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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (June 10, 1897)
VOLUME Vi ONG a4. NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1897. A SENSATIONAL VICTORY. — The Finish of the Princeton Game Will Make it Famous. When the Yale alumni of 1917 are gathered in the spacious Alumni Hall of that period for. Commencement Dinner, (all under cover, and each sup- plied with a small portion of ozone) some prosperous member. of the Class of Ninety seven, returned for his twen- tieth reunion, or some remnant of an earlier age, who was so favored of the gods as to have been at the Yale Field on the afternoon of June 5, 1897, will very likely be called upon for his views of men and things and memories of the great hours in the history of Yale. And, if by that time statutory regu- lation does not prevent it, and he be in any way of a sport-loving nature, it is all of Yale University to a Franklin primer that he will tell those incredu- lous children of the Twentieth Century how the Blue “won it out,” ten to nine, in the great battle with old Nassau in 1897. ; He can draw on his imagination, if he wishes; but he will not, if his memory is good. Imagination even at that distance will hardly equal history, and any element of uncertainty or ex- citement which he may evolve, will be overshadowed by the most prosaic recital of the order of events in the last half of the ninth, and the.-story of the score-card in Yale’s tenth, — It has been the writer’s good fortune to see most of the great athletic battles of the last ten years. There is one which will live as long in his memory as that of last Saturday afternoon. It is the last twenty minutes of the strug- gle on Hampden Park in the Fall of 1890, where Yale’s amazing recovery and all but successful fight against an extraordinary eleven, flushed with the first victory of fourteen years, gave her a clearer title to the virtues of ccl- legiate athletics than any other inci- dent in her not uneventful history. Saturday afternoon’s contest was like it in that there was present the same spirit of fight clean out to the end and dying in the last ditch. In the former it all but prevailed. In the latter it quite prevailed, and therein is the greater joy of it, although not any greater credit. It would be well to say here that Yale won the game. To all appearances, by the rule of ninety-nine precedents out of a hundred, she lost it before she won. The roar and rumble which ver- acious residents of West Haven affirm that they heard, and were even startled by, a few minutes before 6 o’clock, was the explosion of the spirit of 5,000 lively mortals. For nine innings their nerves had made their existence miserable. In that short moment in the ninth, all that repressed feeling worked up into extraordinarily high explosive, was ignited by a single spark. It was the sharp ring of the bat which caught a swift ball at just the right angle and on just the right grain. Then there was a vision of a piece of leather cutting the air over the shortstop’s head, ris- ing still higher as it passed the line between the left and center, begin- ning its downward curve far beyond any sprinting point. The man who swung the bat was a Freshman named Camp. WHEN CAMP CAME TO THE BAT. Two veterans before him had been executed with woeful promptness through the offices of Hillebrand, one whom Yale has met hefore, and Kel- ley, another whom Yale has met be- fore (and. in both cases remembers.) A third Fincke had _ succeeded in reaching first only by skillful wait- ing for the fourth ball, or by the ‘“sood eye” of which the man who talks from the sidelines says much. Price Tren CEnrTs. ©. G. Bartlett, ec. H. L. DeForest, c. M.L. Fearey, p. S. B. Camp,s.s. C. M. Reed, 2b. C. M. Fincke, 3b. ‘EB. F. Hamlin, p.,2b. G.C. Greenway, p. .H. M. Keator, c. (Capt.) H. W. Letton,1b. J.J. Hazen, 2b. H. B. Wallace, r.f. * A. 3, Goodwin, C. ‘ys W. Wear, r. f. G. EH. Hecker, Pp. YALE UNIVERSITY NINE, 1897. Norr.—Farnham and Murphy not present in group. (Photograph by Pach). Furthermore the young shortstop had one strike, and there are many credi- ble witnesses who take oath that his strikes were two. Indeed, a canvass of authority by Mr: Carter, not un- know in Yale athletic annals, has re- sulted in a startling array of author- ity for the two-strike theory. Camp, himself, who was quite the most watch- ful person of the 6,000 at the time, and who surely has a “good eye,’ admits that he doesn’t know. Really no one knows. There was too overwhelming a rush of sensations to the extended sensoria of those present, immdeiately following that incident, to leave room for any lasting impression as to the detail. The umpire might know, but no one knows where he is. He may be still arguing with dissatisfied peo- ple as to the proper place from which to view curves and call the halls and strikes, or still be throwing back clean, white balls to recalcitrant pitchers, in some distant damond “just to be contrary,” as the Princeton men say. The Faculty in a meeting from eight to twelve at the Graduates’ Club that evening, which was given up to an examination of the bolder features of the match, handed down a clear de- cision in. favor of this view of the case. Mr. Fox supports this view elsewhere in this paper. So two strikes we will call it. Here is another thing to remember. The fate-daring young player had al- ready sent a twisting foul fly to Hille- brand which the J«tter had dropped— hard ball. This statement is on the authority of a man named Keator, Yale ’97, who, as to the proceedings of the afternoon, saw all and was a large part. The Weekly reporters present, including the writer, don’t re- member anything about those details —at least with any accuracy. Then—oh! then—came that sound, spoken of above, and then went that ball, safe beyond all peradventure, even from Bradley and from Easton. It ‘it was. - is very trying to tell more details just now. Of course, Fincke flew around the three bases between him and a run like a greyhound, and Camp’s mo- tion was as though, someone swung him on the end of a rope from the cen- ter of the diamond. IT WAS A HOME RUN. You knew it was the greatest thing you ever saw in baseball as soon as the ball began to sail; but you didn’t dare to believe that it was quite as good as It was a three-bagger, but could it be a home run with that swift Bradley after it? Yes. As the fleet shortstop bounds down from second, the coach at third waves toward home, and home he goes, fairly flying, and th score is tied, 9 to 9. Peek ate It is just impossible to describe the situation after that. The whole 6,000 (Princeton’s few hundred excepted) were on their feet and such a shout went up as shook the towers of Rome on the occasicn of another famous home-coming after two men had been retired. Reputable citzens of the sub- urbs who say how many miles they heard that shout are ecailed liars. The sudden delirious joy of half ten thousand people has never’ been equalled, in college battles, according to the writer’s best knowledge and belief. There was no sanity anywhere on the Field. Pop Smith may or may not have had a fit, just then. About fifty hundred other people had fits. The men of the time will continue to recall, Brigham’s feat at Hampden Park, where he leaned backwards over the ropes around the course as far as Mr. Cooke teaches the men to swing on the finish, then, with an arm over a horse’s back, gathered in, with one hand, the terrific hit which had ap- parently Saved the game for the Crimson and won the championship. There will be still in very lively mem- ory a similar performance by Mr. Clark several years before. It is not in detraction from these achievements to say, in comparing them with Freshman Camnp’s hit and the subse- quent proceedings, that. these other phenomenal feats preserved the vic- tory already won while last Satur- day’s game, by all rules already lost, was first saved and then won. THE LAST OF THE TENTH. The other half of the story is simply this. The tenth inning opened with Princeton still confident. The shock of Camp’s home run had been with- stood and when Kelly, who was first at the bat lined out a single ,it seemed as if the lead would now go back and that magnificent recovery all count for nothing. But the next play was a hot ball to Fincke, passed quickly to Haz- en and so cutting off Kelly, and then like lightning sent on to Letton, mak- ing a double. Fincke’s capture of the foul -|.y from Altman closed _ that chapter of the game. Hazen was the first at the bat for Yale and he completed his magnific- cent record of the afternoon by a clean base hit. Murphy went out on strikes and Keator reached first, af- ter his usual custom, this time hy a grounder too hot for Kelly to handle. It was very comfortable to see Let- ton come to the bat. Letton is the surest hitter of the nine. There was the preliminary of a strike and a ball or two, but then he caught it. There was considerable hope that he would make a safe single and allow a score— much more hope than there was in the inning before that Camp would save the game. But there was no ex- pectation of the treat again in store for the Yale thousands. Letton caught the ball just where he wanted it. Where it went, it is impossible to say. The Weekly has it on the au-
