This day in baseball: Foul call?

At South End Grounds in Boston, on 12 May 1884, Umpire Eugene Van Court calls a Detroit Wolverines batter out on a foul tip.  The Wolverines are enraged by the call, however, arguing that the ball clearly had not been caught by the Beaneaters’ catcher, Mike Hines.  Rather, the contested strike three ball was lodged in the Boston catcher’s mask.

South End Grounds, 1893 (Boston Public Library)