13 August 1902, the Chicago Stars lose to the Department All Stars by a score of 6 to 3. The Stars are a barnstorming ladies team.
Department Team Downs Bloomer Girls at National Park. Chicago stars are defeated 6 to 3 in a very fast game. A crowd of 1,800 were on hand and rooted lustily for the female ball tossers, and many were the sore throats when the game was over. The girls made their opponents work hard to win. Up to the sixth inning things looked very bad for the masculine aggregation, as the visitors had a shade of the better of the argument up to that time.
The principal attraction of the game was the pitching of Miss Maude Nelson, who had the local batters at her mercy, until the latter part of the game. The game was fast and snappy from the start, and the boxwork done by Miss Nelson compared favorably with that of Shaggy Thorpe, who did the twirling for the local team.
As a ball player, Miss Nelson has no equal among her sex. She can regulate the speed of her delivery and deal out curves which puzzle the best of hitters. Miss Nelson has mastered all the positions assumed by the professional twirlers and pitches with ease and grace. Her curves proved too elusive for one Mr. Torney, of the Interior team, who came up to the plate and made three awful vicious swipes at the leather without getting a foul tip. The hits were well scattered, and had she received the proper support the score cards would have been a different story. Several bad errors made by the catcher and shortstop of the team, gave the locals the deciding runs.
Mss Maggie Burke, who cast her shadow down in left garden, put up a fine game. She made three fine catches in her territory, and each time she was loudly cheered and received a rousing reception when she went to the bench. Miss Yuela Robertson, who held down the initial hassock, took care of everything that came her way, and accepted her many different chances without an error. Miss Kitty Becker, at second base, also played a good game. Miss Mamie O’Connor played in right field, and had only one very hard chance, which she accepted like a veteran of the game.
“Shaggie” Thorpe went to the box for the locals. As was expected, he was a trifle nervous and suffered from stage fright at first. He finally got used to the situation and put the ball over the plate in his usual good form. He showed no partiality. The girls had no trouble in getting on to him in the initial inning, and got two runs. This made him uneasy, and he went to Manager Prender and implored him to make the boys exert themselves to their utmost and back him up. After a while Thorpe got down to business, and his messmates backed him up, and managed to win out, with the assistance of Russell, who contributed tow bad throws. Umpire Mr. Venable. Time 1:15.
Maude Nelson, 1881 to 1944. She started pitching at age 16. One of the great early stars of Ladies baseball. She died 15 February 1944 and was elected in 2001 to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.
