The Sacramento Daily Record-Union described the 50-mile road trip the California League’s Sacramento Senators and San Francisco Metropolitans took to play a game in Stockton, on the box car of a freight train:
“(The players) commenced to playing craps…The San Francisco players and also umpire (John) Sheridan were on the train, and everyone was betting his ‘chicken feed.” Big (Edward “Jumbo”) Cartwright borrowed ten cents to start on, and came out (with) over $7…Sheridan won about the same amount, but did not stop playing and dropped $3 of what he had won. Red (Frank) Armstrong was intensely interested in the game, except for an intermission of about five minutes, when he poked a drunk’s hand through a window in the caboose.
“At Stockton both clubs were accorded a royal reception; but the heat was sweltering and everyone was in a half-way stupor. Just about then ‘Rube’ (Reuben) Levy and ‘Bony’ (James Peck) Sharp and a couple of others came running up the middle of the street with their coats off yelling ‘Fire!’ They ran about four blocks and when they stopped the population was running at a lively rate. But there was no fire, except in the air”
The teams played that morning in Stockton, Sacramento winning 10 to 3. Immediately after the game, the teams re-boarded the freight train (there was no description of the return trip) and played an afternoon game in Sacramento. San Francisco won that game 13-4.
Leave a Reply