Batter-Up

Havolines vs Boston Braves and Jim Thorpe 1919

September 19, 1919 Vincennes Commercial

 2300 Persons Witnessed Big Game at Lawrenceville – Havolines Put Up Good Game

On September 18 all Lawrenceville and many from neighboring towns turned out to see the Boston Braves perform on the local diamond Thursday afternoon. The Havolines went down to defeat before the National Leaguers by a score of 7 to 2, both of the local markers being made in the last half of the ninth. 2300 persons witnessed the game. The grandstand and the bleachers were crowded to capacity and automobiles filled with enthusiastic fans surrounded the field and every available place.

 The crowd assembled long before 3:30, the starting time, to see the big Leaguers cavort on the field and they were not disappointed in the antics pulled off for their benefit. Jim Thorpe, the big Indian who has been hailed as the world’s greatest athlete, exhibited some of his skill by catching long flies with his hands behind his back. The basemen staged a little comedy by throwing and catching fast ones while seated on the sacks. Hank Gowdy, the lanky catcher, who went through the World War under the title of Sgt. Gowdy and rejoined the club after his discharge from the service, showed the Havolines it was no easy task to steal a base against his peg to second.

The Havolines put up a game fight all the way through and although they were up against superior odds, they never did give up at any time. The locals got a man to third in the fourth inning and it looked for a while that they were going to be able to push a run across but the Braves put on the lid and there he died. Boston featured some heavy slugging, sending the sphere to the tops of automobiles around the edge of the field several times and once batting the ball against an oil car on the railroad tracks beyond the fence. After many people thought the game was all over and were filing out the gate, the Havolines staged a little rally at their last time to bat and brought two runs across the plate to show the boys from the big circuit that they could not shut the locals entirely out of the gravy. A long fly over the leftfielder’s head and another one between center and right field did the work.

Players listed for Lawrenceville were Bradshaw second base, Chappell centerfield, Kelly shortstop, Gosnell left field, Hambrich right field, Kirkwood third-base, Cullom third-base, Manchester catcher, Greenberg catcher, Bonham first base, Teague pitcher, Friday pitcher.