The Yankees and the Red Sox are back at it, but does anyone remember the rivalry between the Crickets and the Spiders? In 1915, a New York lawyer by the name of George Case laid out a baseball field adjacent to his summer home on Sunset Ridge. There he sponsored two teams made up of Norfolk boys 11 to 14 years old, coached them and provided the winning team members with a trophy and little gold baseballs at the end of each season. The Sunday afternoon rivalry between the Crickets and the Spiders created such excitement and noise among the enthusiastic spectators that residents of the normally-sedate Sunset Ridge finally asked to have the diamond relocated. World War I brought an end to the Cricket-Spider rivalry, and organized baseball for youth did not resume until Little League arrived in 1952.

Ann Havemeyer