An amusing incident occurred after the sixth inning yesterday. A representative of a Detroit paper had been sending the game by inning from the press stand at the grounds. At the end of the sixth, after the Browns had made 4 runs, the correspondent was instructed by wire that his paper had enough, to stop his messages. The announcement of the message caused considerable merriment. Some one remarked that it was evident the score did not suit the Detroiters, and suggested that a score be fixed up to satisfy them.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 11, 1887
I have never given any thought to how the scores of games were being transmitted to various cities, newspapers, pool rooms, etc. Of course, I knew a telegraph was being used (and, actually, by 1887, some folks were using telephones) but I never thought about how it was physically being done. But here we have an interesting reference that lays it out for us. The reporters had a telegraph in the press stands to use to send out scores to their papers. It would be interesting to know how the entire system worked, how many telegraphs were set up at Sportsman's Park, if this set up was unique for the series, who was sending the information to the pool rooms and that kind of stuff but this reference at least gives us a general idea of how things worked.
2 comments:
One victory can certainly produce a remarkable amount of smugness.
The Browns and their fans expected to win this series. They had fought Chicago to a draw in 85, beat them in 86 and had won the AA for the third straight year. That kind of success does usually lead to a smugness that lasts long after it was merited.
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