Unofficial state champs of '05

Though there was no official state champion in New Hampshire in 1905, the boys from this area were recognized to be among the strongest baseball teams in the state.

Led by pitcher Orrin Smith, pictured first row, second from left (note the wear on his cleats from pushing off the mound!), Peterborough did not lose a single home game. “Its schedule this season has been an unusually attractive one,” wrote the Manchester Union, featuring the best teams from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. “Smith is a hard man to hit, and the batsman must be clever, indeed, to solve his great speed and puzzling curves.”

It should be noted that one of Peterborough’s losses during the 1905 season was at Antrim! For some reason, Orrin Smith did not play in that game. Home games were played on Summer Street, believed to be the current site of the Heritage Apartments (formerly, Whit’s Ski Tows).

Fast forward to the spring of 1975…In a celebration banquet honoring Conval High’s state champs, special guests were Orrin Smith and Forrest Mercer, who were the two surviving members of the 1905 Peterborough High School baseball team—the only baseball team to win a state championship, unofficial as it was, before 1975. 

From the April 20, 1905 edition of the Peterborough Transcript…

“Cries of the Base Ball”

You’ll sit on the bleachers just a few days hence

And cheer when some slugger puts me over the fence.

It will be in the ninth of a mighty close fight,

When it needs just a “homer”’ to do the thing right.

I’ll ascend with your yell, and come down midst your howl

When a robber—the umpire—calls it a foul.