(Special from Kewanee, Ill. – Saturday, Sept. 12, 1885)On their way to the Gateway City for a weekend series against the St. Louis Maroons, the nationally-renowned Chicago White Stockings briefly stopped along the way to quickly dispatch a small Illinois city’s best hometown nine, the Kewanee Reds, 12-1 in an exhibition game on Monday.

Fans in and around Kewanee, a city located on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad 150 miles southwest of Chicago, had been talking about the game for weeks. When the date was finalized, those fans began making plans to see the game. In addition to Kewaneeans, fans from Galva, Toulon, Geneseo, Cambridge, Annawan, and other nearby towns flocked to Kewanee to see the country’s premier professional team take on one of Illinois’ best amateur teams. The C. B. & Q. ran special trains from villages along its route, offering discounted tickets for the game.

The one-year-old Kewanee Base Ball Association, expecting a big crowd, had erected a large number of new seats at the fine, partially-fenced field set in a natural amphitheater on the northwest corner of Main and Ninth Streets. But its fandom exceeded its expectations, with an estimated 2,000 spectators creating standing-room-only conditions, and with gate receipts approaching $700.

The Haxtun Steamer Heater Co., which sponsored the Reds (often called “the Haxtun Steam Heaters”), closed its shop for the game, as did a number of Kewanee’s businesses and downtown stores.

In the lead-up to the game, a rumor had circulated in neighboring towns that the “genuine” White Stockings would not be playing that day. However, as one local scribe wrote, “we think those who witnessed some of the exceptionally fine play were satisfied that the report was false.”

The Chicago-Kewanee exhibition game was the lead off tilt for the Kewanee Baseball Tournament featuring teams from Burlington, Elmwood, Peru, and Chicago (the Kents), in addition to Kewanee’s Reds.

The White Stockings arrived on the C. B. & Q.’s 2:13 p.m. westbound train, disembarked at the village’s depot on Railroad Square, and quickly headed north on Main Street to the first-year diamond. After the Reds won the toss and elected to have the visitors step up to the plate first, the game began.

From the start, it was clear that some of the locals were “rattled” by the famous visitors, giving up four runs in the first inning by committing a number of their eleven errors which, if not made, would have resulted in a “white wash” instead a “four spot.” In the second inning, the “Chicagos” pushed across two more runs, and a possible rout was on.

In the bottom of the first, the Reds’ Frank “Mussy” Musgrave led off with a ball Abner Dalrymple failed to catch, making it to second base. But Musgrave then was caught leaning the wrong way and picked off. Art Twineham and Wally Snyder followed with easy outs and the hope for an equally-quick start by the local amateurs was dashed. The Reds went down one, two, three in order over the next two innings while the White Stockings picked up another run in the third.

After a scoreless fourth for both teams, the visitors scored three runs in the fifth. After giving up 10 runs, not all earned, Jim Sweeney was replaced on the mound by “Doc” Hall from Toulon, who shut down the visitors over the next two innings. But then the White Stockings finished their scoring with one in the eighth and another in the ninth off Hall. Young right fielder Billy Sunday led the visitors with three runs scored while stroking two hits.

The hometown boys had put runners on base in the fourth, but came away empty-handed. The Reds scored their only run in the seventh when John Clarkson replaced Jim McCormick “in the box.” Snyder doubled off the new hurler, advanced to third on Charlie Wilson’s out, and then came home on a generous “error” by Tom Burns at short. While the Kewaneeans had two singles and a double over the last two innings, they again failed to score.

In summarizing the game, the local writer said that “[i]t is only fair that our boys batted the best while the great Clarkson was in the ‘box,’ and that [the White Stockings] found it more difficult to hit Sweeney’s curves than Hall’s.”

After the game, the Chicagoans boarded a C. B. & Q. train to Monmouth, where they stopped for three hours before continuing on to St. Louis. They spent their waiting time in Jim William’s billiard parlor, where they showed they knew “how to manipulate the ivory balls respectably if not as well as the base ball.”

While in Monmouth, it was reported that the White Stockings’ leader, Cap Anson, boasted that, while they beat Kewanee 12-1, it “might just as well have been 30-1 . . . . [B]ut as they were paid a certain sum for playing at that place, through courtesy they allowed Kewanee to make a run [on Burns’ ‘error’].” Anson pointedly denied that the Chicagoans were to pocket an additional $300 if they had shut out the Reds. “There was no such arrangement, the White Stockings were being paid a certain sum whatever the result of the game.”

The tournament which followed the exhibition game was plagued with unpleasant weather, which forced the postponement of some of the games. It was finally completed on Saturday, with the Kewanee nine eventually beating the Elmwood team in a runaway, 20-4 in a well-attended game. The Reds had previously defeated the Sheffield boys 12-8 and, in the best game of the tournament, narrowly bested the Chicago Kents 4-1 in an exceptionally well-fielded game.

For its efforts, the Kewanee Reds won the first-place prize of $200, the Kents won $100 for second place, while the Elmwood Blues took third for $50. With the White Stockings – Reds’ gate split from Monday, the Kewanee team took home over $500. A nice payday for the hometown boys, even though they painfully experienced first-hand the difference between professional and amateur base ball.

(Author’s note: The White Stockings were the predecessors to and later became the Chicago Cubs.)