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OUR BASE BALL CLUB.
[Illustration: "YOUR FATHER, THE JUDGE, SAYS YOU SHOULD COME TO
BREAKFAST RIGHT AWAY, MISS."--Frontispiece.]
OUR BASE BALL CLUB
AND
_HOW IT WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP_
BY
NOAH BROOKS
_Author of "The Fairport Nine," "The Boy Emigrants," etc._
_WITH AN INTRODUCTION_
BY
AL. G. SPALDING
OF THE CHICAGO BASE BALL CLUB
New York
E.P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
39 West 23d Street
1884
Copyright, 1884,
By E.P. DUTTON & CO.
_St. Johnland
Stereotype Foundry,
Suffolk Co., N.Y._
_Press of
J.J. Little & Co.
10 Astor Place, N.Y._
INTRODUCTION.
When we consider how strong a hold the pastime of base ball playing
has upon our people, it is a little surprising that more frequent use
of the game, as a framework, has not been made by writers of fiction.
There are very few Americans, certainly very few of the younger
generation, who are not only familiar with the nomenclature and rules
of base ball, but are enthusiastic lovers of the sport. Even among the
gentler sex, who may be regarded as spectators only of the game, there
is to be found much sound information and an intelligent acquaintance
with the details of base ball playing; while every hearty and
wholesomely taught boy knows everything worth knowing about the game,
the famous players, the historic contests, and the notable features of
the sport, as practiced in various sections of the republic.
To write an introduction to a story whose slender plot should be
threaded on a base ball match seems to be an almost superfluous
work. But I am glad that Mr. Brooks has undertaken to illustrate
"The National Game" by a story of outdoor life, founded on fact and
incidentally introducing personages which are not wholly creatures
of his imagination. The tale here told very cleverly gives the reader
a glimpse of the ups and downs, the trials and the triumphs of a base
ball club. It is written by one who is thoroughly well informed of
the things concerning which he gives such vivid pictures, and, while
nothing is really needed to popularize the game, I am sure the story
will commend itself to every lover of pure and wholesome literature.
A.G. SPALDING.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS 9
CHAPTER II.
"A SCRUB GAME" 16
CHAPTER III.
AFTER THE BATTLE 36
CHAPTER IV.
REORGANIZATION BEGINS 41
CHAPTER V.
NOTES OF PREPARATION 51
CHAPTER VI.
AN INTERESTING EPISODE 59
CHAPTER VII.
IN THE FIELD 69
CHAPTER VIII.
A TURN OF THE TIDE 86
CHAPTER IX.
HOPE AND SUSPENSE 93
CHAPTER X.
HOW THE GOOD NEWS CAME 102
CHAPTER XI.
IN A NEW FIELD 117
CHAPTER XII.
AFTER THE VICTORY 139
CHAPTER XIII.
PRIDE HAS A FALL 146
CHAPTER XIV.
A STRANGE MESSAGE FROM HOME 167
CHAPTER XV.
MIKE COSTIGAN'S DISCOVERY 175
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CONSPIRACY LAID OPEN 181
CHAPTER XVII.
A FAMOUS VICTORY 188
OUR BASE BALL CLUB,
_AND HOW IT WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP_.
CHAPTER I.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Alice Howell was flattening her pretty nose against the window pane as
she looked ruefully out into the misty atmosphere that surrounded her
father's house in North Catalpa. It was eight o'clock in the morning,
and the great base ball match was set for two o'clock, that afternoon.
As soon as she had risen, Alice had run to the window to see what were
the signs of the sky, for Alice was an ardent lover of the American
game, and her heart was set on the great match that was to come off on
the Agricultural Grounds, near Catalpa, that day. The sky was dull and
lowering, and there was little chance that the game would be called.
"Your father, the Judge, says you should come to breakfast right away,
miss," said the little handmaid of the house.
Alice turned from the window with an impatient sigh, saying "Oh dear,
Jessie, do you suppose the Jonesville Nine will come up to play the
Catalpas, this afternoon?"
"'Deed I don't know, miss. I hope so, for Miss Anstress has promised me
that I shall go over to see the game if it is played, and goodness only
knows when I shall get off again to see a base ball match if I don't go
to-day."
"But look at the weather! It's as dark as a pocket, and it looks as if
it might rain at any moment. Oh dear! oh dear! it's too bad, so it is.
And this is to be the last game of the season, and the decisive one,
too." And so, more talking to herself than to the small servant who
trotted behind her, with a sympathetic air, the pretty Miss Alice went
to the breakfast-table where her father waited for her with an aspect
of amused dignity.
"One cannot see across the river for the fog, papa," said the girl,
with a disconsolate tone, as she seated herself. "The fences are
dripping with moisture, and the dam roars just as it always does when
there is a rain-storm coming up. How very provoking!"
"Well, and has my little girl forgotten that it was the day before
yesterday that Farmer Boggs was in here from Sugar Grove and said that
unless they had more rain before the frosts set in, it would be a hard
year for winter wheat? And wasn't it my little girl who said that she
wanted Stone River running full, this fall, in order that she might
enjoy her new club skates when the ice came?"
"But, papa, the crops can wait a day or two for the fall rains, I am
sure, and I should be willing to give up a whole winter's skating if
the Catalpas would only beat the Jonesville Nine--the horrid fellows!
And I am sure they would beat them, if they only played them to-day,
for they are in capital form now."
"Hush! hush! my daughter," said Judge Howell, with a little shudder,
"that is slang that you are using, and I shall have to curtail your
base ball amusement if you are so ready to pick up the jargon of
what they call, I believe, 'The Diamond Field,' for I do not want my
daughter to mingle the slang of the game with her mother's mode of
speech."
The Judge was somewhat prosy and not at all in love with the noble game
which his daughter, in common with all of the girls of Catalpa, and of
the whole Stone River country, for that matter, followed with so much
enthusiasm.
The base ball club of Catalpa was made up of some of the finest young
fellows in the town. Catalpa was situated on both sides of Stone
River, in northern Illinois. It was a busy manufacturing and milling
community, and from its homes had gone many a stalwart young chap to
fight his country's battles in the southwest. The survivors of the
company that went out and came back, decimated as to numbers and not
all sound in body, founded the first base ball club of the region.
The members of the club called themselves "The Catalpas," after their
town. Most of the players lived on the north side of the river, and
were soon dubbed "The North Catalpas" by their rivals who, living on
the other side of the stream, and in the main portion of the town, and
forming another club, arrogated to themselves the title of "Catalpa's
Champions."
Gradually, the membership of the two organizations changed. The old
soldiers retired in favor of their sons and nephews. The club on the
south side of the river was reorganized and an entirely new set of
young men came into it. The name of "The Dean County Nine," was given
to the southside club, and, as it was largely composed of young men
who worked in the flouring mills and the lumber-yards along the river
front, it was famous for the brawn and muscle of its players.
The Catalpa Nine, on the other hand, was made up of students in the
Seminary, young fellows in the law and county offices of the town,
and sons of gentlemen of leisure. There was a chasm as wide as Stone
River fixed between the Dean County Nine and the Catalpa Nine, so far
as social relations were concerned. The Dean County players called the
Catalpas "Aristocrats" and the Catalpas retorted with the epithet of
"Stalwarts" applied to their town rivals. When it is added that the
finest residences were built on the north side of the river dividing
the town, and that the men of more moderate means dwelt on the business
side of the stream, the reason for the imaginary line of separation
betwixt the two ball clubs will be more apparent.
After repeated and not always friendly matches between the rival clubs,
they were drawn together by the appearance of a common enemy. From
the little town of Jonesville, situated eighteen miles down the river,
came the Jonesvillians, as they called themselves, a powerful and
well-trained nine. They had challenged and vanquished the nine of Dry
Plains, the Blue Falls Nine, and their own Home Club, commonly known
through the Stone River region as "The Jonesville Scrubs." Flushed with
victory, the Jonesvillians had challenged and played two games with the
Catalpas, contesting the championship of northern Illinois. It must be
admitted that the record of neither of the two Catalpa clubs was one
of which the people of the town had any right to be proud. Both clubs,
while closely contesting with each other, had been repeatedly beaten by
visitors from the surrounding region. Naturally the sympathies of the
"Stalwarts" was with the "Aristocrats" when an out-of-town club came to
try conclusions. Every true son and daughter of the town of Catalpa was
hotly enlisted for the home nine in any contest that might be fought
out for the championship. It was aggravating that the Jonesville Nine,
most of whom were rough and loud-talking fellows, should conquer the
whole country, from the Wisconsin line to Lasalle, and from Chicago to
the Mississippi River.
That was the reason why Miss Alice Howell, the only daughter and the
spoiled child of the eminent and widowed district Judge, should be
downcast and fidgety when she looked out and saw, on this fateful
morning, that the weather gave signs of being unfit for the decisive
game for the championship. The Jonesville Nine had won the first game.
The Catalpas were victors in the second game. To-day, if all went well,
would give the championship to the Catalpas. The Catalpas had regularly
"whitewashed" the Dean County Nine, in spite of their stalwart
strength. But they had failed to hold their own against many another
club from other portions of the country roundabout. In the first game
for the championship, the Catalpas had beaten the Jonesvillians by a
score of 24 to 13--an overwhelming defeat for the down-river club.
But the Jonesville men had carried off the second game with a score
of 14 to 13, which was a close game, and was lost by the Catalpas,
as their friends all said, by the Catalpas being in bad condition.
Albert Heaton, the catcher, was afflicted with blistered hands and
could do very little effective work behind the bat; and George Buckner,
center fielder, had been obliged to leave the field just before game
was called, on account of a sudden sickness in his own home; and this
necessitated sundry changes that demoralized the Nine, and disarranged
their plans.
"And after all," said Alice, exultingly, as she recounted these
facts to her father, on the morning of the fateful day, "after all,
the Jonesvillians only beat by one run. To-day, the Catalpas are in
splendid form--condition, I mean, and if it only would clear off, I am
sure they will send the Jonesville fellows down the river with what Ben
Burton calls 'a basket of goose eggs,'--I beg pardon, papa, for this
bit of slang; but you will observe that it is a quotation."
"Yes, from a favorite author," said the Judge, rising from the
breakfast table, with a shrewd smile.
Alice flushed, a little angrily, perhaps, for she did not like Burton,
although he was her cousin and was said to be a suitor for her favor.