A Ball Player's Career: Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. AnsonAnson, Adrian C. (Adrian Constantine)
History
A Ball Player's Career: Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson
Anson, Adrian C. (Adrian Constantine)
Baseball
During our stay President Spalding, Captain Ward, Captain Hanlon, Mr.
and Mrs. Ed Williamson, Messrs. McMillan and Palmer, and Mrs. Anson and
myself were handsomely entertained at Oakland by Mr. Waller Wallace, of
the California "Spirit of the Times," a paper now defunct, and the
glimpses of the bay and city that we caught at that time made the day a
most pleasant one, to say nothing of the hospitality that greeted us on
every hand. Messrs. Spalding, Ward, McMillan, Palmer and myself were
also handsomely entertained by the Press Club, and also by the
Merchants' Club of San Francisco, an organization that numbered among
its members at that time many of the leading business men of San
Francisco and vicinity.
The day of our departure for Australia had been finally fixed for
November 18th, and the evening before Spalding, as a recognition of the
kindness with which we had been treated during our stay, gave a farewell
banquet to the members of the California League and the San Francisco
Press Club at the Baldwin Hotel, covers being laid for seventy-five
guests, among them being several men of prominence in the social and
business world of the Pacific Coast. The menu card for that occasion,
which is circular in form and represents a base-ball cover, now lies
before me, the idea originating in the fertile brain of Frank Lincoln.
Under the heading of "score-card," on the inside, is the magic
injunction, "Play Ball," with which the majority of us who sat at the
table were so familiar, and among the courses, "Eastern oysters on the
home run," "Green turtle a la Kangaroo," "Petit pate a la Spalding,"
"Stewed Terrapin, a la Ward," "Frisco Turkey a la Foul," together with
other dishes, all of which had some allusion either to base-ball or to
our contemplated Australian trip.
After we had played ball, the debris cleared away and the cigars
lighted, there followed a succession of impromptu speech-making, the
toasts and those who replied being as follows: "Early Californian
Ball-players," Judge Hunt of the Superior Court; "The National League
Champions, the New York Base-ball Club," ex-Senator James F. Grady, of
New York; "The San Francisco Press," W. N. Hart, of the San Francisco
Press Club; "The Good Ship Alameda," Capt. Henry G. Morse; "A G.
Spalding and the Australian Trip," Samuel F. Short-ride; "The Chicago
Nine," yours truly; "The All-Americans," Capt. John M. Ward; "The
'Base-ball' Cricketers," George Wright. In closing Spalding thanked the
press and the base-ball people of the coast for the magnificent reception
that we had received, and for all the kindness which had been showered
upon us since our arrival, after which we bade farewell to those of our
friends that we should not see again before our departure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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