Bill Tanley, a bottler for Key City Beverages, came up with the idea of building a baseball field at the corner of Monroe Avenue and Center Street in North Mankato. The field was originally called “Key City Park” but was renamed Tanley Field in 1937. Improvements were made to Tanley Field in a relatively short period of time and the Field was considered one of the ballpark gems at the time.
(Reprinted with Permission from City of North Mankato)
The Austin Daily Herald reported that “Tanley Field is the finest baseball plant in southern Minnesota. … Ample grandstand space, bleacher room and a press box are part of the features. … A nine-foot wall surrounds the entire park, which is equipped with lights for night baseball. … A loud speaker system informs fans of batters and players”.[1]
Tanley also developed a baseball team appropriately called the “Key City Beverages” team. The Key City team joined the Southern Minny League in 1938. The biggest splash made by the Key City team may, however, have been the signing of Al Bell away from the Waseca team. Bell was dominant for the Owatonna Aces during the 1936 season and in state tournament. Bell and his 1937 Waseca teammates finished the League season with a 9 wins against 4 losses and made it to the League Championship Game before yielding to Phil Golberg and the Austin Packers.
First a little background on the Southern Minny in 1938. There was a fair amount of transition within the League during the 1930s. Lakeville, St. Peter and West Concord had teams in the League in 1937 but none of them would return in 1938. Le Roy, Northfield and the Key City nine were added as replacement teams but Northfield dropped from the League the week before the season began leaving the seven teams in the League.[2] With an uneven number of teams, teams were given an open date on their schedule whenever they would have played Northfield.
Key City visited Waseca for the opening game of the season. Bell, opening day pitcher for Key City, gave up 15 hits. Fortunately for Bell the Key City offense was better was far better pounding out 21 hits to win 20-11.[3] It wasn’t pretty but it was a win.
The second scheduled game of the season was washed away bringing Al Bell and the Key City Nine to Austin’s (old) Marcusen park. The Key City Batsmen were rampant pounding out three home runs among their thirteen hits. Bell gave up only two hits – a home run to Streak McKay in the third inning and a double to Ray Gohde in the ninth. Key City won 13-1.[4]
Key City came away with Mankato bragging rights in their next League game as the Key City nine pushed a run across in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Mankato Blue Sox 2-1. Bell scattered eight hits well in every inning other than in the third.[5]
Following an open date, Key City hosted Faribault at Tanley Field. Bell secured his fourth straight league win allowing only five hits. His mates meanwhile drove Faribault’s starting pitcher Reint from the game in the early innings with five runs in the second frame alone. Key City won 7 to 1.[6]
Key City next travelled to Le Roy. Even though undefeated, League pundits expected a good game as Le Roy had started to show some promise as a developing team.[7] The pundits were correct as Bell and Weber locked up in an old fashioned pitcher’s duel with the only score of the game coming in the tenth inning. Weber gave up only four hits while Bell was one better giving up only three. Fortunately for Bell his team scored the only run in the extra frame to give him his fifth win on the season.[8]
It didn’t get any easier for Bell and Key City as Fred Ludke and the Owatonna Aces came to Tanley Field. Ludke was the MVP of the state baseball tournament in 1936. Mankato scored first in the fourth inning and held that lead until the seventh when Owatonna pushed across a run. Mankato scored the final run of the game in the bottom of that inning as the starting pitchers didn’t disappoint. Bell scattered five hits while Ludke gave up only seven. The defenses likely made the game far more interesting committing eight errors behind the two star pitchers.[9] Even so, Bell now stood at six wins giving up more than one run only once.
The win streak stretched to seven games even though Bell gave up more than one run for the first time in a League game in nearly two months. Key City was leading 2-1 when Waseca knotted the score in the bottom of the ninth. Bell was still the pitcher of record in the tenth when Anton’s grounder scored Hamilton from second base for Key City.[10]
The streak reached eight when Key City scored two runs in the eighth to break a 1-1 tie in a rematch with Owatonna.[11] The streak ended when the Austin Packers visited Tanley Field. Home runs were a feature of the game with Austin’s being of the two run variety. Streak McKay put Austin out front with his home run in the first inning scoring Kulawik. Key City tied the game in the sixth on a home run by Hamilton and run scoring single by John Menke. The big damage was done by Ray Gohde in the eighth when he hit is two run shot to put the game just out of reach despite a furious rally by Key City in the ninth that drew Phil Golberg in the from the Packer bullpen to put out the fire.[12]
Bell and the Key City Nine returned to winning ways with a 7 to 1 defeat of the cross town Blue Sox to reach nine wins on the season.[13] Key City then received a bye week where Northfield would have been on the schedule. Following the break, Key City traveled to last place Faribault with a new pitcher in hand in the form of Squire Riddle. It was almost unfair as Faribault managed no hits or runs against Riddle as he pitched the second no-hitter of the Southern Minny season.[14] Fred Ludke had thrown the first no-hitter in the League earlier that season.
Bell was back on the mound for the League finale against Le Roy. Normally a work horse, perhaps there was a bit of rust as Le Roy scored four runs and Riddle relieved late in the game. Even so, the Mankato Key City team was triumphant capping an amazing regular season that saw them lose only one game while winning the regular season pennant by three games in a twelve game season.[15]
Waseca won the replay of the 14 inning tie to set the final playoff brackets and standings as follows:
Mankato Key City 11 1 .917
Owatonna 8 4 .667
Austin 8 4 .667
Waseca 5 7 .417
Mankato Blue Sox 4 8 .333
Le Roy 4 8 .333
Faribault 2 10 .167
Momentum is a big part of sports and momentum seems to have played a large role in determining the playoff champion in the Southern Minny over the decades. Waseca played what amounted to a tie breaker for the fourth and final playoff spot was in better form for the single game elimination match than the Key City nine who had to wait for the fourth place finisher to be determined.
Things started well for Key City when they scored three runs in the second and one more in the fifth. Waseca scored one in the fourth, four in the seventh and one in the ninth to eliminate Key City from the playoffs despite a great regular season. Al Bell went the distance for Mankato.[16]
Not surprisingly, the Southern Minny would replace the one and done single game format for the opening round playoffs with a best two out of three series in the very near future. Even so, the Key City Beverage team was truly dominant in what turned out to be their only season in the Southern Minny as
Tanley would move his team to an independent schedule in 1939 and eventually join the Western Minny League.
The Key City Beverages played a number of games with Southern Minny teams in 1939 winning two games from Al Bell and the Waseca nine by one run reach time. A number of the Key City players would later migrate to Southern Minny teams including 1938 battery mates Bell and John Menke with Menke being named the MVP of the state tournament in 1940 while catching in Albert Lea.
The greatest legacy of Bill Tanley and the Key City Beverage team, however, may actually be Tanley Field in North Mankato. Tanley Field pre-dated most of the ballparks in the Southern Minny including Waseca’s Community Field that opened in 1939 and was dedicated in 1940 with many more parks added or upgraded after that. Tanley Field would also host Southern Minny League games for many years as the host field for various Mankato entries including the Mankato Merchants into the 1950s.
Tanley Field was torn down in 1958. Sadly few pictures of the park exist with the most common one to be found being the Field underwater from a flood in 1951. Monroe Elementary School sits on the site of Tanley Field today.
[1] “Rubbin’ Elbows with the Rube,” Austin Daily Herald, July 11, 1938, 6.
[2][2] “Key City, Mankato and Loop Champion Austin Team Wins,” Austin Daily Herald, May 2, 1938, 8.
[3] Ibid.
[4] “Key City Batsmen Pound Out 13-1 Decision Over Hapless Packers,” Austin Daily Herald, May 16, 1938, 6.
[5] “Key City, Waseca, Owatonna Take S-M League Contests,” Austin Daily Herald, May 23, 1938, 12.
[6] “Waseca, Owatonna Nines Play 4-4 Tie in 14 Innings,” Austin Daily Herald, June 6, 1938.
[7] “Key City Team Leads S-M Loop Pennant Scrap,” Austin Daily Herald, June 7, 1938.
[8] “Key City Holds League Lead With 1-0 Win Over LeRoy,” Austin Daily Herald, June 13, 1938, 6.
[9] “Key City Defeats Owatonna and LeRoy Beats Blue Sox,” Austin Daily Herald, June 20, 1938.
[10] “Key City Boosts Win String in 3-2 Decision Over Waseca,” Austin Daily Herald, June 20, 1938.
[11] “Key City Team Takes 3-1 Test from Owatonna,” Austin Daily Herald, July 5, 1938.
[12] “Home Runs Give Locals One-Run Edge in Contest,” Austin Daily Herald, July 11, 1938, 6.
[13] “Owatonna Club Takes 5-4 Win Against Le Roy,” Austin Daily Herald, July 18, 1938, 6.
[14] “No-Hit, No-Run Performance Turned in by Key City Star,” Austin Daily Herald, August 1, 1938, 6.
[15] “Owatonna Faces Waseca in Test for No. 4 Berth,” Austin Daily Herald, August 9, 1938, 8.
[16] “Waseca Blasts Key City Hopes in Playoff Test, “Austin Daily Herald, August 22, 1938, 6.
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