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Show ! Baseball of the Bygone Days I Related by James Wood, Captain and Manager of the Famous Chicago White Stockings of 1870-71, to Frank G. Menke. i v. THE first game of the memorable Chicago White Stockings-Cincinnati Red Stockings series was playod in tlio latter part of September, Sep-tember, 870, in Cincinnati, amid scenes unparalleled on any ball field. The Ked Stockings never had been beaten on their own grounds. The feat j was considered impossible by other teams that had played "there during I ISoi) :11U tnC earpy part ot- 1370. Those players had told us that if the visiting teams had a chance for victory tho umpires um-pires Cincinnati products would get busy in behalf of the Ked Stockings; if the umpires couldn 't swing the trick alone the crowds would menace the opposing op-posing players- to a point where they would quit trying to win rather than risk the danger of being hit by missiles mis-siles or mobbed by the crowds after the game. I had considered all these things before be-fore I took my boys to Cincinnati. I told each one" what he might expect : from the crowd if we should happen to jwin. But they were a brave, fearless lot, my boys, and they vowed and ' kept that vow that no show of hostility hostil-ity by the fans would affect their playing play-ing one iota. ; I was determined that the umpire was 'not to be a Cincinnatian, making that condition emphatic from the outset. The 'Red Stockings demurred at first, but , when thev found that I meant exactly I what I had said and wouldn't play the I game unless we had an impartial urn-I urn-I pire thev reluctantly agreed. I Just before the game began we made : an announcement to the stands that we wanted some spectator to umpire for I us and that Cincinnati and Chicago i residents were barred. From out of the i stands.' after a long delay, stepped a salesman, named Milligan, front Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. He convinced us quickly that , he was thoroughly conversant with the , game, and he was' named as umpire. N Win First Game. The game began, with the Cincinnati bail park crowded to its 10,000 capacity. At the outset the Cincinnati gamblers were circulating through the stands : waving huge rolls of bills. They offered I odds of Jt) to 1 against us at first, but these gradually shifted down to 15 i to 1 when the Red Stockings support-I support-I era saw how quickly their money was I snapped up by the small band of root-j root-j ers who went to Cincinnati with us. We jumped into the lead in the early ! inning's and held it throughout. Sev- eral times the Red Stockings tried to rally but failed. They never caught up with us, and wo won, .i to 3. During the first part of the game the crowd was orderlv. It felt certain that the Red Stockings would overhaul us. But when the game had gone along seven innings, in-nings, with tho White Stockings still in the lead, the crowd got busy. It hurled threats at our players and menaced our catcher and tried to frighten fright-en Umpire Milligan. The Red Stockings also tried to bulldoze Milligan. But he was of the sort who wouldn't stand for it. He knew full well that if the Red Stockings were beaten on their own grounds he was in great danger of foul treatment by the thousands who had bet so heavily on their Cincinnati team. But aI illiaan was of a ireroic mold. He umpired that game fairly and squarely as he saw it. He played no fa- rentes.' And wo accomplished, on that j hot September afternoon .what had been ! considered impossible the defeat of the 1 j Red Stockings on their home grounds. j Immediately after the game was nvv I the crowd swarmed upon the field, in- ! tent cn wreaking vengeance upon us. 1 I 1 had anticipated this move and in-j in-j st rue ted my players for a quick- get-awav. get-awav. When the last out was made we dashed for the exits and jumped into I our carriages. As we ran across the 1 field many of us were struck with 'stones and bottles. The frenzied Ohio-i Ohio-i p.ns pursued us even after we had en-j en-j tered our hacks, pelting us with rocks ; until our horses had distanced them. 1 Players Become Heroes. Our victory over tho Red Stockings on Cincinnati soil was the greatest sensation sen-sation up to that time. And Chicago .went wild with joy. When we got back home we were given a greeting unlike ' an v ever accorded ball pbiyers before. We were the heroes of t h e h 0 u r a n d . of the year. Three weeks later we played the soc-1 soc-1 end and the lat game of the series. ;lt was played in Chicago on a diamond in the Dexter Park race course. No ! other place, in Chicago was considered I big enough to accommodate the crowd ; ! that wanted to go to that game. The day the game was played the crowds started for the park early in the morning. All forenoon and during the early part of the afternoon carriages car-riages wended their way to the park, and there was always oucsido the gate a mob howling tor admission. Before the game began "27,000 admissions at $1 each had been sold,' with another 25,0U0 in a wild scramble for tickets. And then the fence, unable to withstand with-stand the pressure of that surging mob, went down with a crash and the mob swarmed in. Several attempts were made by the club officials to have that broken section of the fence fixed, but 'it was useless. Tiie crowd, rushing in, j swept everything before it, and the 'game began, with the fence broken and 1 the ' ' free admissions ' J still coming, j The paid admissions for that game to-1 to-1 taled 27,000; the "free admissions" .went well beyond 25.000 making a 52,- 000 crowd within tiie park when the call j "Play ball" sounded the greatest ; crowd that ever witnessed a prof essional I baseball game. j Eleven hundred carriages the pop- I ular form of locomotion in that period j also were inside the park. I Bob Ferguson of Brooklyn umpired that game. He was paid $100 and his expenses and was guaranteed every protection. pro-tection. He was chosen in a rather unusual way. About two weeks before the game was played Harry Wright, manager of the Red" Stockings, and myself my-self agreed that we would select the umpire um-pire in this way: Each would write three names on a slip of paper and mail it to the other. In case one candidate was named by both he would be the umpire. um-pire. It was found that Ferguson had been named by both, whereupon he was appointed. ap-pointed. ' The owners of the White Stockings wanted to pay Ferguson $300 and expenses, but the' Red Stockings owners balked and all Ferguson got was $100 and expenses. Much Betting. When the game began the betting was even. A vast sum of money was vva-i vva-i gered on the outcome of that diamond battle. It seemed that every Chicago fan wanted to plunge his bankroll on our chances. The city as a whole had un-. un-. bounded confidence in our ability. A , big delegation ot Cincinnati rooters 1 and gamnlers went to Chicago for that game and from the way they flourished tfoOO and $1000 bills in tiie stands it made it look as if they were com missioned mis-sioned to bet the entire wealth of the Ohio city on the chances of their ball club. It was in that game, by the way, that the Reds introduced to' Chicagoans 1 fast fielding practice as a preliminary. Before that time no club ever had practiced prac-ticed fast fielding in a game in Chicago. Chi-cago. The efforts of our players were ; devoted only to increasing their hitting I skill. j A mighty roar went up fyom the stands when Ferguson sounded his "Play ball," and then the crowd settled set-tled back to watch the game. Things broke badly for us in the early innings. An error or two on the part ot my boys, mixed with several long hits by the Red Stockings, gave them a leau of five runs. Later on they increased it, and when the seventh inning was ended the score stood 11 to 2 in favor of the Cincinnati club. And then I rallied my boys. "All together now."' I told them. "Here come our 'bloodied innings.' Get out and get after that pitcher. We'll win we can 't lose. ' ' 1 And the boys began playing with a ' new spirit. It always had been a p e - I cjtharity of my White Stockings to piay j ; their greatest ball during the last two : innings of the game, and all around the 1 'circuit the eighth and ninth innings be-J came known as "the bloodied innings! of the White Stockings." It so happened in that game that the Red Stockings got last bats. The choice was decided by the flip of a coin and t had lost. So we went to bat first in the eighth inning and hammered out f i vc runs, holding tiie Red Stockings scoreless in their part of the inning. With the score 11 to 2 against us at the end of the seventh the Cincinnati Cincin-nati rooters were rushing around the stands offering odds of from 25 to 100 to 1 against us. Strange es it mav seem, they found many takers. Our backers had confidence in us. When we went to bat in our part of the ninth the first half with the .score 11 to 7 against us, the Cincin-, Cincin-, n a t i a n s still wc re I a y i n g huge od d f against us. And then, amid an ever-increasing ever-increasing roa r of applause from the crowd, we ' 1 got " to that Cincinnati pitcher; rallied in a way that rankp among the greatest ninth-inning finishes of all time. We smashed the ball to all parts of the lot. and when our side finally final-ly was retired, it was found that tho j tide of battle had shifted; that we, by scoring nine tallies in that final inning, in-ning, had forged into the lead, 16 to 11. The Red Stockings took their final bats and attempted gamely to overcome our lead but their efforts were futile. They pushed across two counts, and then went out, making the final score 16 to 13 in favor of the White Stockings. And so ended the series with Cincinnati Cin-cinnati and the major portion of the baseball world of that era aghast at our ' ' impossible" performance and with Chicago io a delirium of baseball fever from which it never has recovered recov-ered and never will. (End of Chapter Five.) Note The sixth and final chapter of "Baseball of tho Bygone Days" will appear ap-pear next Sunday. It will tell how Mr. Wood, in J S75, intercepted telegrams arranging for the throwing of ball games for tho benefit of gamblers. It tells of the drastic action taken by Mr. Wood, and how his discovery of crookedness crook-edness brought about the formation of the National league in 1S76.' Editor.) |