... Base Ball Game

   BASE BALL GAME

              ----------------------------

PLAYERS SAID TO HAVE VIOLATED AN ORDINANCE

              ------------------------------

Ball Enthusiasts Say They Were Not Playing Within City Limits--Much Difference of Opinion

                 --------------------------

The ball game between the mechanics and laborers of the Ann Arbor Organ company was brought to a sudden finish Sunday afternoon by the appearance on the scene of Officer "Tip" Ball, who ordered the players to get off the grounds, they having been playing at a point near Hamilton park. The men were ordered to quit playing under the ordinance prohibiting Sunday ball playing within the city limits.

There is a considerable difference of opinion as to whether the men were playing within the city limits when the game was ordered stopped. Officer Ball says that the game was being played within the limits, while several of the spectators and the players unite in saying that the game was being carried on outside of the territory prescribed under the ordinance. After the game was stopped a number of the players met down town and bitterly condemned the action of the city authorities in stopping the game.

"We were not playing within the city limits," said a member of one of the teams. "It was a quiet game, we were harming no one, and I think we were much better off playing a friendly game of ball than hanging out in saloons. We are going to see whether we cannot play out there next Sunday."

Officer Ball says that he ordered the game stopped not only because the men were violating the ordinance by playing within the limits, but because the owner of the land on which the men were playing asked that the game be stopped.

The claim is put forward that the people living in the vicinity of where the men have been playing have been annoyed in the past by the noises, shouting and so forth, that have been incident to the games. As a set-off to this claim, however, spectators who have been at the games say that there is no house nearer to the grounds than a quarter of a mile.