Clipping:Suspicions of the thrown game
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| Date | Sunday, October 15, 1871 |
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| Text | [Eckford vs. Athletic 10/14/1871] Cuthbert then struck a high ball to left field that Nelson very suspiciously made no apparent effort to catch, and three men came home, thus tying the score. McBride hit a grounder that Shelley allowed to pass through his fingers, and Cuthbert scored the winning run. ... That the Eckfords could have won this game had they so felt disposed seemed to be the opinion of nearly all on the ground, and the conclusion of it looked very suspicious. The Athletics tried their best to win and are entirely free from any complicity with this apparently most discreditable proceeding. Philadelphia Sunday Mercury October 15, 1871 [Eckford vs. Athletic 10/14/1871] ...the so-called Eckford Club deliberately threw the game away. When we say the Eckford Club, we mean that the players who did it received the sanction of the acting captain and the majority of the players. We charge Nelson as being the main instrument of this contemptible action. Two balls were sent to left field, on by Meyerle, on which he made a home run, and one by Cuthbert, on which he made second, sending three men home. The ball hit by Meyerle was good for two bases, and probably, by a swift runner, for three, but there is not a man in the country that can make home on a ball hit to left, if properly fielded. Nelson, ingoing for the ball, took it leisurely, and when the man arrived home he threw the ball in. But his contemptible work was more palpable in Cuthbert’s hit. A high ball was hit by this player to left, which Nelson wilfully misjudged, and even then had he shown the slightest effort to catch it, he could have secured it easily; but instead of turning in the proper way to catch it, he kept running with the ball and put out one hand, but of course the growler couldn’t sell us that way. The consequence was three men came home. Cuthy being sent home by McBride’s hit, which Shelly should have stopped, but he merely put one hand to it. This run tied the game. There seems to be a difference of opinion among some, whether Shelly could have stopped the ball; we think he could, as the ball came directly to his position; but Nelson’s misplays were deliberately done, for the offence he should be expelled by the Association, and not be permitted to associate with honorable ball players. One or two other players of the nine, we think, had a hand in it, but before charging them with this most serious offence, we shall look carefully to their plays upon this occasion. The game certainly should have gone against he Athletics, by a score of 10-11 on the last inning. But their opponents desired it otherwise for some purpose. Perhaps the gamblers had something to do with it? We noticed several of their players very attentive to hat quarter, during the playing of the ninth inning. Evening City Item October 16, 1871 |
| Source | Philadelphia Sunday Mercury |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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