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
Two games were scheduled for New Year's day, but only one of these was
played and that in the morning, the attendance being 2,500, and the
Chicagos winning by a score of 14 to 7, Tener pitching for us and Healy
for the All-Americas. That same day there were 4,000 people at the races
and probably as many more at the various cricket matches and athletic
games going on in the city and vicinity, so it can readily be seen that
Melbourne was a decidedly sporty place and that we had pretty hard
competition to go up against, even for New Year's day. After luncheon at
the cricket grounds we were treated to an exhibition of rope-skipping
and boomerang throwing by a lot of aborigines that was little short of
wonderful, and that must be seen to be appreciated. The natives could
make these curved pieces of wood do all kinds of seemingly impossible
things, while for us they would simply do nothing, but I expect that
with a set of billiard balls several of our party could have made them
look as much like monkeys as they did us with their boomerangs.
We were booked to sail from Port Melbourne for Ceylon on Monday, June
7th, and Saturday afternoon we played our farewell game in the Victoria
capital before a crowd that tested the capacity of the grounds, the gate
count showing that 11,000 people had paid their way into the enclosure.
The program for the afternoon was a varied one, a two-inning game
between the Australian Cricketers and the All-America team being the
starter, and in this the American players easily demonstrated their
superiority. Next came a game of foot-ball between the Port Melbourne
and Carleton teams that was played under a modification of the old Rugby
rules, and that proved close and exciting. A four-inning game between
Chicago and All-America followed, Baldwin and Daly and Crane and Earle
being the batteries, and it is safe to assert that a prettier exhibition
of base-running and fielding was never witnessed in Australia than the
one given on that occasion. With not a fielding error on either side my
boys won by a score of 5 to 0, Pettit finally ending the game with a
splendid running catch of Earle's long fly to right field, a performance
that the spectators cheered again and again.
An exhibition of long distance throwing followed, Crane, Williamson and
Pfeffer attempting to beat the Australian record of 126 yards 3 inches,
for throwing a five and one-half ounce cricket ball, and this feat Crane
accomplished, he sending the ball 128 yards 10 1/2 inches, a performance
that the crowd appreciated.
At three o'clock on Monday afternoon, having said farewell to all of our
friends in Melbourne, we took the train for Port Melbourne, seven miles
distant, and were soon assigned to our staterooms on board of the
"Salier," which was to begin her voyage the next morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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