What happens when you forget to pack your uniforms? The Cincinnati Reds had this very dilemma on April 29, 1913, when they were set to play the Cubs in Chicago. Fortunately for the Reds, the Cubs’ crosstown rivals, the White Sox, loaned out their uniforms for the contest. Unfortunately for the Reds, the White Sox unis didn’t bring them any luck, as they lost to the Cubs, 7-2.
I enjoy how the news clipping is written, more like a fable than an actual event. Nice to not have too many details., no player names or statistics, just things like “misfit shoes and tight clothes handicapped the visitors” and then the boxcore for us to imagine the rest.
Reading the old descriptions of baseball is always fun. It ties in with the myth of baseball as this pastime to be revered, a game played by gentlemen of integrity, and so on. I have to admit, though, the flowery prose makes for good reading.
A fan living far away from a big league city with no father to play mythical catch; just a radio, Red Barber and his imagination. Those days seem extinct now and those newspaper clippings recreate a time that I will probably never know because TV shaped my baseball childhood. But then again, if I get the courage to shut the computer off and go live in the woods with an AM radio, it might happen.