I have continued to find interesting terminology from the summer of 1897. Some of the references are a little difficult to figure out, but the context usually provides the answer.
"Assaulted the ozone instead of the sphere" - Swung and missed
"Comer" - player with potential; like an "up and comer"
"Cracker" - like a "crack" team; skilled
"Do the leg wrapping" - pitch
"Doughnuts to cookies" - like "dollars to donuts" (I'm not sure what this says about the relative value of doughnuts vs. cookies)
"Flowing bowl" - alcohol
"Garden" - field (i.e. Center garden = Center field)
"Hoodoo" - trickery, deception
"Horse collars" - zeroes (relating to their appearance on the scoreboard)
"Hospital list" - like the disabled list
"Hummest" - best
"Inshoot" - Curveball that breaks toward the right-handed batter
"In the swim" - similar to "in the mix"
the "McGinnity Act" - pitching both games of a doubleheader
"On the toboggan" - injured
"Pan" - the plate
"Pets" - players
"Pink of condition" - in the best shape
taking a "Reef in his sails" - likely meaning the action of settling down, or reassessing a situation
"Stuff is off" - event is not going to happen
"Up in the air" - going up in the air is used to refer to a pitcher losing control of his pitches
"Weary Willies" - hobos
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, Grand Forks Herald, Moorhead Independent", Sunday Argus; April - August 1897.
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