7-12-2024 12:51am

July 12, 1913: Boyertown Baseball Team Chosen as Worthy Opponent for Hawaiian Team

Lesley Misko Editor

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

July 12, 1913: The Boyertown baseball team received a great honor in being asked to play against a visiting team from the Chinese University in Hawaii that has been traveling the country, looking for worthy opponents. Boyertown had the only team in Berks County that was strong enough to be matched against these champions.

A packed crowd of 2000 at Lauer’s Ball Park in Reading saw the Boyertown nine go down to defeat, 11-3, but there was no shame in the loss. Boyertown played a great game against theses expert University players, who were the swiftest base runners and surest throwers that ever played on Reading grounds. In only one inning did the Hawaiians really run up the score.

In a rematch on July 29, played at the Circus Maximus in Reading before a crowd of more than 2500 fans, the Hawaiians won by a score of 6 to 4 in an exciting 11-inning struggle. After the game, the Chinese manager said it was the greatest battle his team had experienced since arriving in America.

The Boyertown fans who saw the game were not disgraced by their team’s showing. They thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Two Boyertown efforts gave the Chinese two early runs, and a bit of foolish base running and some spectacular plays in the field nipped the possibility for more Boyertown runs.

The two teams played again in 1915, when the Chinese University team returned to Berks County specifically to play Boyertown. This time, Boyertown beat the Hawaiian team, 9-2, holding their opponents to six scattered hits to Boyertown’s 15. Double plays and a leaping catch caused the Boyertown fans to “raise the roof of the grandstand,” in response to the exciting showing their team had made.