LUDLOW BASEBALL

The first baseball team in Ludlow was organized in 1899 and was very successful from the beginning.

The first game was played by the Town Boys vs. the Farming Country Boys on the John T. Anderson Farm. The score was 77-55 in favor of the Town Boys. A game was later played against Sheffield with Sheffield winning by a 56-11 score. These scores are rather large when compared with the scores made today, which all seems to indicate that the game, at that time, consisted of wide open hitting and slugging.

At the outset the grounds now occupied by the Ludlow Garage and Filling Station wre used as a playing field. Later, baseball was played on the grounds next to the tannery building of the J. G. Curtis Leather Company. This site proved undesirable, and in 1904 land was cleared at the top of the hill overlooking Ludlow, owned by Nels Wenstran. In spite of the hard climb up hill for players and spectators, this diamond was used continuously, with the exception of a few seasons when the team played on the Roystone grounds, until the present diamond at Wildcat Park was opened up for playing.