1886 - Baseball Poem

Hamilton’s professional baseball team was much-beloved in the team’s home city. The team was often the subject of some fan-obsessed poetry such as the one which appeared in the Spectator on July 28, 1886 as the team returned home after a road trip. The poem has a twist in the last stanza and perhaps the road trip might not have as been as successful as it could have been.

 

“Crown’d with laurel, see them come!

 Welcome, heroes, welcome home!

 Lustrous as the noonday sun,

 Shine by the deeds ye have done,

 By your victories ye have won wondrous fame for Hamilton.

 

“In the verdant diamond field

 Unto you all foemen yield,

 And ye proudly take your place

 Foremost in the pennant race.

 

“Noble batters, fielders rare,

 Runners quite beyond compare!

 In phenomenal exploits

 Your Chicagos or Detroits

 Are as milk compared with cream.

 By our own triumphant team.

 

“With what pride our bosoms rose,

 When we saw your serried foes,

 As before the scythe the hay

 Fall beneath your perfect play !

 

“And when now ye homeward turn

 All our breasts with ardor burn,

 And we yield ye praises due,

 Noblest of the baseball crew.

 

“It were needless here to state,

 This is not appropriate

 To the team which now doth come

 With bedraggled plumage home.”¹

 

 ¹“More Ball Doggerall.”

Hamilton Spectator.   July 28, 1886