Turn-of-the-Century Baseball

Turn-of-the-Century Baseball

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Early Baseball Games Aroused Lively Interest
By Lewis Ulrich

    With the opening of the baseball season in Medford by the Nuggets, I am reminded of a team by the same name who represented Jacksonville in the Southern Oregon League of about 50 years ago. The league consisted of Medford, Ashland, Grants Pass and Jacksonville, and the rivalry was intense, especially between Medford and Jacksonville.
    At that time the Barnum railroad [i.e., the Rogue River Valley Railway] was operating, and the management at Jacksonville and the railroad company secured permission from the S.P. to operate on the main line as far south as Ashland and north to Grants Pass. The Barnum company owned only one coach, so benches were placed on a flatcar and a large banner on which was printed in large letters "Jacksonville Nuggets" draped on each side of the coach, and with the entire population of Jacksonville on board we would travel in our own "special" deluxe to Grants Pass and Ashland. All went well until on one of our trips to Grants Pass engine trouble developed and we were stuck on the main line near Tolo. An S.P. freight came along and pushed us into Medford, and that was the end of our using the main line.
    Each of the towns named had enclosed parks with a high board fence, covered grandstand, etc., and the games which were played on Sundays and holidays were well patronized, as interest in the sport was very keen at that time.
    Medford's park was located in the vicinity of [McLoughlin] junior high school, [in a neighborhood] known then as "pothole addition." Ashland's was located near Helman Baths. Grants Pass field was in the southeast part of town close in, and Jacksonville's diamond was located near the old [B. F.] Dowell house right in the town on the Medford-Jacksonville Highway.
    During the above period the Portland franchise was held in the old Northeast League, and their entry was known as Casey's Colts, under the management of Pearl Casey, who was a star second baseman in his time with Oakland of the Coast League. This team used Medford as their spring training grounds, playing games with all the local teams. Casey later was an umpire in the Coast League for several years.
    Those were the days of Bill Hulen, an ex-big leaguer, the Jacob brothers and Fred Engle of Ashland, Shorty Miles, John Wilkinson, Mose Barkdull, Pug Isaacs and Bob Low of Medford, Merrit Brown and Joe Moomaw of Eagle Point, Sandy Sanderson of Central Point, Martin Earle and Henry Pernoll of Grants Pass and the Donegan brothers, Curly Wilson and "Cap" Kubli of Jacksonville. The Donegan brothers played three of the four infield positions. Pat played second base and also did some pitching. Henry Pernoll was a southpaw with a wicked curve and eventually landed with Detroit via Oakland. In the last game he pitched against Jacksonville before he went to Oakland he struck out 21 men in nine innings, so you can see that he was quite a pitcher. His brother John caught him and they made a fine combination. Ashland also had a combination brother battery, Gordon and Tod Jacobs. Gordon is now county commissioner in Siskiyou County, but Tod is deceased.
    Charles Strub, now owner of Santa Anita racetrack near Los Angeles, played one summer with Jacksonville. The New York Giants on a barnstorming tour played in Medford, and a crack colored team, the Colored Giants, played in Grants Pass.
    So you can see that baseball was a very popular sport in Southern Oregon at that time. Court Hall was the manager in Medford and "Bum" Neuber at Jacksonville, and the betting was heavy when these two teams met. The league was getting along fine, and before one of the games between the towns named the betting seemed to be extra heavy. Jacksonville had a pitcher by the name of Lester about 6 ft. 3 inches tall who had won several games easily. The Jacksonville fans thought he was invincible, and they covered all the Medford money in sight. At the start of the game before a large crowd in Jacksonville, Medford ran out a pitcher whom no one had ever seen or heard of, and he proved to be some pitcher, the Jacksonville team being helpless before him. He mowed them down in 1-2-3 order and the fans were cleaned.
    The pitcher turned out to be "Cack" Henley, a ringer from north California, who eventually pitched for San Francisco and I think joined some big league club. There was gloom in Jacksonville that night, and that was the end of the league for that year, and it was several years before interest was again aroused.
    Baseball is a fine healthy sport, and the businessmen in Medford who are lending their moral and financial support to the game are deserving of a lot of credit. From newspaper reports we will have a better team than we had last year, and with increased population and interest aroused, the team should be near the top.
    Good luck, Nuggets.
Medford News, May 6, 1949, page 7

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The Medford boys who came down to play the Alerts were Joe Hibbard, Joe Slinger, Tom McCaullay, Emit Bargdale, Jim Howard, Albert Elliott and Messrs. Cook, Biden and Anderson
The game of baseball between the Medford team and the Alerts of this city on Decoration Day resulted in a victory for the former by a score of 11 to 4. The game was a well-played one and very interesting from start to finish. The Grants Pass boys were doing some excellent playing when they whitewashed the Medford nine five times, but during the later half of the sixth inning they made one or two bad moves which cost them the game. If the Alerts will continue to practice more or less, they will be hard to beat anywhere.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, June 1, 1899, page 3

Medford Plays Ball.

That a number of Medford's leading citizens missed their calling some 400 miles when they decided to enter their present avocations instead of tackling professional baseball was demonstrated last Thursday afternoon beyond all peradventure when the business and professional men of that city lined up in a titanic struggle to settle, once and for all, which is the handiest lot of sports in the national game--baseball. The weather was perfect, the grandstand crowded to suffocation and the players all in the pink of condition when Judge Prim, acting as umpire, or referee, called the game and introduced the players in a neat speech, in which he dwelt at some length on the deeds of prowess the different gladiators had been guilty of in the past. When the judge had finished he delivered an upshot curve bow to the grandstand as a prearranged signal that applause was next in order, but to his consternation and alarm there was nothing doing in that line. His audience had not heard a word he said, because everybody had been struck deaf and mute by the sudden flitting of Judge Colvig's Merry Widow, balloon-shaped pantalettes or trouserines, as the case may be. Fearfully and wonderfully made were these chaste coverings for the nether limbs of the stately and refined judge, who had only entered the lists as a speedy means of securing the strenuous training he felt he would need in the prohi[bition] charter fight which commenced the following day. Saffrony in hue were they and breezy of build, and in combination with the flesh-pink hose, the azure blue waist [blouse] and the dark blue headpiece, the effect was one never to be forgotten.
"Time," yelled the umpire, and the game was on. Colvig went in the box, with Judge Kelly behind the bat. Shorty Garnett, warehouseman and prohibition leader, wielded the bat and called for a high ball. Colvig delivered the goods, which struck Kelly square between the ears and splashed all over the backstop. The next high ball, however, made better connection. Shorty met it squarely under the nose with a brandy smash effect, dropped his bat and started for third base instead of first. This mistake was no doubt due to the fact that he had his panties on backward, probably having been dreaming of high balls while in the dressing room. But Shorty got there just the same, as did Kentner, drygoodsman, who also is not built on the greyhound plan. "Toggery Bill" added to the éclat of the occasion in a gorgeous Nash hat with frazzle-edged trimmings, and W. I. Vawter made a decided sensation on the field attired in a brilliant red necktie of decided anarchistical tendencies. Weeks [the undertaker] "undertook" to catch, and he succeeded in stopping every dead one that came his way, and Jess Enyart tried to break the ball as he does at a shooting match. Molony, the shoe man, wore a neat pair of canvas shoes. He also wore trousers, shirt and a determined look, which no doubt helped to win the game. There were something like 100 men engaged in the contest, first and last, and the game was finished in six innings--as were the players to a frazzle. The score was 10-15 in favor of the business men, and the gate receipts were enormous.
Central Point Herald, June 18, 1908, page 1

Medford Finally Wins.

    There were things doing at the Medford ball park Sunday afternoon, when the Medford team, reinforced by Jacksonville and some other towns, cleaned up both Hilt and Central Point in a double header engagement. Hilt took the first turn at the game, and for nine long innings there was an aggregation of errors on both sides that would be difficult to duplicate in any state in the Union. Neither side had any edge over the other, however, in the way of fuss and fumbles until the eighth, when the score was switched from the California boys' favor to Medford's column. The game was interesting, all right, even though the players were all frozen stiff as graven images. And it really was the weather that was to blame for the entire trouble, for the way the cold wind howled over the diamond was a caution. During the four hours that the Hilt game lasted the Central Point team sat around and shivered, and when their game was called the boys were humped up like a bunch of maverick steers in a Wyoming blizzard.
    The first game was just good practice for Medford, and they went into the second game in good feather. The first two innings settled the cathop for Central Point to the tune of four to nothing, but after that the Pointers got warmed up and played the game. For six innings everybody played ball, with not the shadow of a tally on either side, and in the ninth Medford scratched in another one and won the game by a big margin. The game showed, however, that the two teams are pretty evenly matched under equal conditions, and lovers of the game may expect some good entertainment during the remainder of the season.
    After the game the team managers from Grants Pass, Central Point, Jacksonville and Medford got together and formed a league and arranged a schedule of games. Central Point will play Jacksonville next Sunday at the latter place, and Medford will play at Grants Pass.
    [Central Point] Manager Grieve will make an effort to secure funds with which to erect a grandstand on the local grounds in order to better accommodate the fans, as well as to secure necessary funds with which to keep up his team's share of the expense money.
Central Point Herald, May 13, 1909, page 1

Sunday's Ball Game.

    Central Point won over Medford Sunday on the latter's grounds in a good game and in which both teams did some good work. Medford wanted the game, and they played to get it, but it was a case of being slightly outplayed by the Pointers at every mark in the road.
    The Herald feels that the Medford team deserved a better fate than the following, which was handed them by the Tribune Monday evening, but the Tribune "had orter" known what the game was. It is too much, however, to accuse the Medfords of being beaten by the Cubs. The Cubs are our second team, and such an insinuation is really cruel, doncherknow. The Tribune says:
    "Just as long as Medford continues to play boneheaded baseball, just so long will she continue to lower her standing in the league race. The exhibition Sunday was more like the bizarre bantering, button-breaking, comical convocation of clownish celebrities in a circus than like baseball. There was no teamwork, and each player tried to distinguish himself to the great detriment of the team. Central Point won the game through the selfish spirit of the players on the Medford team, who were out for personal glory.
    "The most flagrant exhibition of boneheaded baseball was in the ninth inning, when one run was needed to tie the score. Cady, first up, walked, Isaacs was hit by pitcher, and then came Miles. No one was out and by all of the sacred rules of infield baseball he was due to sacrifice. But no, he must wallop that horsehide for a three-bagger at the least and win the game. Oh, yes--win the game. After a few foul wallops he succeeded in going out on a fly to the infield. Had he sacrificed, as he should, the boys would in all probability squeezed one and tied the score. Then, if the Central Point boys had chased one across in the tenth, the game would have been lost without leaving a bad taste in the mouth. Johnnie Wilkinson gave another exhibition of boneheaded baseball when he had a safe two-bagger and tried to take third. No ball playing--just a pure case of foolishness.Antle also got caught through carelessness. And the worst of it all is that all of these players know better. The two instances were not all of the dense plays made by Medford, but they will suffice.
    "Central Point has a pitcher in Goodpasture. He played good ball throughout, holding Medford to five hits."
    As a matter of fact, everybody played ball from start to finish. The statement that "Central Point won the game through the selfish spirit of the Medford players who were out for personal glory" is all balderdash. The Central Point team won the game because they outplayed Medford in every inning. The Tribune dope artist prefers to roast his own players for losing rather than give their antagonists credit for playing the game and winning.
    Come down here Sunday, neighbor, and watch us skin Grants Pass. You should be able to give us credit for what we do in that case.
Central Point Herald, June 17, 1909, page 1

BASEBALL BRAWL LAST SUNDAY

Cubs Wallop Medford but the Pointers Lost to Grants Pass.

    That baseball game last Sunday here,
Wound up with scrapping, or very near,
And the Cubs took Windy Medford town
To a skinning that was good and brown.
Those big, lubber Medford pikes
Used big cuss words, and their spikes,
But when it comes to ball and bat,
They couldn't play at "two-old-cat."

    Great big Clydesdales sort of team,
Must have sometimes had a dream
That they could play, but on the square,
Those fans can only fan the air.
Stubborn, just like Siskiyou mules,
Never read the baseball rules,
Stood like dummies at the bag
Spiked the Cubs and "chewed the rag."

    Little Cubs, game to the core,
Piled up many and many a score.
In truth the game was just a bunn,
Almost a shame to take the "mon,"
The way our boys ran in and slid
Was "taking candy from a kid."
Finally one big Medford "geek"
Thought he'd take a funny streak.

    He couldn't base run, couldn't bat;
Fielding, was no good at that,
Couldn't pitch and couldn't catch,
Found him nowhere on the scratch;
'Cept he could blow, that's Medford like,
And spear a fellow with his spike.
This he did with lubber's grace
And spike a baseman at the base.

    Big row started in right then,
Cubs they spruced up just like men,
And could have cleaned the platter right
But marshal wouldn't let them fight.
Boys went up the railroad track
To try the scrapping game a whack,
But this here justice man of ours
He threatened them with all the powers.

    Took the constable along
To make the law arm good and strong,
Pulled the boys for talking fight,
But let them all go home at night,
Score it stood fourteen to two,
Medford bunch were in the stew,
No use for them there baseball dubs
To cross their bats with these here Cubs.

    What about the big home team
Our pride, of which we ever dream?
They went for glory at Grants Pass,
But didn't bring it back, alas.
Boys have got the hoodoo still,
Looks as though they always will
Strike the diamond out of joint;
Mighty hard on Central Point.

Central Point Herald, May 12, 1910, page 1

HERE'S THEIR RECORDS, WHAT?
Medford Invincibles Pass Their Pedigrees Along to the Sporting Editor
Who Hands Them Along to the Public for What They're Worth.

    To the Editor: The "hot wires," a scrub aggregation with large ambitions, little baseball experience and a superabundant amount of egotism, have had the nerve to challenge the Medford Invincibles, a baseball club which has played all the big teams in the United States, and are credited with seventy-three victories and no defeats, and in order to show their utter contempt for this corner lot conglomerate, they propose to administer to the said "hot wires" a voltage that will blow out their fuses and render them hors du combat, or words to that effect, with an ease and smoothness that will sure be a revelation to the assembled thousands who witness the carnage and slaughter of the innocents.
    The "Invincibles" have with great difficulty succeeded in engaging the services of the following baseball artists:
    Pitcher--R. R. Ebel: Mr. Ebel has served three years in the United States Navy playing on Bob Evans' fighting baseball team, and when not otherwise engaged is said to have made a pastime of catching cannonballs.
    Catcher--F. A. Buffum: Mr. Buffum has been engaged at an enormous salary to act as catcher of the above undefeated amalgamation of world-famous baseball jugglers, and is said to have served four years with the New York Giants, having an average of 1000 in this position.
    First Base--Colby: Mr. Colby first burst into the limelight on the corner lots of Medford, where he acquired local fame as a heavyweight scrapper, in which capacity he is credited with an average of 999. Mr. Colby will be found right on the job all through the game.
    Second Base--Mr. Aldenhagen formerly played with great gusto on the team of Amos Rusie in Muncie, Indiana, and was later picked up by the Tolo team as he was walking the ties into that burg. He sure made a hit with the fast semi-pros of that village.
    Right Field--Mr. Ling (a distant relative of Li Hung Chang) got his start juggling beets in a sugar beet factory in Billings, Mont. Mr. Ling possesses some of the possibilities of a ball player if properly developed. He is a young man with classical hair and a Bowery walk.
    Short Shop--Mr. Martin: short stop. A likable-looking little fellow and a grandstand player of known ability. His graceful style of play generally elicits loud applause from the ladies in the grandstand.
    Third Base--Jones: Mr. Jones is a quiet, consistent player, who says he has not played ball for 27 years, but feels plenty of confidence. Keep your eye on Jones--he's there. Jones goes after everything whether he gets it or not, which is generally the case.
    Left Field--Alenderfer. Mr. Alenderfer hauled down a large salary with the San Francisco Seals as a heady player, and stops a great many balls in this manner. He is always in the game and has an average fielding record of 997, covering six years of play.
    Center Field--Mr. Adams: Mr. Adams acquired notoriety by his brilliant work while a member of the Cowboy Nine of Hotstuff, Texas. He is a plunger, and once he gets agoing never stops until he fans out. We expect he will "do things" to the Scrubs.
    Mr. A. Roy--Mr. Roy is substitute player and general manager. What Mr. Roy has forgotten about baseball would fill the congressional library. He is a quick thinker on the firing line, and his coaching vocabulary is a revelation. He is also a favorite with the ladies.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 27, 1911, page 2 There seems to be little truth in this boastful letter. I can find no record of any of the players above having played for the team claimed.

"Live Wire's" Answer

    To the Sporting Editor: Where are the "Medford Invincibles"? Are they invisible?
    A few days ago there appeared in your columns an article describing with much noise and little music the lineup of the "Medford Invincibles."
    The "Live Wires" ask where have they gone and how did they go? Have they returned to the more menial occupations of their varied pasts, or did they flee in alarm when they saw the personnel of that which they termed "a corner lot aggregation"?
    Something over a week ago the Live Wires issued and mailed a challenge to the man who walked from Muncie, Ind. by way of Tolo. We got no answer.
    From your valued columns we learn that they intend to "do" us. We would like to know when, for we are ready. We play baseball; we do not talk. We handle the bat and not the pencil. We call ourselves the "Live Wires," and we are true to our name.
    We are always to be found under the sign of our calling--"Danger, 20,000 Volts," at 115 South Riverside Avenue.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 31, 1911, page 4 Apparently the Live Wires never got their game against the Invincibles--I've found no further mention of the Live Wires, unless it was the same team known as the Electrics.

FIVE BALL GAMES DAILY IN MEDFORD

Baseball games in Medford, now that the season is under way, are becoming more numerous as the hours go by. In the spacious lobby of the Hotel Nash two games are played every afternoon and three every evening, the latter by electric light. The line-ups vary, but there are some who have taken part in nearly every one of the games. Among them are Shorty Miles, Pug Isaacs, Judge Kelly, Owney Patton and Ty Cobb Doyle. The games are so fast and furious that George Carstens is kept busy keeping score and can hardly put down the figures fast enough. Several times the operators at the central telephone exchange have had to call down the hotel because the racket was so great that subscribers whose wires pass over the hotel could not makes themselves heard in 'phone conversations. At the present writing Ty Cobb and Shorty Miles are ahead, and it looks like they were going to win the pennant.
Medford Sun, April 28, 1911, page 5

FAST BASEBALL GAME IN HOTEL LOBBY

With the practice games that are being played almost daily and the Sunday games at Medford, Grants Pass, Jacksonville and elsewhere, together with the evening baseball that is pulled off without fail by electric light every night in the Nash Hotel lobby, Medford is having one of the liveliest seasons of any city in the world. The game last night at the Nash was a corker. Nobody ever saw such swift baseball in any city. It was fast and furious from the start, and it looked for a time like it would require fifteen innings for either side to score and win the game, for up to the latter half of the thirteenth both sides had goose eggs. It was a battle of pitchers, the contest being between Ty Cobb Doyle on one side and Shorty Miles on the other. Things got going so fast that George Carstens was not able to keep the score, and he missed two or three goose eggs at least on account of the swiftness of the plays. Had not Walter McCallum arrived and acted as substitute for Shorty the chances are that the game never would have ended. It is impossible to give the line-up as it actually was, the players being so numerous and so shifty about their positions. Among the following were noticed, however: Ty Cobb Doyle, Shorty Miles, Owney Patton, Pug Isaacs, Johnny Wilkinson, C. I. Farrar, an importation from the forestry department from Skagit County, Washington, Walter McCallum, substitute for Shorty Miles, W. F. Biddle, Bob Brevard, Vance Colvig, Rogue River Canal Wilson, the man who didn't like the girl from Rector's, Kid Rader, Frazer, the diamond sport, Joe Wilson, Court Hall's mascot, and Jack McGlynn, scout for the San Francisco team who failed to attend. A return game will be played tomorrow evening at the same diamond, rain or shine.
Medford Sun, May 6, 1911, page 6

FOUR ROGUE VALLEY TOWNS FORM BASEBALL LEAGUE
MEDFORD, ASHLAND, CENTRAL POINT AND GRANTS PASS
Patten and McGlinn Will Manage the Medford Team--
Games Will Begin in Two Weeks

    Medford, Grants Pass, Ashland and Central Point will be in the new baseball league that will commence a series of contests in a couple of weeks. Owney Patten and Jack McGlinn will manage the Medford team and will do their best to win the pennant. Roper of Grants Pass has insisted that his champs be given two weeks to recruit, and the other clubs have consented to this. M. J. Harrison, manager of the Postal Telegraph at Ashland, will manage the Ashland team, and W. H. Hopkins will guide the Central Point wallopers through the season.
    A new ball park and grandstand will not be constructed this year, but Medford will use the "old faithful" at the foot of Oakdale. Central Point and Ashland have both begun work on their new diamonds and will put in the two weeks preparing to give the other cities a lemon. The new clubs will bring fresh interest and life into the game as played in the Rogue River Valley, and the entire country will be in the game, instead of two cities. Harrison of Ashland has a lot of material from which to pick a winning nine and, although he knows what he is going up against with Medford and Grants Pass to buck, will back his players. Hopkins of Central Point expects to scrape together a team that will surprise Medford fans and get a good standing in the pennant race.
    No very definite plans have been made yet, but it is certain that baseball in the latter part of July will be a swift game in the Old Rogue.
Medford Sun, July 6, 1911, page 5

Last revised December 14, 2009
For more complete names of persons identified by initials or nicknames, see the Index.