Akron Daily Democrat

The teams of the City League opened the base ball season at Buchtel grounds Saturday with the assistance of His Honor, Mayor Doyle, the Great Western band and nearly 500 faithful fans who kept their overcoats tightly buttoned and stamped their feet to keep the blood moving. The weather man got slightly mixed in his dates and uncorked a beautiful sample of football weather with bleak winds, snow and rain.

Notwithstanding the cold a large crowd formed on Main st., in front of the N. E. A. A. club rooms and, preceded by the band and carriages with the Mayor, officers of the league, and several automobiles, the players of the four teams marched on Main to Market and south on Howard st. to Exchange to the Buchtel grounds, where all busied themselves trying to start their circulation. The players were cold and stiff, but after a moment's practice, took their positions and amid the cheers of the crowd, Mayor Doyle pitched the first ball over and the race for the city championship was on.

The first game was between the Niagaras and Kirkwoods, who, owing to the delays incidental to the parade and inclement weather, played but five innings, which resulted in a victory for the Niagaras after an interesting struggle, which demonstrated that both teams have splendid material and need only proper conditions to put up a fine article of ball. The Niagara team is, for the most part, well known in the city and the rooters were anxious to see how the Kirkwoods would show up against them. The latter have a good aggregation together and with a little team work will be strong candidates for the honors of the league. The Kirkwoods' new pitcher, Markham, made a fine impression, and barring his wildness in the first, easily outpitched the veteran Watts, who yielded 10 hits to 5 by Markham. There were several errors on both sides, due to the numbness of the fielders' fingers, which were excusable.

The Kirkwoods' three outfielders, short stops and catcher are recent additions and their fine all-round work was very pleasing to the crowd. The Kirkwoods were first at the bat and started at Watts in a fierce manner, three singles, an out, a free pass netted four runs. The Niagaras came back in their half and scored three runs and their admirers opened up. The Niagaras saw their three and raised them three more in their half, owing to Markham's inability to locate the plate. He issued four tickets to first, and these with a single and double netted 6 runs. The Kirkwoods took another batting streak in the second and scored 4 runs by some very clean hitting by Miller, Motz, Kirk and Cross. The Niagaras scored two more in the fourth, which put them one to the good. They held this lead to the finish, as they played good ball after the second inning, and third base was as far as the Kirkwoods could get. Score:

Niagaras .............. 6 0 2 0 0—8
Kirkwoods............. 4 3 0 0 0—7

At the conclusion of the first game the North Ends and South Ends took the field and held most of the crowd until the last man was out with a hard fought contest which was anybody's game until the finish. The South Ends have four of the Sharon old guard and a kid pitcher who is a comer, and were reinforced at first base by Big 'Gene Wright, the noted Cleveland pitcher, who stopped off here while making one of his famous jumps. They looked like winners for a few innings and then the North End boys began to swat the ball for keeps. The N. E. A. C. took the lead in the fourth only to be tied up in the fifth by Wright's single, a steal and Mahone's single. Limric was now doing good work in the box and tried his best to win his game with a great 3 base hit in the sixth, but Brittian and Wright held a little confab and the next two were easy outs. In the seventh the North Ends scored two runs on hits by Phelps and Boice and a dropped fly in right and blanked their opponents in their half and came home victors by a score of 7 to 5 in seven innings.

There was great enthusiasm during the closing innings and the spectators were well pleased with the good article of ball put up under such adverse conditions. The South Ends and Kirkwoods will play at Buchtel grounds next Saturday, and this will be the occasion for another big demonstration. The Great Western band has been engaged and will escort the players in uniform from the North End club rooms in the Walsh block to the grounds. The score:

North Ends ...... 2 0 0 3 0 0 2—7
South Ends ....... 1 3 0 0 1 0 0—5

LINERS.
The crowd stayed for the finish.
The players had full use of the field.
Allen had his right hand in his pocket warming it when he missed Crile's assist.
Bednar "fanned" three times but his one hand stop of Chalfield's grounder in the sixth was a beauty.
Motz can still slug the ball some.
The weather man's season ticket has been recalled.
Cross was not asleep when he failed to get Fitzgerald's assist. He was only wondering if freezing was an easy death.
Brown made a great one-hand stop in the second which injured his hand, but he finished the game.
Kirk backs up the base plays and is always on the spot.