[Big Six]

September 17, 1897

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, sunny with the slightest hint of fall in the air. Despite the fact the Canton Watchmakers had been eliminated from the pennant race, a crowd of nearly 2200 people crowded into the Canton ball park to watch the final game of the Watchmakers' 1897 season.

The Watchmakers' management had planned a variety of enticements to lure rooters to the grounds that day. The highlight of the afternoon would be the presentation of a huge, horseshoe-shaped floral garland and a Dueber-Hampden watch to the player selected by the rooters as their favorite. However, the team also publicized the fact that seventeen-year-old Charlie Callahan would be pitching that day, and more than a few turned out to watch the youngster in his first, and only, home appearance of the season.

Among them were a group of three fashionably-dressed young women, their crisp white shirtwaists almost glowing in the afternoon sun. The two young men accompanying them were equally dapper, decked out in suits with fashionable sack coats and sharp bowler hats.

As the Canton players warmed up, one of the girls stood up and called out to a young man who was casually tossing a ball back and forth with an older teammate.

"Charlie! Over here!" She smiled brightly, completely unconcerned with the fact that several of her fellow spectators turned to watch her attempts to catch the player's eye.

"Kate, don't do that!" Elizabeth Cates tugged at Kate's sleeve in an attempt to persuade her friend to sit down and stop drawing such attention to herself.

"If you think I'm going to ride up here on that crowded train and not let Charlie know I'm here, you're wrong." Kate Black scolded Elizabeth good-naturedly, shaking her head at her friend before turning back to the field.

Charlie smiled bashfully and gave Kate a slight wave, blushing to the top of the blue collar of his jersey.

"It looks like your friends have come to see you pitch today," said the man who was playing catch with Charlie. He smiled at the youngster and zipped the ball back to him with a quick snap of his wrist.

Charlie raised his glove and caught the ball like he'd been doing it all his life. In fact, he had been. The man who threw the ball was his father.

"I'm going to give them a reason to be proud." Charlie smiled back at his father as he returned the ball to him.

The Watchmakers' opponent today was the Middletown Red Sox of the West Division, a decent club that would complete the season in third place. They had several good hitters, and Callahan would have to be on his game to hold them off.

It took only one pitch for everyone in the ballpark to learn that Charlie did, in fact, have something on the ball today. He fired a fastball past Red Sox leadoff man David Broome, who flinched visibly as the ball popped into catcher Ted Cobb's mitt.

Lafe Keefer reclined almost lazily on the Canton bench. "The kid's really got some speed today," he said. Lafe, who had come up to Canton from Canal Dover with Callahan, had seen Charlie pitch many times. "You watch. He might pitch a shutout today."

Canton scored single runs in the second and third innings, and led 2-0 as Middletown came to bat in the top of the fourth. Elizabeth turned to Kate and touched her arm.

"You know, I don't think the Middletown team has gotten a hit yet."

Kate's face turned red. "Elizabeth! Don't say that!"

"Why not?"

"It's bad luck to mention such a thing!"

Elizabeth was right. When Callahan retired the Red Sox in order on two ground outs and a soft humpbacked liner to short, he completed his fourth perfect inning in a row.

Charlie's teammates were aware of the situation, too. They avoided saying a word to him as he returned to the bench and took a dipper of cool water from the bucket.

The first man up for Middletown in the fifth inning was Doug Dougherty, a stocky first baseman who held his bat down near the end. He worked the count to 2-1, and when he guessed correctly that Charlie would throw a fastball, he smacked it into left field for a clean single. The Canton fans stood up and cheered wildly, thanking Charlie for his four perfect innings.

Dougherty's single seemed to unnerve the young pitcher. He walked both of the next two hitters, loading the bases with nobody out.

"Come on, Charlie!" Kate wrung her hands in her lap as she watched Charlie work himself into a full-fledged jam.

Charlie removed his cap, wiped his forehead with his sleeve, and looked in to face the Red Sox' second baseman, Garry Hayes. He threw a good, low fastball that Hayes hit sharply down the third base line. Kate winced, fearing that the ball would end up in the corner.

The Canton third baseman was Joshua Spesinger, the former star of the Canal Dover town team. Now the cleanup man and star third sacker of the Watchmakers, he reacted quickly to Hayes' hard grounder, fielding it cleanly enough to start a 5-4-3 double play. Dougherty scored, but now the Red Sox had two men out, and when the next batter grounded out to short, the inning ended with the Watchmakers still ahead by a run.

With one out in the Middletown sixth, Mark Carr pounded a triple, but Callahan retired the next two men on a popup and a tapper back to the mound. Carr was the last Red Sox batter to reach base.

Canton scored two more runs, the final one driven in by Ted Cobb, who had been presented with the Rooters' Favorite prizes before his first at-bat. When Dougherty's fly ball settled into the glove of Canton left fielder Marshall Fry, the Watchmakers' infielders converged on the mound to congratulate their young pitcher on the first victory of his Buckeye League career.

They hoisted Charlie onto their shoulders for a moment, and he grinned as he waved his cap to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd. His eyes met Kate's, and she smiled even more brightly.

John Callahan had trotted in from right field, and reached his son just as his teammates were setting him back down on the ground. John clapped Charlie on the back and shook his hand.

"Good game, son," he said. "Good game."