THE spring of 1867 was one of tremendous activity in Kansas.Workmen were busily constructing the first unit of the state capitol atTopeka. Lawrence was looking forward to the successful completion of thefirst year of study at the new State University. Salina was awaiting thearrival of the first train over the Kansas Pacific and Joseph G. McCoy wasbuilding a great cattle market at Abilene. Federal commissioners werenegotiating with the Indians for a peace treaty, soon to be signed atMedicine Lodge. Susan B. Anthony was preparing to invade the state inbehalf of female suffrage. In the midst of all this Leavenworth, the restlessmetropolis on the Missouri river, found time for play. The FrontierBaseball Club was chartered early in the year [1] and the crack of the batmeeting the horsehide sphere was added to the hum of industry in the bigtown on the river bluffs. The Frontiers were sponsored by a group of Pioneer City businessand professional leaders, most of whom were veterans of the Civil War.Leader in the movement was Col. Thomas Moonlight, soldier, statesmanand diplomat, who had commanded the Eleventh Kansas regiment in thelate conflict and returned to Leavenworth with a desire to promote thewelfare of the city by providing wholesome recreation for its young men. A. A. Hyde, a young bank clerk who later founded theMentholatum company in Wichita, signed as one of the incorporators.Personnel records of the Frontiers have not been preserved and accountsof their activities are meager. It is probable that they resorted toplaying "Work-up" or choosing up sides until some rival nines wereorganized. But it was not long until the baseball fever had grippedLeavenworth and was spreading rapidly down the Missouri river andwestward up the Valley of the Kansas. "Lawrence has got it, Leavenworth's got it, Topeka's got it, we've all gotit," the Topeka Weekly Leader reported on August 22. "We now boast threebaseball clubs in Topeka. The Shawnees, the Prairie club (whilom OldMaids), and the Capitol." Lawrence had its Kaw Valleys and itsUniversitys; Leavenworth had a rival to provide local competition for theFrontiers. "The Prairies |
played a friendly match game with the Shawnees last Friday and were'scooped,'" continued the Weekly Leader. "They played again Tuesday, andwere again `scooped.' It is their intention to wait now till the Capitols(composed of boys under 15) bust the Shawnees, as they will, and thenpropose to Shawnee to join them in a friendly game of pins-believing thatboth the Shawnees and themselves are better adapted to that game. . . ."These scornful remarks probably were prompted by the lack of success theTopeka clubs had achieved in inter-city competition, the Shawnees havingbeen soundly beaten by Lawrence's Kaw Valleys, 52 to 15. Topeka made a social event out of the visit by the Lawrence club. TheVictorious Kaw Valleys were entertained lavishly at the Cordon house anddeparted by train with the Topeka Brass Band blaring out a friendlyfarewell. Traditional animosities engendered by baseball rivalry had notbecome established but it was not many years until baseball was provokinga lot of vitriolic repartee in rival newspapers. The Shawnees regained some prestige for the capital city by winning fromthe Universitys at Lawrence, 96 to 57. [2] Scores like this were not uncommon; onthe contrary they were the usual thing in those days. Nearly every rule inbaseball favored the batter over the pitcher. In the first place the rulesdecreed that the ball should be "pitched, not thrown." This restricted pitchingto an underhand delivery much like that used in softball today. The base onballs was unknown. It was the batter's privilege to stand and let the good onesgo by as well as the bad ones. He didn't need to hit at the ball until he feltlike it. Another rule, seldom strictly enforced, allowed the batter to call for ahigh or a low pitch. But three strikes were out, and to make things a trifle easier for thedefense a third strike caught on first bounce was out as well as a foul caughton the bounce. The first bounce rule was not abolished until 1880. Pitcherswere emancipated three years later when an amendment permitted overhandand free arm pitching. The base on balls developed during this period ofenlightenment. In 1884 six balls entitled the batter to free passage to firstbase, but in 1887 they gave the batter an extra strike to balance matters afterreducing the number of balls to five. The present rulings, "three strikes andout" and "four balls, take a base" came to stay in 1889.[3] Baseball as a Kansas sport was officially recognized by the state fairassociation in 1867 when a silver baseball was awarded to the |
winners of the state championship. The state fair was held at Lawrence late inSeptember and the Kaw Valleys kept the trophy at home by winning the title matchfrom the Universitys on the last day of the fair. [4] The silver ball now restsin the Kansas State Historical Society's Vault. Baseball activity was renewed with zeal in the spring of 1868. Intense rivalryhad developed between the Frontiers and the Lawrence Kaw Valleys. These clubs metthree times during the season and the Lawrence boys won every game, establishinga claim to the state championship. [5] Lawrence seethed with civic pride and theclub was reorganized in 1869 with a list of directors that included suchprominent citizens as Dudley C. Haskell, who later served as congressman from thesecond district and in whose honor Haskell Institute was named. Again it was a battle between the Kaw Valleys and the Frontiers. Despite itsearly start Leavenworth was forced to admit at the end of the campaign thatLawrence had definitely established itself as baseball capital of the Sunflowerstate. Possibly the Frontiers missed the guiding hand of Colonel Moonlight, whohad been elected secretary of state and deserted Leavenworth for an office inTopeka. The game played between the Frontiers and the Kaw Valleys on September 10was heralded as the championship struggle and the Valleys came in under the wire,29 to 22. [6] Baseball gossip occupied considerable space in Kansas newspapersthe following spring. The TopekaDaily Kansas State Record announced onApril 8, 1870, that an attempt would be made to bring the Cincinnati RedStockings to Topeka for a game with a picked team of Kansans. The Red Stockings,organized in 1867, were the first professional club in the United States.Apparently this ambitious plan never materialized. Of more importance to Kansasbaseball than this idle rumor was the organization of the Topeka Westerns, whowere destined to become famous in Kansas baseball circles before long. Topeka's alert theatrical agent, a gentleman named O. Sackett, was anopportunist who realized the possibilities of baseball as a crowd attraction. When the deal for the Red Stockings fell through he immediately boarded a trainfor Rockford, Ill. The Forest Citys of Rockford were the only club in the landthat could compete on fairly even terms with the Cincinnati boys and Sackettfigured they |
would be an acceptable substitute. On May 5, 1870, the Topeka KansasDaily Commonwealth announced that the Forest City club had been engagedto meet the state champion Kaw Valleys at the Topeka fairgrounds, May 11.In the Forest City lineup was A. G. Spalding, whose name later appeared onthousands of baseballs after he became the head of the great sporting goodshouse that bears his name. Spalding was one of the first great pitchers. In1863 a Union soldier returning invalided to Rockford from the war found thelocal boys batting a ball around in aimless fashion. He told them he knew abetter sport that he had learned in the army and taught them baseball.Spalding was one of his aptest pupils. The Forest Citys were soon organizedand they were touring the country before many years had elapsed. [7] Fifteen hundred persons crowded about the diamond at the Topeka fairground onthat May afternoon long ago. In the Visiting lineup were: Spalding, Hastings,Doyle, Addy, Foley, Barnes, Stires, Simmons and Barstow. For the Kaw Valleys thelineup included: Haskell, Whitman, Lane, Longfellow, White, Lefevre, Campbell,Griffin and Sears. It was announced that a picked nine of Kansas players wouldoppose Forest City the next afternoon. All things considered, the Kaws did not fare badly. The final audit showed ascore of 41 to 6 for the Forest Citys. Sam Lakin, Topeka bank employee, wasthe umpire and each team provided its own score keeper, as the double checksystem was employed in those days. The "picked nine" was not so fortunate. Thistime the men from Illinois turned on the power and crushed the Kansans, 97 to 12.The baseball "tournament" was a financial success, however. Promoter Sackettmade a neat profit and the elite of the city danced at Union hall the night ofMay 11, honoring the visiting athletes in a "Baseball Promenade." [8] After this disaster Kansas teams confined their activities to intrastatecompetition for several years. Ottawa organized a team called the Nasbysand the boys from the Marais des Cygnes were off to an auspicious startwith a 28 to 25 Victory over Lawrence's Kaw Valleys. The Kaws evened itup a few weeks later and captured the third game, 21 to 16, to retain the statetitle. [9] In 1871 Emporia introduced its Jayhawkers and a rival Lyon county teamwas organized at Americus, Emporia's old county seat |
rival. On July 14 the EmporiaNews announced an impending clash betweenthe Jayhawkers and the Americus nine. "Come and witness the game, ye loversof innocent and manly sports," urged the News. The July 21 edition of thenewspaper published an account of this game, which the Emporians won, 95 to30. The Leavenworth Unions, successors to the Frontiers, celebrated the Fourthof July at Lawrence by winning a thrilling game from the Kaw Valley team,24 to 22. [10] It was a great day in Leavenworth baseball history and thejubilant fans claimed that the state championship had been returned to thePioneer City. But the Leavenworth enthusiasts had reckoned without the TopekaWesterns who were sweeping through their opposition like a combinationharvester and thresher through ripe wheat. The Topekans silenced Leavenworth andLawrence by resounding victories over the Unions and the KawValleys and mid-August found their claim to baseball supremacy almostunchallenged. They accepted an invitation from the Emporia Jayhawkerswith some condescension. The Jayhawkers had been playing the game for only two months when they met themighty Westerns on the Emporia diamond. Topeka gamblers in the Western entouragewere offering two to one odds that their team would double the score on theEmporia novices. There were many takers. Some Topekans had to borrow railroadfare to get out of town after the game when the surprising Jayhawkers thumped theWesterns, 31 to 27. "The Topeka boys were too confident, and the Emporia boyskept cool," wrote theNews correspondent. [11] It was the Westerns' onlydefeat of the season, but theNews claimed on September 15 that theWesterns had dodged a return game with the Emporians. "The Topeka Westerns hadbetter emigrate to Greeley," sneered theNews. The Jayhawkers went to meetthe Topeka club on its own grounds September 13, but the latter declined to play.They were so badly demoralized by their little game in Emporia some time before,theNews continued, "that they have not got their spirits up since." [12] Nevertheless, the Westerns dominated the field for the next eight or tenyears. In the starting lineup in 1871 Jim McFarland was captain-pitcher,Glenny was behind the bat. Evarts, Morris and Gilmore composed theoutfield. Barnes was at first base; Morgan, second base; Ritchie, short stopand Moore, third base. The Rix brothers appeared frequently in the lineup,one as pitcher, the other |
in the outfield. The Emporia giant killers on that memorable Augustafternoon in 1871 were: Hawkins, Lord and Cochran, outfielders; Randolph,first base; Willard, second base; Simms, short stop; Wales, third base; Halleck,pitcher; Rollins, catcher. [13] During the three-year period, 1874-1876, theWesterns met defeat but once. After the club had returned to the home standfrom a road trip "down the Gulf Road" in August, 1876, the Ottawa Red Stockingstook their measure by a score of 10 to 7. [14] Fort Scott, Paola, LaCygne,Mound City and Pleasanton were among the teams that fell before theWesterns during their southeast Kansas invasion. Baseball was moving westward and many of the smaller towns had taken upthe game. Ottawa met Williamsburg and Lyndon. Emporia's schedule included gameswith Cottonwood Falls and Council Grove. Manhattan, Junction City, the Fort Rileysoldiers, Abilene and Salina were competing out on the Union Pacific lines.Reports from along the Santa Fe indicated that Newton, Wichita and Hutchinsonwere rivals on the diamond. But the depressions, droughts and grasshopper invasions of the 1870's apparentlysapped Kansas baseball enthusiasm to a considerable degree. There was littleadvance dope in the press when spring came 'round in 1880 and a Topeka newspaperqueried, "What is the matter with Atchison, Lawrence and Leavenworth in regard tobaseball?" Atchison, it recalled, had never had a good club, but what then hadbecome of Manhattan, Wichita and Lyndon? [15] The Westerns, with some new players in their lineup, were hard at work andOttawa's Red Stockings were ready for another season. But, aside from therenewed Ottawa-Topeka rivalry and periodical visits by touring clubs fromKansas City and Dubuque, Iowa, there was little activity during the ensuingsummer months. History was made again on April 17, however, when the firstinter-collegiate baseball game was played at Lawrence between the University nineand the Washburn team. For several years there had been desultory activity on Kansas college diamonds.Back in 1867, it will be recalled, the University team played matches with theTopeka Shawnees and the Lawrence Kaw Valleys. There is no record of games playedby this team in a scores pamphlet published by the Kansas University AthleticAssociation in January, 1932. Six baseball letters were awarded in 1874, theroster of K-men reveals, but the first game recorded in |
this pamphlet is a successful foray against the town team in 1879.Washburn organized a team in 1880, played a practice game with theWesterns, in which the collegians were soundly drubbed and then invadedLawrence for the match with K. U. Details of the game have not beenrecorded. The rival Lawrence newspaper men who covered the contestconfined their remarks to personalities not related to the game. The TopekaCapital of April 19 published the score with little comment. It was 29 to 22in favor of Washburn. The University nine came to Topeka for a returngame four weeks later and tasted the sweets of revenge. The score of thisgame was 22 to 10, K. U. [16] Washburn's team included DeHart, Elliot, Holliday, Ballinger, Tefft, Ross,Fowler, Heaton, and Quail. The University has no record of the 1880baseball team, but the roster of K-men includes the names of seven men whowon baseball letters that year, including: E. C. Little, M. Lovelace, D. J.Rankin, C. F. Scott, W. C. Spangler, R. E. Twitchell and S. T. Williams.Both Little and Scott served terms in congress after leaving the university.College athletics did not develop rapidly until the 1890's, but BakerUniversity had a baseball team as early as 1882 and played a game with K.U. that spring, according to Thomas A. Evans, alumni secretary at Baker.Records at Kansas University give the score of a meeting between theJayhawks and the Methodists in 1886. It was a 6-6 tie. [17] Baker has arecord of the tie game, says Evans, but the Baldwin historians give the yearas 1885 and the score as 16-16. Baseball games between Baker, K. U. andWashburn were regularly scheduled after 1888. Before the end of thecentury Emporia Normal, Ottawa, Kansas State, St. Mary's, Bethany and theCollege of Emporia were playing the game. Professional baseball gained a foothold during the boom of the middle1880's. The Topeka Westerns and their successors the Browns weresemi-professional clubs during this period. Atchison, Kansas City andLeavenworth were hiring players and organized league baseball appeared in1886 when Topeka and Leavenworth took franchises in the Western League,a six-club circuit that also included Denver, Leadville, Lincoln and St.Joseph. [18] The Kansas teams did not fare well their first season. Anxious toadvertise their booming city, several Topeka financiers decided to buy a clubthat would put Topeka on the baseball map in embossed capitals. |
The result was the collection of the highest priced and ablest crew of diamondathletes that ever represented a Kansas city. Goldsby's Golden Giants, theywere called. What a ball club! Early in 1887 the Western League was enlarged to an eight-club circuit, andby mid-season there were ten teams in the race. Leadville had dropped out butKansas City, Hastings and Omaha were added. Emporia and Wichita cameinto the fold when the season was half finished but never caught up with thepack. Emporia finished ninth and Wichita last. But the Golden Giants ofManager Goldsby breezed in to win the pennant about twenty games ahead ofLincoln, the nearest contender. The team finished with a percentage of nearly.800. Six Giants boasted batting averages above the .400 mark. The great"Bugs" Holliday delighted the fans at Kenwood park with his home runs, seventeenfor the season. These abnormal batting averages may be partially explained by thethen prevailing rule crediting the batter with a hit and a time at bat for eachbase on balls. Under the present rules a base on balls does not count as a timeat bat. [19] But deflated real-estate values incidental to the bursting boom bubbledepleted the Topeka war chest and the Giants were considered too expensive aluxury for another season. Most of the talented members of that club, which hasbecome almost a legend in Topeka, went back to the major leagues. TheWestern League was gradually diminished as hard-pressed club owners gave uptheir franchises during the lean years and only four clubs remained in 1893,Topeka, Kansas City, Lawrence and St. Joseph. There was some brisk activityon college fields, however, and Junction City, Abilene, Manhattan andEnterprise formed a short-lived league in 1895. The Missouri Valley League,training school for numerous major leaguers in later years, was organized aboutthis time with representatives in several southeast Kansas towns.The Leavenworth Maroons, a fast semi-professional club, entered thepicture in 1895 when they outdistanced all opposition. Junction City had astrong team that included "Dummy" Taylor, deaf-mute pitcher and outfielder,who played with the New York Giants in the early 1900's. These towns,Junction City and Leavenworth, became baseball rivals in 1896. But interestlagged in Leavenworth and the Maroons were moved to Topeka in June. [20]Topeka organized an athletic association and built a new ball park, which |
stood on East Fifteenth street for many years. A Kansas State League wasorganized to include Junction City, Topeka, Emporia and Minneapolis. TheMaroons performed well in their first Topeka appearance but when the gameswere over the club manager and the receipts vanished. Some of the Maroonshad received no pay for weeks and had to walk to town from the ball park. [21] The Kansas State League soon disbanded, but the Maroons continued asthe Topeka Blues and played independently with such worthy rivals asAtchison, Independence, Iola, Coffeyville and Junction City. Abilene had afast club and was winning games from Salina, Emporia, Chapman, Wichitaand Fort Riley. On August 8, 1896, theDaily Reflector pointed with pridetoAbilene's record of ten wins in thirteen starts. Unfortunately this boast wasfollowed by successive defeats by Salina and Wichita. The Haskell Indians toured the state during the summer of 1896 and 1897.The State League appeared again in 1897 with Atchison, Emporia, JunctionCity and Topeka. Abilene and Salina replaced Emporia and Junction City in1898. Abilene threatened to run away with the race in the early games, but theclub slumped, the war distracted public attention, and the team was disbandedin June. [22] Southeast Kansas was becoming a hotbed of baseball in the early 1900's.The Missouri Valley League produced Warren Seabough and Johnny Kane ofPittsburg, who were taken up by the Chicago Cubs. In 1903 the MissouriValley circuit included Fort Scott, Joplin, Nevada, Leavenworth, Iola,Jefferson City, Sedalia and Pittsburg. The Western Association, which hadbeen operating in Iowa and Illinois, shifted its sphere of activity to thesouthwest in 1905 and opened as an eight-club loop with Joplin, OklahomaCity, Guthrie, Leavenworth, Sedalia, Wichita, Springfield and Topeka.Wichita's entry was the city's first baseball Venture since 1887. WillKimmel was the club owner and Jack Holland was imported from Little Rock,Ark., to manage the team. The "Jabbers" opened the season at the homegrounds in Island park with a 3 to 2 defeat by Topeka. Ernie Quigleywas at short stop for the Visitors. The umpire was Brick Owens, who, likeQuigley, became a famous major league umpire in later years. Owens' Wichitadebut was inauspicious, though exciting. Brick left the park with enraged fansdemanding his blood because he had called a Wichita runner |
out for failure to touch first and second bases. [23] Wichita won the pennantthat year, Topeka was seventh. [24] Richard G. Cooley, a former Detroit American League outfielder, pilotedTopeka to a Western Association pennant in 1906. Hutchinson had replacedGuthrie, and Webb City, Mo., succeeded Sedalia in the standings. [25] Leavenworthwithdrew in 1908 and was replaced by Enid, Okla. Jack Holland won anotherpennant for Wichita in 1907. [26] and it was Cooley's turn to bring the flag tothe capital city in 1908. [27] While the "Jimson League," as Jay House, TopekaCapital columnist, called the W. A. circuit, provided lively summerentertainment for thousands of citizens in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, it wasdefinitely a "bush league." The Class A Western League had been operating withsix clubs, including Denver, Omaha, Des Moines, Sioux City, Lincoln and St.Joseph. Wichita and Topeka were added to this more select circle in 1909. The advent of Class A minor league baseball marks Kansas' golden age inthe professional game. In 1910 twenty-five cities and towns were sponsoringteams in organized baseball. Wichita and Topeka were well established inthe Western League. The Kansas State League, revived as a Class D organization,included McPherson, Hutchinson, Lyons, Arkansas City, Great Bend, Newton,Wellington and the Twin Cities club, sponsored jointly by Strong City andCottonwood Falls. The Central Kansas League, also of Class D rating, includedSalina, Ellsworth, Abilene, Manhattan, Junction City, Clay Center, Beloit andConcordia. Larned later assumed the Twin Cities franchise in the State League.[28] The Eastern Kansas League opened its first campaign in 1910 with Seneca, Sabetha,Hiawatha, Holton, Horton and Marysville at the starting post. [29] Down in theold W. A., Guthrie encountered financial difficulties before the end of thesummer and the club was moved to Independence. In the Central Kansas League theBeloit club was moved to Chapman, probably the smallest Kansas town that eversponsored a team in organized baseball. [30] Kansas was ably represented in themajor leagues at this time. Walter Johnson and Joe Wood, two of the greatestspeed ball |
pitchers of all time, were causing distress to American League batters.Wood, who came from Ness City by way of the Hutchinson WesternAssociation club, was with the Boston Red Sox. Johnson, who was born ona farm near Humboldt, was with the Washington Senators. Art Griggs ofTopeka was an infielder with the St. Louis Browns. For some obscure reason Johnson was known as the "Big Train." Duringthe major portion of his career he maintained a winter home nearCoffeyville and Grantland Rice called him the "Coffeyville Express."Unfortunately the Senators were one of the weaker clubs during most ofJohnson's career. "Washington-first in war, first in peace and last in theAmerican League," was a popular vaudeville laugh line for years. But theclub finally won a pennant in 1924 and Johnson, after nearly twenty years,had his first World Series opportunity against the late John McGraw's NewYork Giants. Beaten in his first two efforts, Johnson went into the seventhand deciding game as a relief pitcher in the ninth inning and held the NewYork club scoreless until his teammates squeezed out a run in the twelfth towin the game and series. [31] In 1925 the Senators won the American League flag again and faced thePittsburg Pirates in the series. Johnson was in great form, allowing but onerun in eighteen innings to win his first two starts. Handicapped by a leginjury, he went down to defeat in the deciding game, which was played in apouring rain. [32] The big Kansan retired from active competition in 1927,ending his baseball career as manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1936. Hesold his Coffeyville home after the death of his wife in 1930 and has sincelived in Maryland, where he is now the Republican nominee for congressfrom Maryland's Sixth district. Joe Wood, known as "Smoky Joe" because of his dazzling fast ball, brokeinto organized baseball with the Hutchinson Western Association club in 1907at the age of eighteen. His rise was rapid. In 1912 he was the mainstay of theBoston Red Sox pitching staff. The Red Sox won the American Leaguepennant and met the New York Giants in the World Series. Wood opposed BigJeff Tesreau, Giant ace, in the first game and won, 4 to 3. With three days resthe came back and stopped the Giants again, 3 to 1. His third appearance ina game which would have given his team the series, was met by a Giantbombardment that sent him to the club house |
in the first inning. But Joe came back the next day as a relief pitcher in theeighth inning and held the Giants until his comrades broke a tie to win in thetenth. [33] Wood now coaches baseball at Yale. A contemporary of Wood and Johnson was Fred Clarke, an outfielder with a greatbatting eye and tremendous speed on the bases. Clarke played twenty-one years ofmajor league baseball and was manager of the Pittsburg Pirates for a number ofyears. Since his retirement he has lived near Udall. [34] Kansas clergymen andother advocates of strict Sabbath observance conducted a stout fight againstSunday baseball but to little avail. A Kansas statute provided that persons"convicted of horse-racing, cock-fighting or playing cards or games of any kindon Sunday shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." The strict enforcement crowd invokedthis statute against Ernest Prather who was arrested in Johnson county on July14, 1907, for promoting a baseball game on the Sabbath. He was convicted in thedistrict court but the case was appealed and the decision was reversed by theSupreme Court of Kansas. [35] Justice Silas Porter, in presenting the opinion of the court, said in part,"This construction would make the statute apply to every game-to authors,whist, chess, checkers, backgammon and cribbage, even when played withinthe privacy of one's home, and to croquet, basketball, tennis and golf,whether played in public or on private grounds." [36] Subsequent efforts toenact legislation specifically prohibiting Sunday baseball have beenunsuccessful. A law passed in 1907, however, prohibits baseball games onMemorial Day. With the approval of the supreme court Sunday baseball became so wellestablished that it was countenanced in nearly every city in the state. AMinneapolis minister even conducted religious services at the ball park. JayHouse observed that the umpire's failure to come forward and ask forgiveness forhis sins defeated the essential purpose of this innovation. [37] House, a popularcolumnist, was one of Kansas' cleverest baseball writers. He perfected a stylesomewhat similar to that of Ring Lardner, who loved to magnify the incidentals ofthe game. The weather was one of House's favorite themes. One game in the springof 1910 was played on what he described as |
the worst day for baseball ever seen in this latitude. It was not only nippingcold, but the wind blew fifty miles an hour every minute of the game. Half thetime the players were obscured from the vision of the meager handful of fans inthe stands by swirling clouds of dust. . . . Baseball was incidental. The playersspent most of their time wiping dust from their eyes. Had there been no wind itwould have been a fine day for skating. [38] Baseball was a major sport in Kansas college circles during the golden agethat preceded the World War. Baker, Washburn, Bethany, Emporia Teachers, WesternKansas Normal, College of Emporia, Friends, Fairmount, Ottawa, St. Mary's, KansasWesleyan, Southwestern, Haskell, Kansas State and Kansas University had teams onthe diamond. Lonberg of Washburn, Hal Harlan of K. U., Mason of Baker, Baird ofKansas State and Collins of St. Mary's were a quintet of pitchers that would havegraced any minor league staff. Harlan and Lonberg met in one of the most sensational pitching encountersin college history one May afternoon back in 1908. It was the third meeting ofthe season for K. U. and Washburn. The Jayhawkers had beaten Lonberg at Lawrence.Washburn had blanked the university men in an earlier game at Topeka. Thedeciding game was played on the Washburn field. Neither team scored in thirteeninnings. In the fourteenth a homerun following a double gave K. U. two runs, alead that looked mountainous. But the Ichabods came back with an assault onHarlan that produced five hits, three runs and victory. [39] Baird of the Aggies shut out the Washburn nine that same season and Baker's Masonalso stopped the Ichabods. The Bethany Swedes had a great club in 1909, countingK. U. among their Victims. In 1910 the Aggies, as they called the Kansas StateWildcats in those days when the big Manhattan school was still a "cow college,"won 20 out of 24 games with Baird carrying the pitching burden and Josh Billings,the Grantville boy who went to Cleveland via the Topeka Western League club, asfirst string catcher. Baker's contribution to the pro game was "Zip" Zabel, arangy right-handed pitcher, who broke in with the Kansas City Blues and laterwent to the Chicago Cubs. Zabel played football and basketball at Baker while hewas a professional baseball player. This is an illustration of the liberality ofcollegiate eligibility rules in Kansas, where participation in professionalbaseball only disqualifies an athlete for that particular sport while he retainshis amateur stand |
ing in other sports. In many Eastern colleges this would have disqualifiedZabel from all competition. Baker alumni of the pre-war days recall thatZabel was a good basketball center and a hard-hitting fullback on the gridiron.The Kansas State and Central Kansas Leagues had ceased to exist beforethe end of the World War. Wichita lost its Western League club in 1933.Its last pennant was won in 1931. Art Griggs became owner in 1926, but moved theteam to Tulsa in 1932. Frank Isbell then took over the Wichita franchise in aneffort to keep the town on the organized baseball map, but after a few games in1933 the team moved to Muskogee. Since 1930 Wichita has held the state semipro tournament. The NationalSemipro Congress was organized in that city in 1935 when the first NationalSemipro tournament was held. Raymond Dumont, former Wichita newspaperman, ispresident of the organization and the state and national tournaments are nowannual events in the city. A baseball school is held annually in April. Wichitasemipro enthusiasts contend that the semipro game is faster than the Class Cprofessional baseball played at Topeka, Salina and Hutchinson and express littleinterest in attempts to place a Western Association club in their city. The ubiquitous Dick Cooley brought league baseball back to Topeka in 1922. [40]At Various times during the next few years Topeka, Arkansas City, Independence,Coffeyville, Hutchinson and Salina were represented either in the SouthwesternLeague or the Western Association. Topeka won the Southwestern pennant in 1925.41The capital city tried Western League baseball in 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1933, withlittle success. Some good players were developed and sold to major league clubs,but the Topeka entry failed to finish higher than sixth place in the standings. Wichita's withdrawal from the Western League in 1933 and several abortiveattempts to put Topeka, Hutchinson and other cities in the Western Associationnearly killed the professional game in Kansas. Baseball, both amateur andprofessional, was at its lowest ebb in the early 1930's. All the collegesabandoned the game but Kansas State. One of the hardest blows to collegebaseball was the passing of St. Mary's. The little Catholic college haddominated Kansas amateur baseball circles for years and trained several playersfor professional careers. Since 1931 the college enrollment has |
been restricted to clerics, thus eliminating a program of competitiveathletics. The American Legion Junior Baseball program has been one of the mostpotent factors in bringing about the revival of interest in baseball.Nation-wide in scope, the program was launched by the Legion in 1926 andhas operated in Kansas since its inception. Boys below the age of seventeenare eligible for competition on clubs sponsored by local Legion posts. Kansashas forty teams in the field, who compete for the state championship and theright to enter the regional, sectional and national play-offs. The WesternSectional tournament was held at Topeka in 1934. The program is directed by theJunior Baseball subcommittee of the National Americanization commissionof the American Legion. [42] Major league magnates were not slow to recognize the potential Value ofthe Junior Baseball program as a source of material for major league clubs. TheNational and American Leagues now contribute $20,000 toward the expenseof the national play-offs. In the Junior World Series of 1939 Dan Barry of theAmerican League and Ernest C. Quigley of St. Marys, a National Leagueumpire, officiated. [43] A second factor in the revival of baseball in Kansas is the Ban JohnsonLeague, an amateur organization for youths under 21. Named for the lateBancroft Johnson, who for many years was president of the AmericanLeague, the Ban Johnson movement began in Kansas City, Mo., in 1928,when the Kansas City Junior League was renamed in Mr. Johnson's honor.The American League contributed $300 for a trophy as an award to thewinning teams in 1929. Harry Suter of Salina was granted permission to form the Ban JohnsonLeague of Kansas in 1933. An eight-club league was organized with clubs inSalina, Topeka, Beloit, Abilene, Wichita, El Dorado, Emporia and Dodge City.When applications were received from additional cities the league was splitinto three divisions. Division winners meet in an elimination series for thestate title and since 1935 the Kansas champions have met the Missouri titleholders in a series for the national championship. [44] Players who have reached their twenty-first birthdays after the first of theyear are permitted to play during the ensuing season. No player receives anypecuniary compensation, although most of |
the clubs have paid managers. The clubs are sponsored by civicorganizations or by local industrial concerns. The Kansas Ban Johnsonlineup is-Central division: Beloit, Concordia, Fairbury (Nebr.), JunctionCity, Beatrice (Nebr.), Manhattan and Marysville. In the Western divisionare: Dodge City, Garden City, Larned, Liberal and Pratt. The southeasterndivision consists of Coffeyville, Fort Scott, Humboldt, Independence, Iola,Parsons and Pittsburg. Because the policy of the league is to avoid conflictwith professional baseball, Salina and Topeka dropped out of the leaguewhen they acquired Western Association franchises .45 According to WalterSloan of Topeka, president of the Ban Johnson League of Kansas, a sixthclub may be added to the Western division and an eighth club to the Centraldivision. Dr. G. L. Cowan of Dodge City is vice president and James E. Lang of Junction City is secretary and treasurer of the league. Leon Lundblade, Beloitattorney and former state president, recently succeeded Frank Goodman of KansasCity, Mo., as national president. Night baseball, which was introduced to Kansas in 1932, has proved to bethe salvation of the professional game. The Hutchinson, Salina and TopekaWestern Association clubs play most of their games under the flood lights.When league baseball returned to Kansas in 1937 club owners wiselyfollowed the example of the small colleges who have made night football payin recent years. Kansas' leisure class is neither numerous nor sufficientlyinterested in baseball to fill the stands on week days, but "fans" who spendtheir afternoons at the office or the golf club are patronizing the night games.Soft ball, which local tradition says was originated by Topekans in 1916, hasacquired a tremendous popularity in the past five years. The new game hasstimulated interest in its parent sport, recent developments have proven.Topeka has twenty or more soft ball teams playing to large and enthusiasticcrowds and the city celebrated its return to organized baseball in 1939 byestablishing a new season's attendance record for the Western Association.Kansas University, which had dropped baseball in 1931, put a team on thediamond again in 197. Baker, pioneer in college athletics, renewed baseballactivity in 1939, after an interlude of ten years, and the Haskell Indians wereback in the game to provide neighborly rivalry for the Baldwin team. FriendsUniversity and Sterling College also are playing baseball again. Many of the |
larger high schools took up the game in 1940, including Wyandotte and Wardof Kansas City, the two Wichita high schools and Topeka. Kansas is well represented in the major leagues today. Pittsburg, always abaseball center, is the winter home of Don Gutteridge of the St. LouisCardinals and Ray Mueller of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Eldon Auker, a formerKansas State College athlete whose home is at Norcatur, is now with the St.Louis Browns. Auker, a pitcher, was previously with the Detroit Tigers andthe Boston Red Sox. Elon Hogsett, left-handed Indian pitcher from NessCity, was a team mate of Auker's at Detroit for two seasons. He was sentback to the minor leagues, but returned to the American League this spring asa member of the Philadelphia Athletics. Fred Brickell and Forrest Jensen,both of Wichita, are with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ira Smith, anotherresident of the Sedgwick county metropolis, is with the St. Louis Cardinals.Many Kansas baseball players reached the top of the ladder in the years goneby, including Frank Isbell, who played second base for the old ChicagoWhite Sox. Isbell has been a resident of Wichita for forty years and is now amember of the Sedgwick county board of commissioners. Claude Hendricksof Stanley was one of the mainstays of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff inthe World War era. The Barnes brothers, Jess and Zeke, who came from afarm near Circleville, pitched good ball for the major leagues in the 1920'sJess Barnes starred in the 1921 World Series between the Giants and theYankees. Jake Beckley of Leavenworth played first base for the Cardinals forseveral seasons at the peal of his career. Art Griggs of Topeka, played in theoutfield for the St. Louis Browns for many years and later managed severalminor league clubs, including Wichita. Judge Hugo Wedell of the Kansassupreme court, a resident of Chanute, was once with the PhiladelphiaPhillies, as were Ray Pierce and George Darrow of Topeka. Hutchinson's most notable contribution was Babe Adams, one of Pittsburgh's greatpitchers. Charlie Keller, another Salt City boy, was with the Chicago White Sox. Newton claims Nick Allen, erstwhile catcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Kansas Cityproduced Zack Wheat, Brooklyn outfielder and his brother Mack, a catcher with thesame club. Pat Collins, now a Kansas City business man, is a former New YorkYankees' catcher. Dale Gear, a Topeka resident for nearly thirty years, hasdevoted the major portion of his life to the game. After a playing career |
in major and minor leagues, Gear came to the capital city in 1912 asmanager of the Western League club. For many years he was president ofboth the Western League and the Western Association. Gear retired frombaseball in 1935. St. Marys claims that Charlie Comiskey, first baseman of the old St.Louis Browns, was once a resident of that city. Comiskey and TedSullivan, another St. Marys Irishman, played ball together in the AmericanAssociation and the National League. Comiskey and Ban Johnsonorganized the American League in 1900. For many years Comiskey wasowner of the Chicago White Sox. [46] Steve O'Rourke, formerly coach at St. Mary's College, is a scout for theBoston Red Sox. His neighbor in St. Marys is Ernest C. Quigley, who isprobably the best known figure in Kansas sport circles and the dean ofNational League umpires. Bob Enslie, Waterville; George Magerkurth,McPherson; George Barr, Scammon; and Brick Owens, Pittsburg, are otherKansans who became major league umpires. [47] 1. "Corporations," charter copybooks, Kansas, v. 1, p. 281. The charter wasfiled January 29, 1867. |