The Cheap Penny-A-Liners Of The Local Press

Every man should "stick up" for his own town, and let outsiders detect whatever shortcomings there man be...They are quite different in St. Louis, however. The newspapers here deride every commendable effort on the part of President Von der Ahe, and seem to take delight in adversely criticing every move of his. It seems to be their chief aim to injure the game as much as they possibly can, and are jubilant at the misfortunes of the Browns. If Mr. Von der Ahe, in a fit of disgust, should some day sell out and retire, it well be because of the continual hounding by the cheap penny-a-liners of the local press. It is a mean "bird that will defile its own nest."

...Judging from Mr. John B. Foster's strictures on the St. Louis Club, which he authoritatively asserts "to be merely a makeshift to fill out a scheduled season," he must be an ex-reporter of some St. Louis daily paper. They (the reporters) don't know any better, because they never come to the local games, are prejudiced against management, and like Job's warhorse, "sniff the battle from afar..."

-From Sporting Life, December 18, 1897