BASEBALL
A game of baseball
has been arranged to take place on the Fair Ground in this place on
Thursday afternoon next between teams from Windham Centre and
Hagersville.
The game between
these two teams last year was so interesting that we are sure every
person will be out to see the game.
They play for a
purse of $20. The winners take the whole purse. Game called at 3.30.
Admission: gentlemen 15¢, ladies 10¢.
Windham has been
noted for baseball for the last 25 years, and it still has a team in the
field.
Windham has been
noted for base ball for many years. A history of the old Wranglers
of Windham will be found below.
Uncle Jim Robertson
was the father of the Wranglers, he generally paid all the expenses and
stood by the boys. That's what wrong with the team at present -- no one
to manage it. Mellon, the pitcher, is a first class man and knows the
game by heart.
A school teacher by
the name of Benny gave the club its name; he used to teach at the Block
school house.
The Wranglers always
studied the game. They often went to Buffalo and Detroit when there were
excursions to those cities, to see the professional clubs play, and
picked up many a pointer.
It was a
winning team. Among the list of clubs they played
against were
St. Thomas, Brantford, Jarvis, Scotland, Oakland, Nelles' Corners,
Welland, Norwich, Otterville, Tillsonburg, Hawtrey, Burgessville, St.
Williams, Walsingham Centre, Waterford, Simcoe, Silver Hill, Lynedoch,
Burford, Kelvin, the Hickory Twist club and Delhi.
Other clubs combined
to play against the Wranglers, trying to defeat them.
When the Wranglers
were at their best and could get no one else to play against, they
challenged the Atlantics of Woodstock, the champions of Canada at that
time.
The boys went went
up to Woodstock and the score was 11 to 2 in favor of
Woodstock. Charley Edgeworth held them down to a close game, as at that
time Tip O'Neal was the great curve ball pitcher of the day. The next
year he went to St. Louis at a salary of $4,000, and was one of star
players of the league.
Then Woodstock came
down to Windham to play the return match. The score was 7 to 0 in favor
of Woodstock. For a country club and farmers the old Wranglers played a
good game of ball.
Among the first lot
of players when the club was organized:
-
Charley John
Robinson, the first baseman of his day, now in the gold fields of
British Columbia.
-
Cal. Lawrence,
the centre fielder who caught everything in sight, now engineer on
the Michigan Central Railway, and president of West Elgin
Conservative Association, at St. Thomas.
-
Oliver Robinson
is still on the old homestead and is county councillor for this
division.
-
Charles
Edgeworth, was one of the greatest pitchers of his time; he played
with his head. He is living at Teeterville, on the old Teeter
homestead.
-
C. L. Robinson
is living on a dairy farm at Vanessa Station and is buying cattle
and shipping them.
-
Billy Collen was
the wonderful catcher in his time, before the mask was invented, and
stood up behind the bat with the swift pitching. Today he is on the
Canadian Pacific Railway west of Port Arthur, head foreman of an
extra gang on the road.
-
Robert Green was
one of the hard batters in his day; he is now township clerk.
-
R. A. MacKay is
now out in the Klondike. He was more familiarly known by the name
Doss.
-
Robert Knowles
of Silver Hill played sometimes with the club. He was called home a
few years ago.
-
In the next lot
that sprang up was Job Lawrence; he has been on the turf for a long
time, playing first base and catcher; he was one of the hard
hitters.
-
J. S. Robertson
was the second pitcher that sprang up in the club. He is relieving
agent on the Michigan Central Railway at present.
-
James Edgeworth,
the third baseman, is still living in the Centre; he was in
mercantile business for 11 years.
The exciting times
were when Norfolk formed a county league and played North against South.
The clubs imported men of both sides and excitement ran high for some
time. The Wood Bros. played; also an important pitcher from Hamilton.
The last of the
Wranglers has dropped out: Job Lawrence was the last one to hang on and
he has moved away.
Many a good day's
sport was seen around old Windham; the farmers all turned out to see the
boys play. The Wranglers had their day, the same as the Hard Batters of
Oakland and the Haymakers of Delhi.
