Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Return from Phoenix

So i saddled up the ol' mare and rode in to Phoenix. I looked up the Senator for the territory and the gent had no clue what i was talking about when i asked him about Base ball. I told him that the Bisbee Bees had come to town to play a Base ball match with the Senators. He replied " Senators, why i'm the only Senator twixt here and Prescott!" Disheartened, i was on my way out of town when i came across a group of fellas throwing a ball around an empty field on the outskirts of town. As I made my way across the prairie, I realized i had stumbled across the Bees camp. I started asking questions about the game of Base ball and found out that the Senators of Phoenix were to arrive within the hour for a match. I exclaimed that i had visited the Senator and he had no knowledge of any othefr Senators in the area. One fella informrd me that there was a group of ballists who called themselves the Senators, the same how they called themselves the Bees. Aha......
I watched as a couple of men laid out sacks of sawdust in a square out in the middle of the prairie. Right in the middle of the square on gent laid down a metal disc. About this time a couple of wagons came bouncing up near the square. Within a few minutes another group came riding up on the ponies. as evryone gathered up, a representative from each "club" gathered at one point of the square. Whatever they was talkin about must have needed settled because the town judge had to come out to settle the debate. One group sat down on some baled hay as the other group ran out and positioned themselves around the sacks, with a few fellas running out further into the prairie. One fella, the "Hurler" made his way to the middle of the square and pulled a ball from his back pocket. The Judge yelled "Striker to the line!" as one of the fellas got up from the bales and grabbed a wooden "bat"(made from a wooden stick) and strode up to another point in the square. The Hurler reached back and tossed the ball towards the Striker. The striker swung that bat with enthusiasm and authority as he struck the ball deep out into the prairie. evreyone started running aroung chasing the ball and throwing at each other. The Judge yelled out " one man dead!" but i didn't see any dead fellas. now the striker headed back to the bales. The next fella hit that ball soo hard, that i think that it ended up in the capital city of prescott. He ran around and jumped on all the sacks. After touching the last sack, he strode over to a little table and told this one gent to please score his "ace". Then the Judge yelled "one ace scored!".
The teams kept going till the Judge yelled "three men dead!" and then they changed sides. They did this nine different times till the Judge proclaimed it to be a match. Then he proclaimed that the Senators had been victorious by a score of 5 aces to 4.
I have been informed that the club nine from Bisbee will be coming back through Glendale on their way back to Bisbee in the next week or so. And that if we as a town were interested that they would be happy to stay a day and teach us the game of Base ball. I look forward to the day.

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