Walla Walla's Baseball Dream Folds
After failing to secure enough games, the local team disbands, sending its players to other towns across the Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
For a brief period this morning, there seemed a remote chance of Walla Walla's keeping her baseball team intact. The manager of the Pendleton team telephoned to Captain Bruyette this morning asking for a series of games, but after a talk with the other members of the team, it was decided to abandon the idea of trying to keep up the team and the offer was declined. The baseball fever seems to have dried up in the veins of the local fans and until something more encouraging than has heretofore shown up appears, Walla Walla is likely to go baseball hungry for some time. Members of the old league have already commenced to migrate to other towns where talent is more appreciated. Edwards has about decided to go to Vancouver, and McGueken and Titus have received offers from Ritzville. Heder will go to Chemawa, Oregon, and Ben Lougheed may go to Olympia.
“The baseball fever seems to have dried up in the veins of the local fans and until something more encouraging than has heretofore shown up appears, Walla Walla is likely to go baseball hungry for some time.”
The collapse of a local baseball team in 1903 mirrors the ongoing struggle of small-town minor league sports to remain financially viable in a changing economy. Today, sports fans in Walla Walla still feel that 'hunger' as the city navigates the challenges of sustaining community-led athletics.
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