Year In Review : 1899 National League
Off the Field…
When their demand that only union men be employed was refused, members of the Western Federation of Miners dynamited the $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill Company at Wardner, Idaho, destroying it completely. President William S. McKinley responded by sending in hundreds of black soldiers from Brownsville, Texas with orders to round up the thousands of miners and confine them in specially built cages called "bullpens".
In the National League…
The largest baseball crowd ever to date (24,000+) turned out at the West Side Grounds to watch the Chicago Orphans play the visiting St. Louis Perfectos. The home team Orphans won the contest 4-0 despite a poor showing by pitcher James Callahan who allowed twelve hits.
A motion to change the name of the Western League to the American League was successfully introduced by W.F.C. Golt of Indianapolis.
On October 8th, three teams played in a single double header at Chicago. Game one pitted the hometown Orphans against the Cleveland Spiders as Jake Taylor tossed his first shut out and thirty-ninth complete game of the season en route to a 13-0 Chicago victory. Game two matched the winners against the Louisville Colonels and ended with another 7-3 Chicago decision, after the game was called due to darkness after only five innings.
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