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MY EXPERIENCE AT ROCKFORD.
I can remember almost as well as if it were but yesterday my first experience as a ball player at Rockford.

It was early in the spring, and so cold that a winter overcoat was comfortable.

I had been there but a day or two when I received orders from the management to report one afternoon at the ball grounds for practice.

It was a day better fitted for telling stories around a blazing fire than for playing ball, but orders were orders, and I obeyed them.