Gameday Magazine

ll in the Hill City pt. 1

Undaunted, the Tobacconists scheduled five more exhibition games the follow- ing April, this time two games with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and single games with the Beaneaters, Orioles and Phillies. Unfortunately for local fans, the game with the Beaneaters and the second game with the Bridegrooms were rained out. The three games which were played featured seven future HoF players, all of whom had appeared in 1895 games as well, but the scores were much more competitive. The Tobacconists defeated a Phillies team featuring future HoF play- ers Dan Brouthers, Ed Delahanty and Sam Thompson by a score of 6-4. Delah- anty, Brouthers and Thompson’s lifetime batting averages of .345, .343 and .331 respectively rank them fourth, ninth and 24th on the Major League’s all-time list. One of the Phillies pitchers was former Tobacconist Al Orth, acquired by the National League team from the local club the previous summer for a re- ported $1,000. Known as “The Curve- less Wonder”, Orth came to Lynchburg from Indiana, married a local girl and made the Hill City his home. During a 15-year Major League career Orth won 204 games. He returned to Lynchburg to manage the Shoemakers in 1909 and part of 1908. Following his profes- sional baseball career Orth became a Major League umpire and later coached baseball at Washington & Lee University and VMI.

Although Lynchburg did not field a team in 1898, as April dawned an exhibition game was scheduled between the Bea- neaters and Washington & Lee. Rained out of an exhibition game in 1896, the Beaneaters were led by future HoF’s Jimmy Collins, Hugh Duffy and “Sliding Billy” Hamilton, and they defeated the collegians by a score of 6-1. Hamilton, Collins and Duffy’s lifetime batting aver- ages of .344, .333 and .328 respectively rank them eighth, 22nd and 28th on the Major League’s all-time list. In 1906 the Hill City began an affilia- tion with the Class “C” Virginia League. The Lynchburg “Shoemakers” won the League Championship that year with a record of 72 wins and 36 losses, the Hill City’s first crown in its short five-year “pro ball” history. Once again the Shoemakers preseason schedule in- cluded games with Major League teams: this time one game with the National League’s Brooklyn Superbas, and a second with the New York Highlanders of the newly founded American League. The Highlanders defeated the Shoemak- ers 8-2 behind the pitching and home run of the Hill City’s adopted “son” Al Orth who was now playing for the New York club. The Shoemakers 1907 preseason sched- ule included two games with the Super- bas which were rained out, and a single game with the Highlanders won by the visitors 3-0. In 1908 Shoemakers games