Stevenson Reaches Base Hit Milestone
Edwin Stevenson, the redoubtable superannuated short stop for the Sunderland ball club, has become the first player in the Baseball League to acquire three thousand base hits during his career, which he achieved yesterday in a match against Tottenham Hotspur played at his club's home ground of Roker Park.
Stevenson is four and forty years of age, yet remains enough skilled to start at the short stop position and bat second for Black Cats. At one time he was considered the best fielding short stop in the game, particularly during his youthful years at Ardwick/Manchester City. His glove skills have eroded some from when he came to Sunderland for the 1902 season, but his bat is such that he still wins baseball games for his team.
And such was the case yesterday as he collected not only his three thousandth career base hit, a sharp single to centre field in the sixth innings, but three other hits as well, including a ninth innings single that put him in position to score the winning run, if not for the incompetence of subsequent batters who made outs and stranded him at third base.
In addition to his 3,000 League base hits, he also collected 226 base hits with Ardwick playing in the Alliance during pre-league days, rendering him far and away the most prolific hit-getter in the British game. Frank Hodder of the Wednesday Owls is some three hundred League base hits behind Stevenson and thus seems unlikely to catch up before he himself retires from the game.
So congratulations for your singular achievement, Mr. Edwin Stevenson!
