When the Grant City Light Weights Came Up Big in August 1881

Denver had a long tradition of baseball, and one of its earliest games was when one of their boys challenged Grant City in 1881, claiming that they were light weights, that they had been practicing while the Grant City boys had not, and that they would be easy pickings.

A game was hastily arranged, as reported by the Grant City Star. Dell Eighmy was appointed to be the umpire, Robert Bates and John Dawson were the scorers, and the Grant City team came to Denver, where they stayed at the Commercial Hotel.

The first two innings were all in Denver’s favor, as they scored six in the second to jump out to an 8-3 lead. But then Grant City’s hitting machine just got started. They scored eight in the second and six in the third to make it 17-8. Denver came storming back in the fourth with 12 to go up 20-17, only for Grant City to put Denver on the ropes with six in the fourth and three in the fifth to go up 26-21.

On the brink of defeat, Denver came back to tie it at 26-26 in the seventh, only for Grant City to score 11 in the bottom of the seventh to win 37-26.

Chas. Saville was the captain for the Denver squad. The Grant City contingent, for not having practiced, hit at will, getting two home runs each from Fatty McMahan and Troy McMahan and one each from Doug Sullivan and Mion McMahan. They also hit a bunch of triples as well.

Four years passed, and a rematch was arranged on September 1st, 1885. This time, it was a totally different outcome as Denver came to Grant City and got a 62-31 win. George Bullfinch was the umpire, while Mion McMahan and John Dawson were the scorers.

But Denver went on to field teams for several decades, challenging other teams in the area, often successfully. Pat Abplanalp recalled that as late as the 1950’s, baseball institution Elton Ridge would gather up kids in the back of his pickup and take them to other towns in the area to take on their next opponent. And in his late 60’s, Craig McNeese recalled that while coaching an American Legion team that Worth County was trying to start up at the time, Elton Ridge would throw batting practice and could still befuddle the much younger batters.