Clipping:Switching a live and a dead ball; manipulating the score
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| Date | Wednesday, August 20, 1884 |
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| Text | [Baltimore Unions vs. Portsmouth 8/13/1884] A row occurred at Portsmouth [Va.] to-day during the progress of a base ball game which, for a time, threatened serious results. While the visitors were in the field in the sixth inning the captain of the Portsmouth nine was told that the Baltimore pitcher, William Sweeney, was using two balls, one ‘dead’ and the other ‘live.’ Umpire Sullivan was informed of the trick, and calling the game, demanded the balls. The ‘live’ one was passed to him, while the ‘dead’ one was surreptitiously placed in the hands of Seery, the left field, on whom it was found later. The spectators, however, saw the dodge and leaping over the inclosure which separated them from the players attacked the visitors. The police interfered at this point and kept the crowd at bay. During the melee Manager Will Henderson was struck in the face by one of the attacking party. After quiet was restored the Portsmouth nine refused to continue the game. The feeling of indignation against the visitors ran high and it was thought advisable to call out the entire police department to escort them to the Bay Line steamer. During the journey to the steamer they were loudly hissed and jeered by the populace. The game stood 8 to 0 in favor of the Baltimoreans. The only conjecture offered to account for Sweeney’s trickery was the desire on the part of the Baltimore to make up for the signal defeat they sustained yesterday from the same nine. Charges against the visiting nine will be preferred at the next meeting of the Association. The Portsmouth team refuses to pay the expenses of the Baltimoreans for the trip. ... [Henderson’s response:] I made arrangements with the manager of the Portsmouth Club to play two exhibition games on their grounds. The first game was won by us in the first inning, but in order to make the game interesting the Baltimores allowed their opponents to score several runs and the game was won by the Baltimores by a score of 10 to 9. The next day the same ball was sued, and as it had been sued before for practice it was unfit to play with, as it had become soft. Seery tried to slip in a good ball of the same kind. He was detected and the ball was immediately given up. The game was then called, with the score standing 12 to nothing in favor of the Baltimores. The report that the club was escorted to the boat by the police is not true. The club left the grounds without protection, and after changing their clothes at the hotel, to proceeded to the boat unmolested. The Sporting Life August 20, 1884 [from “T.T.T.” the Baltimore correspondent] From an interview with Mr. Henderson, Umpire Sullivan and several of the players, the following is gathered, and is given as their version of the story: Two games were played, on the 12th and 13th. Mr. Henderson states that in the game of the 12th, by special request, it was understood that the game must be a close one, with the object of drawing a large audience on the 13th. Umpire Sullivan asserts that the ball pitched by the Baltimore Union “had to be a dead centre” before he would call a strike, while, on the other hand, the Baltimore Union, when desiring to even up the score, would “strike wide.” By this means the game was prolonged to ten innings, when the Baltimores closed it by winning as they chose. Mr. Henderson states that in the game of the 13th there was no special reason why the Portsmouth should be allowed to make a run, and consequently they were, by steady play but no unusual exertion, shut out by 10 to 0. This was all well enough, but two of his men, Levis and Seery, became ambitious to bang the ball over the fence, and show how they did those things in the Monumental City. “The ball they were playing with,” said Umpire Sullivan, “was a regular ‘puddin’ affair, and although I took off the wrapper myself and saw it was a Union ball, it acted after a little service as though it was stuffed with rags.” Therefore Seery unknown to Manager Henderson or the umpire, concealed about his clothing the Union ball that had been used in the game of the day before and took his position in left field. The “puddin’” ball was thrown to Levis on first base, who threw it to Seery, who changed the balls when returning it to the infield. The substitution was detected immediately and the audience became talkative and noisy, but, Manager Henderson states, not threatening, and no one to his knowledge was disturbed or molested in the least. After waiting about a half an hour the manager asserts that he took his place in a carriage with his club, with a due bill in his pocket for his share of the gate receipts, and started for the steamer. We arrived home, said Mr. Henderson, “on the 14 th, where we were advertised to play the Pastime (amateur) Club, but who failed to put in an appearance and refused to play us on account of the associated press dispatch which gave them an erroneous impression of the affair at Portsmouth.” The Sporting Life August 20, 1884 |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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