An Embarrassing Day for the Seattle Nine
The local Seattle baseball team, suffering from a complete lack of practice, was soundly defeated by the Snohomish club, leading to a new challenge match.
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.
On Sunday, the much-talked-of match between the Snohomish and Seattle base ballists took place on the Driving Park Association's grounds. It was notorious that the Seattle team had never played a single practice game and were thoroughly out of trim, while the Snohomish boys were not only in fit trim but had secured the services of James Fairbairn, John Harwell, and H. G. Chipman, all Seattle boys, to play with them. The Snohomish boys did fine fielding, while that done by the Seattle team was very bungling. On the second inning the score stood Snohomish 7, Seattle 1. At this juncture the metropolitan boys braced up a little, and at the close of the fifth inning, when the game ceased, the score stood 14 for Snohomish and 0 for Seattle. Immediately at the close of the game, a challenge was proclaimed that one month from that date the Seattle nine would play the Snohomish boys for $100 a side, and that challenge is now under consideration. It is sincerely hoped that the Seattle boys will not again attempt to compete with any club without first playing a few practice games.
“It is sincerely hoped that the Seattle boys will not again attempt to compete with any club without first playing a few practice games.”
Amateur sports rivalry is a timeless Seattle tradition. Even in 1883, the lack of preparation and the stinging loss clearly sparked a passionate civic debate over the team's performance.
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