Missouri Valley Times · Missouri Valley, Iowa · 1903

W. A. Smith's team of base ball artists

In June 1903 the manager of Missouri Valley's New Theatre organized a ball team from his stagehands and booked their first game at California Junction, opponents to be W. A. Smith's team of base ball artists. A theater troupe against artists of the diamond. Somebody sold tickets.

Nine sentences would have been too many for this item in the Missouri Valley Times, so it uses five. “Base Ball Game. Manager W. E. Smith, of the New Theatre, has organized a base ball team among the attaches of his theatre, and they will play their first game at California Junction Sunday, June 21st, their opponents being W. A. Smith’s team of base ball artists.”

Every fact in it improves on the last. A theater manager fields a team of his own stagehands and ushers. Their opponent is managed by another Smith, presumably no relation, possibly a brother, the item does not say and we are free to hope. And that other Smith’s club goes by the finest billing in the Iowa of 1903: a “team of base ball artists.”

Artists. Not players, not cranks, not a nine. Whether they earned the title with their glove work or their manager simply understood publicity better than most, the result is the same: a Sunday in June at California Junction, the theater against the artists, and not one word about who won ever needed.