Shanghai's Hard Luck But Also Poor Play: Good Pitching Neutralized by Bad Fielding: The Perfect Work of the Cavalrymen When the Ninth Cavalry series opened Shanghai presented a badly crippled team to oppose the coloured players. Molony, the star third sacker, was suffering from a badly sprained ankle, being able to walk only with the aid of a stick. Den-nisan, a pitcher in whom the greatest confidence was placed, went to the Shanghai General Hospital with a case of dysentery on the morning of the day the cavalry team were due to arrive from "Nientsin. Hopkins, the fast right fielder, and lead-off man, was still hobbling around on his crippled knee, and Roesser, the first string catcher, was released from the sick list the afternoon of the day upon which Dennison was admitted to the hospital, after a week in bed with a bad case of Hongkong foot, and came out to the grounds for the first game wearing a carpet slipper on his right foot. Bristow was still under treatment for a score arm and an injury to his collar bone due to his having been struck by a foul ball.
Assuredly a dismal outlook for the local team. Hopkins went into the first game and lasted for just one half of an inning, for in the first play he attempted his knee caved in and he was out of the game and the series. Bristow fared better, being able to play in three of the games, while Roesser stuck it out for five games, when his doctor butted in and ordered him to lay off until further orders. Maloney, much to his disgust and the disappointment of his team mates, and the fans, was not able to get into a single game of the series. Dennison, although only! out of the hospital on Saturday after six days in bed, and_ not really fit for the task, pitched the fifth game, and acquitted himself creditably under the conditions.
A Tracepy or Errors.
Too much credit cannot be given the local pitching staff—Merzill, Terry and Dennison—each of whom pitched good enough ball to win the majority of the games had they been given anything near decent support. It was a_heartbreaking task for the pitchers, with their team-mates making 50 errors behind them, and failing to come through with hits when they were needed. In fact, with the exception of the third game the home team were a fizzle with the stick work; they showed a complete reversal of form over their previous performances, getting but 38 hits for the series against their opponents' 67.
The batting slump would not have had such deadly effect but for the fact that the locals seemed to vie with each other for the honour of making the greatest number of errors; they accumulated 52 for "the series with the Cavalry-men getting but 11.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.