In 1867, the Androscoggins of Lewiston were undefeated, and they knew they deserved the silver ball.

Years later, Dr. F.E. Sleeper could still remember its details: “It was the size of a baseball,” the former player recalled in a Lewiston Evening Journal article. “Shone bright enough almost to put the eyes out, and was encased in magnificent rosewood and velvet.”

The ball was in the possession of the rival Eons of Portland, who had the best pitcher in the league. “And pitching was pitching in those days,”

Sleeper recalled, “The pitcher literally pitched, the ball must pass below his hip with a straight arm delivery.”

Lewiston challenged Portland to a game with the silver ball as trophy to the winner. The Androscoggins wisely wanted to play on neutral ground, so they chose Brunswick and showed up eager to play. The Eons, however, were not so eager. The team didn’t arrive on time and continued to stay away even when the Androscoggins offered to delay the game and provide them with free train fare.

The umpire awarded the game to the Androscoggins, but they still lacked the silver ball and were itching for a showdown. They arranged to play the Eons on their home turf in Portland.

When the Lewiston team arrived in Portland, they were met by a large and raucous group of Eons fans. Baseball was a relatively new sport in Maine in 1867, yet the game was already drawing large crowds who loved to bet on the outcome. Former Lewiston player Charles Osgood recalled that “money waved on every side, and the Eons’ backers filled the air with the clamor of their offers.”

The Androscoggins took the field in their checkered flannel uniforms, giant A’s adorning their chests, woolen strings tied around their ankles.

After three innings of play, the visitors had a commanding lead. “There were long leads in baseball in those days,” Dr. Sleeper recalled. “We led 160 to 9 or 10, something like that.”

This was a lead the rowdy Portland fans would not tolerate. Upset by the way the game was going, they broke through the ropes, stampeded onto the field and ended it.

That night the Androscoggins had a meeting with the Eons and claimed the silver ball, but the Eons, saved by their fans from certain defeat, would not give it up. The Androscoggins retaliated by taking $30 in league money and spending it in protest.

“We ate up nearly all of Portland,” Sleeper recalled. “I was awful sick the next day, but we got away with the $30, and the Eons kept the ball.”

Luann Yetter teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington.