1903 Season - Opening Day for the Arizona Territorial Baseball League
The first-ever game in the Arizona Territorial Baseball League involved familiar rivals from the old miners leagues, the Bisbee Copper Kings and Tombstone Epitaphs. The game was played on April 15, 1903. Those two towns are located pretty close to each other in southern Arizona.
Jack Chesbro outdueled Christy “Big Six” Mathewson from the mound as Tombstone topped Bisbee 2-1. Chesbro threw a complete-game three-hitter, with six Ks and no earned runs. Big Six struggled a little bit, walking four and giving up six hits.
Later on Opening Day, the Yuma Indians edged the Nogales Chiefs 3-2.
Some AZL notables that may be trivia questions on day:
* First pitch: Tombstone’s Chesbro threw a ball to Bisbee’s Jimmy Sebring.
* First hit: Tombstone’s Kid Elberfeld raps a line drive single to centerfield on the first pitch of the game from Mathewson in the bottom of the first
* First run: Elberfeld comes around to score in the first inning on a fielder’s choice play by Herm McFarland
* First double: Tombstone’s Nap Lajoie gets two sacks in the third inning
* First triple: Yuma’s Buck Freeman earns three bags on opening day against Nogales in the fourth inning
* First walk: Drawn by Lajoie in the first inning against Mathewson
* First strikeout: Bisbee catcher Duke Farrell fans against Chesbro in the second inning
* First batter beaned by a pitch: Bisbee LF Joe Kelley is hit by Chesbro to start the sixth inning
* First stolen base: Nogales CF Ginger Beaumont grabs a base in the first inning against Yuma.
* First home run: A solo shot from Tempe’s Charlie “Piano Legs” Hickman in the second inning against Florence on April 17,1903 (day three of the season).
* First pitching win: Jack Chesbro of Tombstone against Bisbee
The Jerome Copper Miners don’t start their season until April 22. The Miners’ first series will be a four-game set at home on Cleopatra Hill against the Holbrook Roadrunners. I imagine we’ll have to face Noodles Hahn in the opener. We’ll see what we’re made of right away with Rube Waddell on the hill for us…
The first-ever game in the Arizona Territorial Baseball League involved familiar rivals from the old miners leagues, the Bisbee Copper Kings and Tombstone Epitaphs. The game was played on April 15, 1903. Those two towns are located pretty close to each other in southern Arizona.
Jack Chesbro outdueled Christy “Big Six” Mathewson from the mound as Tombstone topped Bisbee 2-1. Chesbro threw a complete-game three-hitter, with six Ks and no earned runs. Big Six struggled a little bit, walking four and giving up six hits.
Later on Opening Day, the Yuma Indians edged the Nogales Chiefs 3-2.
Some AZL notables that may be trivia questions on day:
* First pitch: Tombstone’s Chesbro threw a ball to Bisbee’s Jimmy Sebring.
* First hit: Tombstone’s Kid Elberfeld raps a line drive single to centerfield on the first pitch of the game from Mathewson in the bottom of the first
* First run: Elberfeld comes around to score in the first inning on a fielder’s choice play by Herm McFarland
* First double: Tombstone’s Nap Lajoie gets two sacks in the third inning
* First triple: Yuma’s Buck Freeman earns three bags on opening day against Nogales in the fourth inning
* First walk: Drawn by Lajoie in the first inning against Mathewson
* First strikeout: Bisbee catcher Duke Farrell fans against Chesbro in the second inning
* First batter beaned by a pitch: Bisbee LF Joe Kelley is hit by Chesbro to start the sixth inning
* First stolen base: Nogales CF Ginger Beaumont grabs a base in the first inning against Yuma.
* First home run: A solo shot from Tempe’s Charlie “Piano Legs” Hickman in the second inning against Florence on April 17,1903 (day three of the season).
* First pitching win: Jack Chesbro of Tombstone against Bisbee
The Jerome Copper Miners don’t start their season until April 22. The Miners’ first series will be a four-game set at home on Cleopatra Hill against the Holbrook Roadrunners. I imagine we’ll have to face Noodles Hahn in the opener. We’ll see what we’re made of right away with Rube Waddell on the hill for us…
