24 July 1903: Undefeated Grocers Beat Winless Printers

On this day in 1903, the Weekly Banner published, in the center of their front page, a long, detailed story about "one of the livliest games of baseball played this season in the Classic City League."

The Classic City League consisted of six baseball teams, created by professional alliance. Though outside players were allowed, the core seven members of each team had to be from the local industry the team represented. Their first game was on June 30th, 1903, between the Printers and the Dry Goods. Games were played on the University of Georgia campus, and were free entertainment for the Athens public.

At the time of this story, the Grocers were 4-0; the Clothiers were 3-1; the Mechanics and Dry Goods were 2-2; the Office Men were 3-1; and the Printers, a team that no doubt included some of the Weekly Banner staff, were 0-4. The story about the previous day's game indicated that it 

started off in great style, and from the jump it was seen that it was a battle to the finish. In spite of the fact that the Printers were at the bottom of the percentage column they came ont [sic] with the purpose of playing winning ball. And they put up a fine game, although they did go down in defeat.

The final score was Grocers 3, Printers 1.

The season ended August 6th, when the Mechanics and Dry Goods teams "played off their last game" which had ended in a tie to decide who would place third in the League. The Grocers came out on top, with a record of 4-1, followed by the Clothiers (also 4-1), the Mechanics (3-2), the Dry Goods (2-3), the Office Men (2-3), and the Printers ending the season at a lowly 0-5.

Learn More:

• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• 1904 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Bushville: Life and Time in Amateur Baseball by Jerry Kelly via PINES.
• The Baseball Chronology: The Complete History of the Most Important Events in the Game of Baseball by James Charlton in the Reference collection or via PINES.
• Ring Around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner by Ring Lardner in the Fiction collection.
• Eight Men Out in the DVD collection.
• The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories by W. P. Kinsella in the Fiction collection.
• Baseball Crazy: Ten Short Stories that Cover All the Bases by Nancy E. Mercado in the Young Adult collection.
• Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe by Sam Walker in the general collection.
• The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella in the Fiction collection.
• Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella in the Fiction collection.
• The Natural in the DVD collection.
• Diamond Classics: Essays on 100 of the Best Baseball Books Ever Published by Mike Shannon via PINES.