The 1900s

22 clippings from the 1900s.

News item headed Base Ball Sunday, announcing that the local nine has arranged a game with the Perry nine at the Island Park grounds, noting last Sunday's thirteen inning game at Perry ended three to four, promising Kid Bevis will pitch for Perry and Burke for the home nine, and reporting several hundred tickets already sold.

A good, red-hot game of the national sport is assured

The Guthrie Daily Leader
Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory · 1901

Advertisement bordered on all four sides by the repeated word Spalding. The copy reads: Hello! Say boys, we have just received a new and complete line of Spalding Base Ball Goods, and Lawn Tennis. Also Schmelzer's and A. J. Reach Base Ball goods. Fishing tackle till you can't rest. Remember the place and the name. Chickasha Ave. Phone 67. W. L. Mobley.

Hello! Say Boys

W. L. Mobley
Chickasha, Indian Territory · 1902

Full-length newspaper portrait of Jesse Burkett holding a bat, headlined Burkett Chases a Bleacherite, with a caption explaining he chased a heckler who bolted out the Grand Avenue gate.

The sun god bolted when he saw Burkett climbing the fence

St. Louis Browns
St. Louis, Missouri · 1902

Full-page newspaper photograph of pitcher Joe McGinnity in a New York uniform waving his right arm overhead, headlined This Is the Famous Iron Man of McGraw's Team, credited to a Republic photographer.

This is the famous Iron Man of McGraw's team

New York Giants
St. Louis, Missouri · 1903

Long column headlined Day of the Umpire, the parable of an ordinary baseball game and its chief executive, written entirely in mock biblical language.

Behold now the man that is an umpire, even a baseball umpire

The Ottumwa Courier
Ottumwa, Iowa · 1904

Story headed Base Ball recounting a three game series between the Sedalia Sentinels and the Versailles Merchants: Sedalia takes Friday 5 to 4, the Merchants win Saturday 19 to 4 and close the series Sunday 5 to 2, with Prof. J. M. Stith umpiring the whole series.

Each game was liberally patronized by lovers of the national sport

Versailles Merchants
Versailles, Missouri · 1905

Two letters from the Mexico Weekly Ledger. The first, headed Opposed to Sunday Base Ball, was read at the Methodist church before the sermon. The second, headed Working Man on Sunday Base Ball, defends the local Sunday games and is signed A Working Man, E. E. T., followed by an editor's note insisting future letters be signed with full names.

Oh! But what do we care for the poor working man

Mexico Weekly Ledger
Mexico, Missouri · 1905

Newspaper item reading Call the score please. Here it is: Monday's game, Yellville 8 Newark 1. Tuesday, Yellville 5 Newark 3. Wednesday, Newark 4 Yellville 1.

"Call the score please." Yellville takes two of three from Newark

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905

Newspaper item about a boy with the financial acumen to climb a tree outside the ballpark to watch a base ball game and save his fifteen cents, ending with Don't interfere with him.

Don't interfere with the boy in the tree

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905

Four-line newspaper item saying Ben Ward says it takes a good man to umpire a ball game and referee a fight at the same time, but that he did it last Tuesday.

Ben Ward umpired the ball game and refereed the fight at the same time

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905

Short newspaper item reporting that the ball team at Walnut Ridge flunked on the local team too late to match a game with any other team, ending with Guess they got afeard.

No game on the Fourth. Guess they got "afeard"

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905

Spalding's Encyclopedia of Base Ball advertisement with a drawing of a batter and catcher, listing numbered how-to booklets from How to Bat through How to Run the Bases, plus Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide for 1906.

Everything from How to Bat to How to Organize a League, ten cents each

The Times-Journal
Malvern, Arkansas · 1906

Newspaper story headed Amusement Features describing a base ball game between the White Seals and a Poteau team, and a comic game between the town's carpenters and painters.

One mysterious home run and the carpenters threw up the sponge

Mena White Seals
Mena, Arkansas · 1906

Two stacked advertisements. The first reads Base Ball, Today and Tomorrow, Northwestern League, Spokane Indians vs. Tacoma Tigers, Recreation Park, game called at 3:15 p.m., take E. Broadway or Gonzaga traction cars. The second, in ornate lettering, reads Baseball, Natatorium Park, Sunday June 14, first game Bradley Engineering Co. vs. Union Iron Works, second game Slater and Slater vs. Cubs, two games one admission 25 cents including grandstand, first game at 2:15.

Base Ball Today and Tomorrow

Spokane Indians
Spokane, Washington · 1908

Story headed Chicks Won First Sunday Game, Defeated the Paterson Union Leaguers by Score of 3 to 2, reporting Wilmington's first Sunday game of the season before 3000 spectators in weather far too cold for baseball, with full box scores of both teams, and below it a boxed advertisement reading Baseball, South Side Park Tuesday Afternoon, Wilmington vs Altoona, Game Called 3.30 o'clock, Admission 25c, Grand Stand 25c, Ladies Grand Stand Free except Saturdays and Holidays.

Chicks Won First Sunday Game

Wilmington Chicks
Wilmington, Delaware · 1908

Locals column headed Rose Creek, reporting that the base ball game between the married men and the single men resulted in a victory for the single men, 49 to 48, followed by town notes and a complaint that the Sunday game between the Packing house and Rose Creek was one of the dirtiest the correspondent ever witnessed.

A victory for the single men, 49 to 48

Mower County Transcript
Lansing, Minnesota · 1909

Story headed Extry! Poor Old Man Is Mobbed Once More, reporting from Galveston that the feature of yesterday's game with the Buffaloes was the assaulting of Umpire Derrick by Catcher Quiesser of the Sand Crabs, whose removal cost Galveston the game, with the line score of the 6 to 3 loss.

Extry! Poor Old Man Is Mobbed Once More

Galveston Sand Crabs
Galveston, Texas · 1909

Cartoon by P. Fox of President Taft as an enormous balloon-round figure floating over a ballpark grandstand eating from a bag of peanuts, above a dispatch reporting Taft called baseball the cleanest, the finest and the manliest sport in all Christendom and declared I believe they should hit it out.

Speaking of Fans, He's Got the Bug Right, This One

San Antonio Light and Gazette
San Antonio, Texas · 1909

Column headed Amateur Base Ball Doings reporting that the faster amateur clubs are playing two and even three games on Sunday, offering the paper's services arranging games and organizing a league, with the caveat that the only thing we don't like to do is to umpire, followed by results including the Government Hill Tigers, Viaduct Reds, Jokers, Saps and Household Furniture Company.

The only thing we don't like to do is to umpire

San Antonio Light and Gazette
San Antonio, Texas · 1909

Large boxed advertisement reading Base Ball, Magnolia Bluff To-Day, Mobile vs Pensacola, Game called 4 p.m., See line up elsewhere, Free dancing every night, Prize dance Friday. Stitched below is the story Pensacola To Play Mobile At The Bluff, announcing the Mobile Beavers arrive this morning for a series of games and printing both teams' lineups position by position.

Base Ball, Magnolia Bluff To-Day: Mobile vs Pensacola

The Pensacola Journal
Pensacola, Florida · 1909

Two side-by-side stories from 1909: Navigators Blow Up and Broncs Win, a 12 to 4 slugfest account with box score in which the locals fatten their batting averages, and Cap's Answer Characteristic, in which Cap Leidy is presented a joke floral horseshoe made of beets and answers with five clean line drives in five times at bat.

Navigators Blow Up and Broncs Win

San Antonio Broncos
San Antonio, Texas · 1909

Front page story headlined Baseball for Charity Tomorrow Afternoon, describing a doubleheader for the hospital fund with a full lineup of the town's butchers against its grocers.

The butchers play the grocers, then the Democrats play the Republicans

Chickasha Daily Express
Chickasha, Oklahoma · 1909