Has to be Cincinnati then.
It was the Reds
The barnstorming Cincinnati Reds baseball team came through Lafayette, probably in 1915, playing an exhibition against the Institute nine. An undated and unidentified newspaper clipping tells the story. It is in a scrapbook kept by Dr. Edwin L. Stephens, alongside other material dated that year.
This is what the clipping says:
A large crowd was present on the Institute campus to see the game of ball between the Cincinnati Reds and the Institute team. Many people from a distance and from the parish came in to take in the game.
The day was pretty cold but not enough to interfere with the game. The score resulted 13 to 1. Considering the odds the boys were up against, this was fine. The Reds, of course, are ball players. The way they handled the ball, (and) quick ... evidence of competence showed they were right up to the job.
The Institute boys were weak on batting and especially so in the last half of the game, when left-handed Fittery began shooting in his swift curves. The boys' strong point was their good capable playing and Walter Billeaud, short stop, made a feature catch that brought him a round of applause.
Altogether, the game was very interesting and was strong enough on the part of the boys to really make the Reds show something of their metal (sic) and give an idea of what it takes to make a national player.
P.S. Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the USA in the 1920s, in which stunt pilots would perform tricks with airplanes, either individually or in groups called a flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight -- sorry I just never heard that adjective before and I WILL definetely be using it from here on out..ha
Ron Guidry
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