Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/510

Rh Saturday, the second game in their match with the following result: The Athletics scored 92 runs; the Live Oaks, 28. The Athletics won the first game also, and the match is decided in their favor.

Here we note an entire absence of detail. No player gets a mention; there is no lineup; umpire gets no notice; no story of how the game was won; no score by innings. The baseball vernacular is not there; reporting of the diamond sport is, putting it mildly, in its infancy. But so—judged by the score—was sport the itself. fancy.

Pioneer enthusiasm for gymnasium exercise had faded, apparently, by 1871, when the Oregonian, under date of March 1, published a notice of the death of the old Turn Verein.

The scant space given sports and the inept handling of that type of thing in the early Oregon papers suggest a periodical comparison with what was being done in the older parts of the country. Inspection of the files of Henry Raymond's New York Times, James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald, and Horace Greeley's New York Tribune gives the impression that there was more difference between East and West in quantity than in quality of sports writing. Here is a yacht race story from the Tribune:

Newport, R. I., Aug. 16, 1872. The cruise so far has proved a decided success, and would be hard to bring together a more beautiful fleet or more perfect samples of the higher branch of naval architecture than are now lying in Newport harbor. This morning the different crews on board the yachts were kept pretty busy making preparations for the race for the Commodore's Cup, and, judging from the number that had their mainsails and foresails set, a large entry appeared likely. The little cat boats were in great requisition, and had large parties of ladies and their escorts on board, whom they were taking out to witness the start. The little schooner Eva was

and she was followed shortly afterward by the Tidal Wave, Foam, Alice, Madeleine, Resolute, Viking, Madgie, and Columbia. After getting outside of Goat Island the fleet