six games, and had had, in the
words of Captain Codd, "as hard a course of training as any University
team had, up to that time, ever undergone.... We had given our Eastern
antagonists a pretty good 'practice game,'" (the Harvard manager's
term). Conditions were reversed the following year when Yale was
defeated 3 to 2, but Harvard won 4 to 2. Michigan returned to her
Western rivals in 1893 and was almost uniformly successful for several
years.

An Eastern trip in 1894 was less fortunate, for it resulted in an
unbroken series of defeats from Vermont, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton,
and Cornell. The spell with Cornell was broken, however, in 1895, when
Michigan won a decided victory 11 to 0, at Detroit, and had some
revenge for previous defeats. E.C. Shields, '94, '96_l_, center field
and captain of the team that year, has described the winning of this
game as the "most satisfactory moment" of his athletic career; the team
was the best Michigan had ever had, and the game after the first few
innings became a successful struggle on the part of the pitcher, Sexton,
'98_m_, and his team-mates to make it a "shut-out." Since that day
Michigan has more than broken even in her games with Cornell.

Baseball at this time was genuinely popular; all of the classes in the
Literary Department as well as many in the professional schools had
their own teams, which not only gave the Varsity good practice but
played in a league among themselves, while the fraternities also had a
league of some years' standing. This popularity of the national game was
soon to pass, however, with the increasing vogue of football, and it has
never regained the pre-eminent place it held in student favor during the
period which ended in 1900, though, it has always had many enthusiastic
followers.

The year '99 saw an especially strong team, which not only was
successful in the West but at least divided honors on the first Eastern
trip of some years. Particularly spectacular was the final game with
Illinois which won the championship. Michigan had already won two out of
three games, but with a victory in the last of the series Illinois saw a
chance to claim the Western honors. In the sixth inning Illinois had men
on second and third and no one out. Guy Miller, '98, '00_l_, otherwise
known as "Sox," was put in as pitcher, and though he had won a hard game
the day before, he struck out the next two batters. The last man was put
out easily, and Miller held the r