Let’s go back in time and see how the Delta Times newspaper treated a local baseball squad that was a no-show for a game in July 1908.
It was a scheduled game between married and single men that did not come off as advertised when seven of the single men didn’t arrive.
“Their absence was caused by a strange disease which first discovered itself in the petal extremities of their captain and rapidly spread amongst the rest of the team until it affected all but two, who were immune,” the article quipped.
“The symptoms of the disease were an extremely frigid condition of the parts affected as well as a serious depression of the heart’s action and a paleness of the liver. The unfortunate captain went out to Boundary Bay for treatment, but little hope is extended by physicians for his recovery as they fear the disease has become chronic.
"But the married men were there, you bet, as frisky as colts, and ready for anything that came along.
An exhibition game was arranged with the crew of the Canoe Pass piledriver, and, although the old fellows did not have to extend themselves, they showed the spectators that they were right there with the goods. Boe Clark knocked out his usual home run and, according to last accounts, the ball is going yet…the old boys say that if they can ever get the single men rounded up between four fences they will not let them escape without playing a game whether they like it or not.”
