Mixed modes of transportation appear in this very old photo on the corner of Muir and Race streets in front of The Phillips Hardware building. A sign of the changing times as a horse and buggy is front and center between two horseless carriages. Photo taken from Cambridge Maryland Memories posted by Larry Hitchens.

50 years ago

More than 900 persons braved the hot weather to attend the fashion show, “Sing Out Cambridge,” and the crowning of the Bay Country Festival’s Princess Neptune, all featured at the American Legion Home.

Last night’s festivities got underway after King Neptune and his court made an appearance wearing their royal robes. King Neptune is Mayor Osvrey C. Pritchett and the City Council and other city officials comprise the royal court.

Master of ceremonies for the show was TV personality Frank Hennessey, who is also captain of the “Chesterpeake,” a bugeye that will be in Cambridge this week for the Festival.

Following the fashion show, a group of about 80 boys and girls called “Sing Out Cambridge” performed the nationally acclaimed “Up With People”. The finale was the crowning of the 1968 Princess Neptune, Cornea S. Wright, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Wright.

100 years ago

Baseball will lose a real star who has been one of its finest characters when the present season comes to a close. John Franklin Baker, the slugging third baseman of the Yankees, has determined to retire permanently from the game when his club disbands next month. [Editor’s note: This is “Home Run Baker,” for whom Talbot County Little Leagues are named, as well as the ball field in Trappe.

Baker intends to return to his big farm at Trappe, there to turn in his bat for the plough, as it were, and henceforth be a real farmer. He says he will never again play professional baseball, though he will play for his own amusement.

Baker’s retirement has not been brought on by the war. Under any condition, he intended to retire this year. He is 32 years old, married, has a family, and is simply tired of traveling about the country.

When Baker came to the Yankees in 1916, he signed a three-year contract for a salary generally supposed to be about $9,000 a year.

Baker started his professional career in the Tri-State League, and from there he went to the Athletics. He quit the Mackmen after the club had been disrupted in 1914. He was the hero of the 1911 world’s series against the Giants and a big factor in the 1913 series.

Baker has been a model athlete and a good example for the boys of the country who look up to the stars of the diamond to follow. He has never used liquor or tobacco and was always in excellent condition. He has the distinction of never having been put out of a game by an umpire.

As Baker was reared on a farm and has continued at farming during the off seasons since he has been in baseball, he should be as successful as a tiller of the soil as he has been in baseball.