Quick Look at the Spalding World Tour 1888-1889.

• cap anson
• fred pfeffer
• ned williamson
• tom daly
• john tener

• ned hanlon
• monte ward
• james fogarty
• ed crane
• silver flint
• herman long
• george van haltren

Other Travelers

• george wright – coach
• james hart – mgmt
• wives of williamson, anson, will lynch, ward
• anson’s father
• spalding took his wife, mother, son, servant and maid 

 The men barnstormed their way from Chicago to the west coast. The first stop off american soil was Hawaii – 70 years before statehood. (Interesting that the Hawaiian king (Kalakaua) was the first reigning head of state to circumnavigate the globe meeting heads of state along the way).

The ballplayers were particularly fond of the hula girls. American forces wouldn’t allow the hula to be performed for the group so the ballplayers snuck off individually to see a private performance. The stop in Hawaii was less than a day and no game was played as the amercian forces would not permit ball playing on a Sunday.

Next stop was Samoa but they couldn’t disembark because of political unrest.

Onto Auckland, New Zealand – parts of two days. They finally played a game abroad – crowd became hostile after tour’s balloon aerialist couldn’t perform due to heavy winds

Tour personnel spent a lot of time eating, drinking and partying at ceremonies and feasts thrown in their honor and also playing cricket. They also watched an Austrailian-rules football contest.

Onto Australia – three weeks at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Ballarat and back to Melbourne. 

After 18 days at sea, they arrived at Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for parts of two days. After the stir-crazy ride at sea they spent all night rickshaw racing. Hotel servants slept outside room doors where a welcome mat would lie. Guests were advised not to kick the servants in the morning.

The U.S.S. essex, a warship, was stationed at Ceylon. Spalding’s party toured it. A game was played. Back on board their own ship, the men heard ceremonial cannon fire from another ship. Only one player was on deck to see what was taking place. Amusing himself,  he ran throughout the ship yelling that pirates were attacking. Spalding hid in a closet and Anson shoved his wife’s jewelry in his mouth and grabbed a bat.

Next stop Aden, Yemen for a brief shopping excurion. Then, onto Cairo, Egypt for parts of three days. They road camels and donkeys out to the pyramids – climbed the pyramids and the sphinx – tried to throw balls over the pyramids and used the sprinx’s right eye for target practice – also played a game nearby in the sand with the pyramids as a backdrop. 

Then to Italy, France, England, Scotland, Ireland

They arrived back in the U.S. in New York on April 6 and barnstormed back to Chicago.

Passenger Manifest

The men in Sydney:

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