Baseball was a serious local proposition in
those days. Town leaders first sponsored a Sidney team in 1893. During the next ten years,
a Board of Control was established to operate the team and raise funds on an annual basis.
The team's schedule included such far away road trips as Portsmouth, Canton, Lancaster,
Washington Court House, Columbus, and Parkersburg, West Va. Players were recruited from
Cincinnati, Dayton, Lancaster, Wapakoneta, and other towns.As the Reds warmed up on the
evening of October 10, 1901, they could not have anticipated what they were about to see.
The visitors were up to bat first. On the mound stood all six feet six inches of Long Bob
Ewing. The next evening, the editor of the Sidney Journal described the game as a
"masterly exhibition of fine ball playing." Hundreds of fans crowded in
to watch the contest, which was held at the South Miami Avenue Ball Grounds (This location
is now known as Berger Park.)
Ewing dueled Schwab, his Reds counterpart, to a 3 to 3 tie when the game was called
because of darkness after eight innings. The author of the Journal article
concluded: "The country has few pitchers equal to Ewing, who struck out many more
batters than Schwab..." Apparently the Reds players felt the same way. At the
beginning of the 1902 baseball season, Long Bob was wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform. In
a round about way, Sidney had produced its first major leaguer. In the end, Ewing became
more that just a player. Nearly a century after his last game, his statistics qualify him
as one of the best Reds hurlers of all time.
Ewing the pitcher had actually been a long time in the making. He started on the
sandlots of Wapakoneta in 1895, and played his first game against a team from nearby New
Bremen. Chris Ewing, one of his eight surviving grandchildren, recalls family folklore
about his grandfather's efforts to learn the art of pitching: "Grandfather worked
on the family farm as a young lad, helping raise potatoes. One day his parents discovered
much of the potato crop was bruised. An investigation revealed that their son was hurling
the spuds at a circle on the side of the barn, in an effort to improve his control as a
pitcher."
His first semi-pro experience came in 1897 when he joined the Toledo team in the
Interstate League. He was consistently the best pitcher in the league, going 21-9 and
25-13 in consecutive seasons. His next stop was with Kansas City in the Western League.
Ewing later recalled that Kansas City was "...the only pennant winning team I ever
played on."
Apparently, Long Bob had concluded his season with Kansas City when he joined the
Sidney team and took advantage of the opportunity of his life on that October, 1901
evening in Sidney. The Cincinnati Reds had just completed a new playing field when Ewing
arrived in 1902. It was affectionately known as the 'Palace of the Fans'. This stadium,
which served as the home of the Reds until the construction of Crosley Field at the same
site, was one of the most modern and futuristic parks of the era. (It is interesting to
note that spring training was held at the Palace in 1902 - one of eight different cities
where the Reds held spring training in Ewing's eight seasons.)