est of the game safely, with a final
score of 4 to 2.

Two fairly successful years followed, marked, however, by a uniformly
disastrous Eastern trip in 1901. Then followed in 1902 "the most
unsuccessful baseball season in years," though the end came with a
victory over Cornell, 7 to 4, largely through the efforts of Michigan's
greatest all-round athlete, Neil Snow, '02, in the last contest of his
athletic career. He was responsible for six of the seven runs, bringing
in three men with one three-base hit, while he himself managed to score
on a poor throw.

A final defeat from Illinois the following year just missed the
championship of the West for Michigan. It is worthy of mention that it
was at this game, on which many undergraduate hopes were centered, that
the custom of singing "The Yellow and the Blue" in defeat as well as in
victory was inaugurated. The Western championship rested with Michigan
in 1905 and again in 1906, but this was destined to be the last time for
many years. Much of the success of these two teams was due to Frank
Sanger, '07_l_, who was considered the best college pitcher in the West.

With 1907 begins another story. Michigan was now out of the Conference
and there began a progressive decline in interest in baseball. Many
small colleges soon appeared on the schedules, and in 1908 the South
began to figure prominently in the earlier season games. A few games
with Eastern colleges relieved the monotony, but the results were far
from being always satisfactory. Two interesting games with the Japanese
students of Keio University ended the season of 1911. While the
University won both games with scores of 20 to 5 and 3 to 1, they
demonstrated how apt the Oriental has been in picking up the fine points
of the great American game. Some amends for an unsuccessful season were
made on June 26, 1912 by a thrilling 2 to 1 victory over Pennsylvania
before the thousands of guests and alumni who had gathered to celebrate
the University's Seventy-Fifth Anniversary.

The painstaking efforts of Branch Rickey, who had been coach of the team
since 1910, and later became manager of the St. Louis American League
team, began to show results in 1913. The following year Michigan, in
spite of no significant Western games, had some justification for
claiming the national championship through victories in two series of
games with Cornell and Pennsylvania, the acknowledged leaders of the
East. This record was due in no sm