Manning Base Ball Club, 1894

Base Ball. The first ball played by the Manning team was at Gray, in July of '82 We again catch a glimpse of the boys, playing ball with Audubon at the District Fair, in 1885. The score was 12-19, in favor of Audubon. It appears that Manning never took much interest in base ball till the spring of 1893, when it came with a vengeance, and Manning soon developed a nine that was to gain for themselves an enviable record. The record of the games played as taken from the score sheets, show only the scores of the respective teams and their batting record. There was no fielding record kept.

In 1895, the team was broken up. Henry Pollock, the pitcher, moved to Illinois and D. W. Sweesey resigned his position in the First National Bank and also moved to Illinois, where he made an enviable record in one of the crack teams of that State. John Jenson, 1st base, and A. L. Freelove, 2nd base and left field, also left about this time to attend college. So, with half of the team gone the club was compelled to disband. The score record of this team is given below.

Score sheet of the Manning Base Ball Team from 1893-94 as described on page 87.

The first figure in the left of each column indicates the number of times at bat.
If there are only two figures in a column, then the times at bat is not given. The second figure in the column indicates the number of runs or scores made by that player during the game. The last figure in the right of the column indicates the number of put outs made by the player during the game.
The two lines of figures at the bottom indicates the score made by the respective teams.

In the spring of 1897, base ball enthusiasm was again revived; and a subscription was raised to defray expenses, and to hire the Coon Rapids battery, which consisted of Morrison, pitcher and Strawser, catcher. The first game of the season was with Denison, May 8. The score was 13-4, in favor of Denison. This game was lost through a fake pitcher from Council Bluffs. The next game was with the Drake University Team, the score being in Manning's favor. June 23, the team was matched against Glidden, at Manning. The Manning team consisted of, Sisson, r. f.; Strawser, c.; Parkerson, 2nd b; Burgett, c. f.; Morrison, p.; Triplet, s. s.; Patton, 3rd b.; Sutherland, l. f.; Bennett, 1st b.; this was the most interesting game of the season.

Soon after this, a game was played with Carroll, on the home ground. The score resulted in a victory for Manning in 8-1 time. The return game played at Carroll was won by that team to a time too fast for the band as it was played in 22 -- 0 time, however, the Manning team consoled, themselves with the fact that their regular battery was not with them. With a few other unimportant games the season was closed, as the result of the game did not warrant the support of the citizens.