Herriman Saturday

Tuesday, June 25 1907 -- The Angels put their first place spot in danger with a disappointing road trip.

Wednesday, June 26 1907 -- The Angels bounce back from the skids, beating San Francisco 2-0 in an exciting contest. The Seals got just one hit, while the Angels didn't manage to score until the 8th inning.

Barney Joy, featured prominently in Herriman's cartoon, has an interesting story. By varying accounts he was born in Hawaii, Canada, China and Malaysia. He was dark-skinned which meant trouble in professional baseball. The Boston Braves, claiming him to be a Canadian (how that ensures him to be white I'm not sure), signed him to a major league contract for the 1908 season, but apparently backed out when they started getting flack over signing a 'colored' player. Joy continued to play in various west coast minor league systems for awhile before dropping from sight.

Regarding the small vignette in Herriman's cartoon about umpire Hamilton, there was apparently quite a bit of razzing of this poor fellow. "Ham" Hamilton was a last-minute substitute for the regular umpire (yes, one umpire called the whole game). Apparently Hamilton was a bit wet behind the ears and caught hell from the fans from the first inning to the last.

By the way, in a footnote sure to make today's baseball fans wish for bygone days, this contest took eactly an hour and a half to play out. Oh for the days of baseball that moved along at such a pace...