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Black Baseball in Kansas City, 1870–1899
Mark E. Eberle
The Kansas City Monarchs, a black baseball team founded by J.L. Wilkinson in 1920, is one of the storied franchises of Negro Leagues history. The story of black baseball clubs and players in Kansas City prior to the First World War is less known, yet it forms the foundation on which the 1920 Monarchs were established. The story of early black baseball in Kansas City from 1870 through 1899 is summarized here. Among the clubs to take the field were the Kansas City Maroons and their star catcher, Frank Maupin. Former classmates organized the Lincoln High Schools in 1899, who became the Jenkins’ Sons in 1900–1907 and the “original” Kansas City Monarchs in 1908–1909. Among the opponents of the Kansas City clubs were the Lexington (MO) Tigers, Lincoln (NE) Giants, St. Joseph (MO) Black Wonders, and Topeka (KS) Giants. In addition to these black teams, the Kansas City clubs also played white amateur and semipro teams in Kansas City and other towns.
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Cricket and Base Ball in Kansas, 1860–1869
Mark E. Eberle
During the 1860s, cricket clubs were organized before the first baseball clubs in Kansas. Following the US Civil War, baseball grew in popularity, and soldiers and immigrants from the Northeast and Midwest brought the sport with them to the state. This essay describes the first two cricket clubs in Kansas—the Leavenworth Occidental Cricket Club and the Wyandotte City Cricket Club—and the transition to baseball.
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Deaf Baseball Players in Kansas and Kansas City, 1878–1911
Mark E. Eberle
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, William Hoy and Luther Taylor were well-known baseball players in the major leagues. Hoy and Taylor were also deaf. Consequently, they were given the same inappropriate nickname—Dummy. Several other deaf ballplayers enjoyed careers in the major and minor leagues, as well as on other professional teams. This narrative focuses on the lesser-known aspects of the early history of deaf baseball players and teams, with an emphasis on Kansas. It opens with the experiences of students at the Kansas State School for the Deaf at the end of the nineteenth century, where Luther Taylor was a student. The successes of players on school teams led to the organization of independent teams composed primarily of deaf players, such as the Kansas City Silents. This narrative closes with the minor league career of Joseph Laughlin, a well-liked third baseman with good defensive skills, who was nevertheless stereotyped for being both deaf and American Indian, neither of which affected his ability to play baseball. A preliminary list of deaf ballplayers in the major and minor leagues prior to 1920 is also included.
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Early Baseball Career of Carl Mays in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Utah
Mark E. Eberle
Carl Mays was a successful submarine (underhand) pitcher in the major leagues from 1915 through 1929 with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants. He pitched in four World Series. He had 207 wins and 126 losses, with an earned run average of 2.92. His on-field credentials place him among the best pitchers of the time, yet Mays has not been enshrined with his peers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mays had a reputation for pitching inside when batters crowded the plate, and he consequently hit 89 men during his 15-year major league career. Sadly, one of the batters he hit remains the focus of his professional baseball legacy. In 1920, a pitch thrown by Mays hit Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head. Chapman died at the hospital the following morning, the only major league player to die from an injury received during a game. Other authors have described this tragedy in detail, along with other events in the major league career of Carl Mays. What has been missing is a fuller account of his early days in baseball, when Mays was a dominant overhand pitcher as a teenager for semiprofessional town teams in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Utah. This study focuses on his experiences during this formative period, including his participation in the “flat bat game” in Kansas and his stint as a pitcher in Utah after he was caught riding freight trains west to pursue his baseball career.
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Evans’ All-Nations and Mayetta Indians Baseball, 1917
Mark E. Eberle
On 4 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and prepared to enter what would later be referred to as the First World War. Those preparations would last through the summer, as many young men spent one last season playing baseball before leaving for Europe. Among these teams in northeastern Kansas were two local teams not composed solely of white players. The Evans’ All-Nations was an integrated team in Horton composed of white, black, American Indian, and possibly Mexican players. Jesse Evans, a local black barber, managed the team. About 25 miles southwest of Horton, on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Reservation, the Mayetta Indians baseball team was organized in 1906 and played into the 1920s. Most of their players were American Indians. In 1917, the Evans’ All-Nations and Mayetta Indians put competitive teams on the field that played each other, local town teams, and clubs in Topeka, both white and black. As the United States mobilized for war, during a time when segregation was entrenched in the United States, these two baseball teams composed of local players were sought as opponents in northeastern Kansas. This monograph recounts that season for these two teams.
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George William Castone: An Integrated Baseball Life at the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Mark E. Eberle
George William Castone was a black baseball player during the 1880s and 1890s. He pitched for integrated town teams and minor league teams, as well as black clubs, such as the Lincoln Giants in Nebraska and the Cuban Giants in the northeastern United States. Most of his time on the diamond was spent in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, but Castone also played on an otherwise white barnstorming team organized in Salt Lake City that traveled through Montana, Oregon, and California. He was among the few black players on minor league teams in the Colorado State League in 1889 and the Nebraska State League in 1892, before the color line barring black players from organized baseball was firmly drawn. In the early twentieth century, Castone was a waiter and an artist, best known for his oil-on-canvas paintings. He passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota in January 1967, just a few days before his 100th birthday.
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Seventh US Cavalry Base Ball in Kansas, 1868–1870
Mark E. Eberle
From 1868 through 1870, the Seventh US Cavalry and other military units played baseball in Kansas at their various posts and in the field. Details of several games were reported in local newspapers, as well as the New York Clipper. The Seventh Cavalry clubs, most notably Captain Frederick Benteen’s Company H, continued to play through 1875 while stationed in the South and the Dakota Territory, before the regiment was decimated at the Battle of Little Bighorn (Greasy Grass) in 1876. This essay focuses on the Seventh Cavalry’s baseball experiences in Kansas. A list of known games played by the regiment from 1868 through 1875 and several newspaper clippings of box scores are provided.
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The Color Line in Kansas Baseball and the “Champion Stars” of Fort Scott, 1874–1878
Mark E. Eberle
Fort Scott was represented by the second baseball team in Kansas to join the National Association of Base-Ball Players in 1866. The city was also the site of the state’s first known baseball games between segregated teams of black and white players. In 1874 and 1877, a black baseball team named the Star Base Ball Club claimed the informal city championship of Fort Scott. This essay describes the first games between black and white teams in Kansas, the early history of baseball in Fort Scott, and the history of the Star Base Ball Club during the 1870s.
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Toward a Black Baseball League for Kansas City, 1890–1916: Proposals and Challenges
Mark E. Eberle
Studies of Negro Leagues baseball from 1920 through the 1950s address various aspects of the organization and operation of the leagues, and provide portraits of the teams, players, and other prominent individuals. However, there were earlier attempts by black teams to organize leagues during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Given the many proposed and short-lived black leagues prior to 1920, the focus of this monograph is the proposals that included clubs from Kansas City. None of the leagues proposed before the First World War survived beyond its inaugural season, but the number of proposals offered over three decades reflects a persistent interest in a black baseball league. Their failures provide insight into some of the challenges that had to be overcome before the Negro National League could be organized in Kansas City in 1920. Following an overview of attempts to organize black baseball leagues across the country prior to 1890, the various proposals from 1890 through 1916 for leagues including Kansas City are described. The financial considerations and other challenges faced by the organizers are also described.
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Who’s on First? Kansas City’s Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929
Mark E. Eberle
Although female players were typically excluded from formal baseball teams, teams consisting entirely or partly of female players were organized across the country as early as the mid-1800s. The first female baseball club in Kansas and adjacent states was organized in Wichita in 1873. These early teams predated the arrival of the barnstorming teams with female players and usually one or more male players, who were sometimes disguised as women. Female players on most of these early traveling teams wore bloomers, and the teams were referred to as “bloomer girls.” Women on later teams wore traditional baseball uniforms and objected to the name. Some of these professional female ballplayers of the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as Maud Nelson of Chicago and Lizzie Murphy of New England, became well known. Two of the prominent players lived in Kansas City. This is the story of the professional careers in baseball—not softball—of Mae Arbaugh from Kansas City, Kansas and Ruth Egan from Kansas City, Missouri, both of whom played first base from 1899 to 1929, earning the respect of fans and male players.
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Bert Wakefield and the End of Integrated Minor League Baseball in Kansas
Mark E. Eberle
Bert Wakefield was a lifelong resident of Troy, Kansas, where he was an active member of the community—business owner, member of social organizations, and musician. Wakefield was also an African American who played on several integrated and black baseball teams through the 1890s and early 1900s, including the Chicago Unions, Chicago Union Giants, Algona (Iowa) Brownies, Renville (Minnesota) All-Stars, and the original Kansas City Monarchs. In addition, Wakefield served as a captain of the mostly white Troy minor league team in the Kansas State League in 1895. In this role, he joined Bud Fowler, who captained minor league teams in Vermont (1887) and Nebraska (1892). Wakefield also umpired at least one ballgame between two white teams. Two other black ballplayers from Kansas—Bert Jones from Hiawatha and Monroe Ingram from Coffeyville—also played for minor league teams in Kansas during 1896–1898, making the state one of the last to have openly integrated minor league teams in the nineteenth century. This biography recounts Bert Wakefield’s experiences in baseball—with supporting appearances by Jones, Ingram, and other Kansas ballplayers. The story of Bert Wakefield and his fellow Kansans also intersects on the diamond with the baseball careers of men associated with the segregation of organized baseball, the organization of the Negro Leagues, and the reintegration of major league baseball. In addition, this story features an umpire from South Dakota who was an exception to the pervasive exclusion of women from professional baseball.
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Inaugural Season of Intercity Base Ball in Leavenworth and Kansas City, 1866: Frontiers and Antelopes
Mark E. Eberle
The inaugural year for baseball played among formally organized base ball clubs (BBC) in Kansas and in Kansas City, Missouri was 1866. Little has been written about the events of that year other than retellings and embellishments of a myth created in 1927 about James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok umpiring a game between the Kansas City Antelopes and Atchison Pomeroys to prevent violence during the contest. In truth, the first club organized in the area by local business owners and other professionals was the Frontier Base Ball Club of Leavenworth in November 1865. A few other clubs were organized in Kansas the following year in Fort Scott, Lawrence, Manhattan, and Wyandotte (Kansas City), but not in Atchison. The first club organized in Kansas City, Missouri was the Antelope BBC in July 1866. Members of these clubs initially participated in intramural games, but challenges were soon issued and accepted through newspaper announcements. The first games were played among clubs in the same city, but intercity matches were arranged in October and November 1866. The four clubs participating in these intercity matches were the Frontier BBC and Wyandott BBC in Kansas and the Antelope BBC and Hope BBC in Kansas City, Missouri. The top two teams in 1866 were the Frontiers and Antelopes, who played a home and home series of one game in each city. Each of their games was followed by a sumptuous dinner and other entertainment hosted by the home club. Hickok’s presence was not required to keep the peace. The age of gentlemen’s base ball clubs in Kansas lasted only a few years before town teams composed of the best local players and possibly a few hired ringers became widespread. This monograph describes the inaugural season of intercity baseball in Kansas and adjacent Kansas City, Missouri.
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Early Baseball and Historic Liberty Park Stadium in Sedalia, Missouri
Mark E. Eberle
Small baseball parks with grandstands constructed prior to the Second World War continue to be lost around the country, and much of the sport’s history is lost with them. Missouri has a few such ballparks remaining within its borders, including those in Carthage, Hannibal, and St. Joseph. In addition, Sedalia has what is arguably one of the finest examples in the nation of a small ballpark with an historic wooden grandstand constructed in 1937–1938 that continues to serve its original purpose. This article is a brief introduction to baseball in Sedalia from the end of the Civil War through the Great Depression, along with the history of baseball in the city’s Liberty Park that culminated in construction of the grandstand still in use more than 80 years after it was constructed.
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Eisenhower, Wilson, and Professional Baseball in Kansas
Mark E. Eberle
Ever since General Dwight David Eisenhower mentioned in 1945 that he had played professional baseball under a pseudonym Wilson sometime after his 1909 graduation from Abilene High School, there have been attempts to document this assertion. Yet, he offered little detail for researchers to follow, not even the team or year. If true, however, it has been speculated this would have made him ineligible for intercollegiate competition in 1911-1915 while he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he played on the football team. Thus, interest in the story has persisted. Newspaper accounts of baseball mention a professional ballplayer named Wilson, who was a member of the minor league teams in Abilene and other towns in the region from 1909 through 1914. It was during 1909-1911 that the recently graduated Eisenhower waited in Abilene, seeking opportunities to earn money that would help pay for a college education. Superficial research into the histories of Eisenhower and professional baseball around Abilene at this time has led to speculation that this ballplayer named Wilson, at least in some instances, was actually Dwight Eisenhower. However, it is impractical to try making sense of Eisenhower’s sparse comments about his baseball career without a thorough consideration of the historical context. This study assesses Eisenhower’s experiences in baseball, as well as his statements about playing professional baseball and the contemporary intercollegiate eligibility rules. A biographical summary for the ballplayer named Wilson associated with baseball in Abilene is also provided.
