Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/507

498 the second game easily. This, being the deciding game, has been anxiously looked forward to by the ball community generally.

The game was commenced about three o'clock by the Atlantics taking the first innings; but they succeeded in making one run only. The Eckfords followed, and made a "skunk"; but in their second inning they made a big inning for 5, after which round 0's were the order of the day. To comment on the game thoroughly would occupy too much space. Suffice it to say that both parties played exceedingly good, the Atlantics being hardly up to their usual play. The best contested game of the season was thus concluded in the space of two hours and a quarter.

Thus far the writer has not given the score by which the game was won and lost. He takes it in stride, thus:

"The following score will tell its own tale of the defeat of the Atlantic Base Ball Club."

This is followed by a modified box score, in which the number of put-outs and the number of runs made by each player are listed. This is followed by the score by innings and the names of the umpire and the scorer for each side. Times at bat, hits, assists, and errors are not listed, although this was a championship game attended by 15,000.

The Times in its account managed to mention in the first para graph the fact that the final score was 8 to 3. The Times makes it plain that "The contest proved deeply exciting to the vast multitude that were present, and everything passed off well, admirable order being preserved by the police force and their assistants that were present."

Now for a brief look at sports in the early 70's as described in the Oregonian. Running through the file from February through July of 1871, we find represented news and, occasionally, gossip of horse-racing, billiards, turn verein athletics, yachting on the Willamette, rowing, baseball, marathon walking (known as pedestrianism). The longest single item was the story of Jack Sheppard's feat of walking 106 consecutive hours without rest or sleep, which the paper referred to as "astonishing." In the ten years since the Brady walking marathon the Oregonian sports department had shown considerable advance, and there is more information, more description, more of the actual spirit of the event, and less my-goodness-isn't-this disgraceful moralizing than the earlier reporter had indulged in. The lead is infinitely better, in fact, almost modern:

The astonishing feat of walking one hundred and six consecutive hours without rest or sleep, was accomplished by