Sockalexis biographer Ed Rice challenges this entire Notre Dame-Giants account, since there is (1) no known newspaper account of it and (2) it sounds too remarkably like the account that actually occurred when the Cleveland team played the Giants for the first time in the Polo Grounds. In 1897, the Notre Dame baseball team played an exhibition game against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. In a sign of things to come, Sockalexis had to deal with taunts, racism, and insulting chants during the game. At the same time, sports writers in attendance insulted a delegation of Pensobscots who had come from Old Town to watch the game.