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
We missed the ladies on the trip, they having been left at Melbourne
because of the heat, as had Ed Crane, with whom the hot weather did not
seem to agree. At Ballarat, about four hours' distance from Melbourne,
where we were scheduled to play a game on our return, we found 'a
reception committee at the depot to meet us, together with a number of
ladies. The country through which we journeyed that afternoon was fairly
attractive, but thinly settled and literally overrun with that pest of
the Australian farmer, the rabbits, which, like good race-horses, seemed
to come in all shapes, color and size. The country swarmed with them and
for the first time we began to realize what an immense damage they were
capable of doing to the growing crops in that section.
It was about half-past ten o'clock the next morning when we reached
Adelaide, and so hot that a Fourth of July day in St. Louis would have
seemed like Arctic weather by comparison. At the depot we found United
States Consul Murphy and a committee of citizens in waiting, and were at
once driven to the City Hall, where Mayor Shaw made us welcome to the
city. The usual spread and speeches followed, after which we were driven
to the hotel. That afternoon we played our first game on the Adelaide
Oval, which was the equal of either the Sydney or Melbourne grounds, so
far as the actual playing grounds were concerned, though far inferior to
them in buildings and natural surroundings. Owing to the intense heat
and the fact that it was the opening day of the great race meeting at
Melbourne there were only about 2,000 people present, and they witnessed
a game remarkable for its heavy batting, both Teller and Healy being
severely punished. The game went to the credit of the All-Americas by a
score of 19 to 14.
That night our party occupied the Governor's box in the Royal Theater,
where we attracted far more attention than did the play, the house being
a crowded one.
The next morning we were the guests of Mayor Shaw, who took us for a
drive in a big four-horse drag, and this proved a delightful experience
to us all, the Sea Beach road, over which we drove, being cool and
comfortable. Ten miles out we stopped at the wine yard of Thomas Hardy &
Sons, who were at that time the most extensive grape and fruit raisers
in Australia. Here we were shown over the immense wine yards and wine
cellar, after which we drove to Henley Beach, returning in time for the
game that afternoon.
At this second game the attendance was somewhat better than the first,
and with Baldwin pitching for Chicago and Healy and Ward for All-America,
we managed to turn the tables on our conquerors of the day before and
win by a score of 12 to 9.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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