classes - the ordinary wheel with exposed chain, now common, and the machines having housed gears of whatever character. Under the second class will come the beveled gears, the various "spur" gears, the "pawl and ratchet" movements and the wheels having in- closed chains.
The demand on the part of riders has been for a driving mechanism protected from dust and dampness. This will be supplied by each of the several styles mentioned, and the supporters of the various covered gears confidently expect that gradually the type now prevailing will become obsolete.
There is an apparent tendency on the part of manufacturers to revert to the use of smaller balls in bearings next year. Brakes are also likely to be more sought for by riders and more freely offered by makers. 
Next Saturday night the managers of the various baseball teams formed within the local cycling clubs will meet at the Cycle Board of Trade rooms, 562 Parrott building, at 8 o'clock, to elect a head and arrange a schedule of games. All cycle clubs having ball teams which they wish to enter this tournament are invited to send a representative. 
The San Francisco Road Club has nominated the following officers: President, O. R. Sterling; vice-presidents, E. Lewis, J. M. Liebert and L. Silverman; secretary-treasurer, Ed Sand; financial secretary, L. Adelsdorfer; directors, J. O'Malley, S. Blumenthal, J. Lewis; sergeant-at-arms, A. Gilmore; captain, Ralph Robinson. 
At the regular meeting next Monday night the Imperial Club will elect a captain and treasurer, positions made vacant by recent resignations. The club will hold a checker tournament next Tuesday evening and a whist tournament the Tuesday following.
The following clubs have taken blocks of seats for the association's theater party on Thursday evening, November 11, at the Tivoli: Olympic Club Wheelmen 75, Imperial Cycling Club 75, California Cycling Club 80, Bay City Wheelmen 60, Acme Club Wheelmen 75, Golden Gate Cycling Club 90. Individual members of the association can secure single seats from Jules F. Hancock, 636 Market street.
W. C. Sanger, the great unpaced rider, has again gone to Denver, and in company with W. W. Hamilton will try for unpaced records. Sanger was willing to give a return match to O. B. Hachenberger, but the "buttermilk boy," it is understood, has retired from the game for good.
The Bay City Wheelmen in commemoration of the thirteenth anniversary of the club's existence will hold a "hot time smoker at the clubhouse, 441 Golden Gate avenue, Saturday evening, November 13. It will be limited to members and a few invited guests.
Captain Goetz of the Ariel Road Club has called the postponed run to Berkeley and other Alameda points for to-morrow, taking the 9 A. M. broad-gauge boat.
SPALDING.
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