A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant

"It was probably the most cutthroat pennant race in baseball history. And it was a struggle to define how baseball would be played. This book recreates the rowdy, season-long 1897 battle between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters. The Orioles had acquired a reputation as the dirtiest team in baseball. Future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and “Foxy” Ned Hanlon were proven winners—but their nasty tactics met with widespread disapproval among fans. So it was that their pennant race with the comparatively saintly Beaneaters took on a decidedly moralistic air."
amazon

For 1897 Orioles, Keeler swung a big little stick Baseball: 'Wee Willie'
"It's Sept. 27, 1897, and Baltimore's Union Park is filling fast: 25,000 pennant-crazed baseball 'cranks' converge on the stadium at the edge of town to root on the Orioles against first-place Boston. A half-game separates the teams; the National League title is at stake. The crowd surges into the wooden park, trampling the gate on 25th Street as thousands stream onto the grounds, armed with noisemakers of all kinds -- horns, stovepipes and tin cans filled with stones. The cacophony dies quickly.

 Oriole Park III, 1897

 Boston wins, 19-10, wresting the title from the three-time defending NL champions. The Orioles bow meekly but for their smallest player, 'Wee Willie' Keeler, who goes 4-for-4 and scores four runs against Boston pitcher Kid Nichols, a future Hall of Famer. 'Lion-hearted Keeler never gave up to the very end, but kept on cracking out safe hits to the last,' The Sun reports. A century ago, bands tooted at Orioles games, fans rooted from nearby housetops and summer belonged to the mousy son of an Irish trolley switchman who summed up his success with a shrug and a sound bite: I hit 'em where they ain't."
Baltimore Sun

[PDF] A Game of Brawl. The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant