"Who Says Ainsworth Can't Play Ball?"

A small-town baseball team, 1907.
Image credit: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wioconto/PhoLena.htm.

Ainsworth had its own baseball team as early as August 1901, when they hosted a team from Hebron — and lost. They must have worked on their game, because a month later Ainsworth played a team from East Chicago at the Hobart diamond and wiped the floor with them, winning 26 to 5. The Gazette remarked that "the boys from East Chicago have much to learn about ball playing before they attempt another game with the Ainsworth nine."

Unfortunately, the paper doesn't name any of Ainsworth's players. And if the team as a whole had a name at this point, the paper doesn't mention it.

The next we hear of the anonymous Ainsworths, it's August 1903 and they've just beaten the team from Deepriver. The Gazette announced an upcoming Ainsworth v. Hobart game with the warning: "The Ainsworth boys are a strong team and a hot contest is predicted."

Early in June 1904, the "Ainsworth boys" promised not only a game but a dance:

The Ainsworths will cross bats with the Griffiths at 2 p.m. next Sunday, upon the former's grounds at Ainsworth. On Wednesday evening following, June 8th, the Ainsworth ball boys will give a dance in the Sauter hall at Ainsworth. Music will be furnished by Messrs. Dotzer and Bullock.

As for Hobart, it seems to have had two ball teams around this time — the Maroons and the Juniors, but the Maroons are much more often mentioned. They had been organized in 1897, with the following players: Oscar "Windy" Myers (pitcher), "Peck" Thompson (catcher), John Stoker, Eddie "Cob" Newman, Bert Myers, Robert Scholler, Joe "Dode" Nash, Bill Portmess, Lew Barnes, Frank Mathews, Sam Cook, Fred Maybaum, Mr. Slocum, and Albert Borman.

In August 1904, the Maroons hosted a game against a team they had never played before, the Valparaiso Clowns. Expecting a good contest against an equal opponent — organized, uniformed, skilled — the Maroons were disappointed from the start when the Clowns showed up without uniforms. They decided to go on with the game and give the Valpo team a chance to prove itself. But the Clowns turned out to be aptly named. At the middle of the 7th inning, with the score standing at Maroons 21, Clowns 0, Hobart ended the game in disgust.

By 1907 the Ainsworth team also had a name: the Clippers. In July of that year they played an interesting game against the Hobart Firemen — at the ninth inning the game was tied, and it took three more innings for the Clippers to break the tie and win, 9 to 7. The Gazette ended its admiring report by exclaiming: "Who says Ainsworth can't play ball?"


Sources:
♦ "A One-Sided Ball Game." Hobart Gazette 5 Aug. 1904.
♦ "Base Ball Notes." Hobart Gazette 26 July 1907.
♦ "Crisman and Small's Crossing." Hobart Gazette 21 Aug. 1903.
♦ Fleck, Clare. "Hobart and Maroon Baseball Team" (undated manuscript), Hobart Historical Museum, Hobart, Indiana.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 8 Aug. 1901; 4 Sept. 1903; 3 June 1904.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 13 Sept. 1901.