OCR Text |
Show MASSACHUSETTS IN BIG BASEBALL FEUD It Exists Between Towns of Orange ar.d Athol, Manager1 Pat Moran of Cfhcinhat' Reds, Says Strangest Part Is That Fighting Always Takes Place on Trolley Cars. "There1 have been' somfe' awful' base; ball fends," says Pat Moran of the Cincinnati Reds, "but if I'm not mistaken, mis-taken, the' worst of all' exists between the towns of Orange and Athol, Mass. These cities hate each other in baseball base-ball only Worse than Rome and Carthage, and the struggles between them are something terrible to talk of. The strangest thing about this rivalry is the fact that the fighting doesn't,- as a rule, happen at the games. "The garujs between Athol and Orange' are played with only the usual amount of scrapping, hooting and bottle pegging just about as much as always happens at such in-tertown in-tertown affairs but after the game good night, Fido ! The trolley cars running between the two towns are rolling lunatic asylums, and the combat com-bat is incessant -nothing but flying fists on every car. The ball players long since learned not to get involved in these battles, they never use the cars, but slip quietly quiet-ly through the woods and hoof it home. As to the umpires well, can you imagine an ump taking a chance on one of those trolleys? They slip up side streets and take secluded, trails. : On the cars the fight lasts for hours; the fans of Athol smash the fans of Orange ; the fans from Orange smash right back ; the car crews are powerless and are usually in the thickest of the fight anyhow, being hot fans and the battle lasts till the police po-lice at either end of the lite collect all the fans they can capture. "One of the first games I ever played in about twenty-five years ago was between Athol and Orange, and I still remember seeing the cars pull out with everyone hitting everybody else on the nose. And it's been so ever since the fend never gets cold. A business man of Athol may have the 'most confidential relations with a business busi-ness man: of Orange may trust him with any sum of money but if the two f of them board the same trolley eair after one of those games, they'll1 be found at the end of the line rolling in the aisle and clawing each other's gizzards.. giz-zards.. That's real baseball, with real fans to help it oar" Chicago Daily New-.. |