Clipping:Before the big game
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Date | Wednesday, October 7, 1885 |
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Text | [New York vs. Chicago 10/1/1885] At noon there were one thousand or more awaiting admission at the Congress street entrance, and at two o'clock the number had been increased to three thousand. At this hour the gates were opened, and the people poured into the grand and open stands and into the two thousand extra seats that had been provided upon the bicycle track surrounding the ball field in a stead stream, until at 3 o'clock there were ten thousand people within the walls. At 2:30 P.M. Austin's full military band of twenty pieces marched to the tap of the drum across the field to the club houses on the east end of the grounds, and forming in a Maltese cross escorted the Giants back upon the field to the stirring strains of the music. The ovation tendered the visitors was all that they could wish, and the band returning to the club houses left the visitors to fifteen minutes of practice. Then the bell tapped, and as the visitors retired from the field a hum arose from the vast crowd, while ten thousand pairs of eyes were turned in eager expectation toward the club houses. A drum tap signaled the Whites to fall in, and the band, forming in a hollow square, with the players in double file within marched upon the ball field amidst a burst of music and such cheering as had certainly never before been heard upon a ball field. As the stalwart fellows wearing the blue and white of the Chicagos circled in front of the grand stand and stopped at the home plate the crowd went simply wild. Men and women arose to their feet, and standing upon the chairs and benches acted like ten thousand school children instead of sensible and reasonably inclined people. It was an ovation of which the White Stockings may feel proud all their lives long, and such a one as has rarely before been tendered a ball team. At 3 o'clock the ball tapped for the game... |
Source | Sporting Life |
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Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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