At Play, Though the World Is at War

"Ainsworth is the only town around here to support a ball team this year," said the Hobart News in June 1917. "They have a game there nearly every Sunday." The Ainsworth team still called itself the Cubs, and I still don't have a clue who played on it.

Let the other six and a half days of the week be spent worrying about the war — on Sunday afternoons the "boys" of Ainsworth played ball. On July 8, the South Chicago Tigers came out to Ainsworth and lost to the Cubs, 8 to 4. The following Sunday, Ainsworth hosted the Gary Magnets. The Cubs wiped the floor with their guests: 9 to 0. East Chicago sent its own ambush of Tigers to Ainsworth on July 22 and after a hot contest gave the Cubs one of their rare defeats, 5 to 3.

The following Sunday the Cubs played the Miller Eagles at East Gary. But the result of that game did not get into the papers, and baseball reports fell away for the next month and a half, although the games continued.

On September 23, the Ainsworth Cubs traveled to Gary to play that town's Knights of Columbus team, which had a formidable reputation. The Cubs' 12-to-6 victory left them "feeling quite jubilant." It had been a good season for them thus far: out of 16 games, only four losses. The News concluded its report: "Next Sunday will be their last game of the season, and they will again cross bats on the Ainsworth grounds with the Gary K.C. team, which returns to endeavor to retrieve their lost laurels. This promises to be a fast game."


Sources:
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 20 Sept. 1917; 27 July 1917.
♦ Untitled social column. Hobart News 28 June 1917; 12 July 1917; 19 July 1917; 26 July 1917.