Another casualty of the recent Hall of Fame selection process was Curt Flood. Flood had previously been considered by the Veterans Committee in 2003, 2005, and 2007. An outstanding hitter and fielder during the 1950s and 60s, Curt Flood sacrificed much of his career by challenging Major League Baseball’s reserve clause.[1] This time around, Flood’s name wasn’t even placed before the Golden Day Era Committee for their consideration.
The reserve clause, inserted into every white professional player contract and many semi-professional contracts including those in the Southern Minny Baseball League, tied each player to their current team for the duration of the contract and beyond as the team retained the sole right to negotiate with the player.[2] The St. Louis Cardinals elected to trade Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1969 season. The Phillies offered Flood more money to play in Philadelphia, but for Flood it was about more than money. Refusing to accept the contract, Flood said that a well-paid slave was still a slave.
Instead of accepting the Phillies’ contract offer, Flood wrote to Baseball Commissioner Kuhn demanding that he be allowed to negotiate with any major league team. Kuhn denied his request resulting in litigation that eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. Ultimately, the Supreme Court avoided the issue, finding that Congress was in the best position to regulate baseball’s interstate commerce activities. In 1975, an arbitrator effectively ended the reserve clause after two players played an entire year without contracts, allowing those players to argue there was no contract for their clubs to renew.[3]
Flood’s challenge to the reserve clause was the second such case to work its way through the courts. With major league baseball united in favor of the reserve clause, Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League offered an alternative, although a potentially costly one, for the players that accepted Pasquel’s offers. New York Giant Danny Gardella was one of the first white major leaguers to travel to Mexico after being cut by the Giants in spring training.[4]
Gardella called back to his New York teammate Sal Maglie to see if Maglie would travel south as Maglie had already been contacted by Pasquel. Maglie wasn’t interested in playing in Mexico, but Roy Zimmerman and George Hausmann were. Zimmerman and Hausman made their call to Mexico from Maglie’s room. When word of the contact with Mexico got back to the Giants’ management, all three players were cut. All three wound up in Mexico and eventually barnstormed through Austin during the Austin Packers 1948 season.[5]
Other players soon followed them south including the St. Louis Cardinals’ Max Lanier. Lanier was off to a great start for the Cardinals with six wins with no losses while holding a 1.93 ERA. Lanier wanted a larger increase from his $10,500 salary than team owner Sam Breadon was willing to give Lanier while holding the apparent leverage of the reserve clause. Breadon offered Lanier a raise of only $500 while Pasquel offered Lanier a $25,000 signing bonus and $20,000 per year for five years to play in Mexico.[6] At thirty years old, the money was just too good to pass up even as Major League Baseball Commissioner announced that any player that “jumped” to Mexico would be banned for five years.
Those bans would last until June 5, 1949, when Commissioner “Happy” Chandler withdrew them while Danny Gardella’s litigation against major league baseball worked its way through the courts. Even so, Gardella’s suit against Major League Baseball remained in play. To prevent any adverse ruling and fearing the chaos of free agency if the reserve clause was ruled illegal, Gardella was offered a $60,000 settlement.[7]
While the ban was in place, baseball players did what baseball players do: play baseball. They just couldn’t play in the major leagues or against team controlled by major league teams. Designated as baseball outlaws, many of them barnstormed across the United States as the Max Lanier All-Stars in 1948. The All-Stars visited Austin’s Marcusen Park on July 8, 1948.
The All-Stars lineup included Stan Beard at short, George Hausmann at second, Lou Klein at short and Roy Zimmerman at first base. The All-Stars starting outfield included James Steiner, Danny Gardella, and Max Lanier. Sal Maglie started for the All-Stars with Austin’s Bob Albertson tasked with holding the major leaguers in check.[8]
Albertson generally pitched well, giving up eleven safeties while walking only one. The Packers’ defense committed three errors behind him.[9]
The All-Stars took an early lead in the first on Klein’s double and Zimmerman’s run scoring single. The All-Stars added another run in the second as Myron Heyworth scored on Stan Beard’s double after reaching on a walk. Austin’s three errors in the fourth and Beard’s single resulted in two more runs in the fourth.[10]
Sal Maglie, starting pitcher for the All-Stars, would ultimately win 119 games in the major leagues. The Packers managed to tag Maglie for nine singles with Bob Beckel, Red Lindgren, and Roy Heuer collecting two hits a-piece. Beckel scored the Packer’s only run after his single, Earl Mossor’s ground out, and Heuer’s run scoring single through the box that reached centerfield.[11]
Maglie struck out ten using his curveball effectively. The All-Stars won, 5-1. Gardella, the first player to challenge baseball’s reserve clause, went 1 for 4.[12]
Maglie returned to the Giants after Chandler withdrew the ban and became one of baseball’s dominant pitchers in the early 1950’s. He started the 1954 World Series Game in which Willie Mays made “the catch” in center. He also started and pitched a complete game in a loss to Don Larson when Larson threw the only perfect game in World Series history. It was Maglie’s second complete game of the Series.
Earl Mossor and Maglie would meet again. Maglie was the starting pitcher for the New York Giants when Earl Mossor made his major league debut as a relief pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951.
[2] John Virtue, South of the Color Barrier: How Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League Pushed Baseball Toward Integration (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008), 158.
My research in townball was triggered, in part, by Peter W. Gorton’s article “John Wesley Donaldson, A Great Mound Artist” in Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota[1]combined with the text on card #104 of the 1994 of The Ted Williams Card Co. The back of that card reads as follows: “In 1914 Donaldson no-hit Austin, Minnesota then returned in May of 1915 to hurl two no-hit games in the same month.”[2] My quest to identify those members of the Hall of Fame that had played in the Austin was officially “on.” Surprisingly, Donaldson actually lost the no-hit game at Austin, the game’s only run scoring after a walk, stolen base, and throwing error by the All Nations’ third baseman Crow who threw wildly to first. Donaldson struck out fifteen in the game.[3]
Donaldson’s amazing career started in 1908 and he would continue to play baseball until 1941. His career as a pitcher includes 413 verified wins, 5,091 strikeouts, 14 known no-hitters, and 2 perfect games.[4] When not on the mound, he played in centerfield and is also credited with mentoring Satchel Paige. Donaldson was passed over for the Hall of Fame in 2006 as much of his career pre-dates the formation of the Negro Leagues and he was compared with players whose prime years were in the Negro Leagues. Since that time, the Donaldson Network continued to document a seemingly ever-rising total of appearances, wins, and strikeouts. This year, he was on the final ballot for the Early Baseball Committee along with many other worthy candidates.
Last Sunday, John Donaldson somehow did not meet the high hurdle of selection not because he isn’t worthy of selection but because the Hall of Fame established an unduly restrictive system for the election of candidates. The Early Baseball ballot included ten players all of whom were deemed Hall-worthy by a screening committee. There were sixteen members appointed to the Early Baseball Committee that afforded a broad cross-section of interests and experiences, including former players and baseball historians. The process, however, was seriously flawed as each committee member was given only four votes to use and a candidate had to receive affirmative votes from at least twelve of the committee members to gain admittance. As such, the committee could elect, at most, five of the candidates otherwise deemed worthy of consideration by the selection committee and then only if there was clear consensus from the Early Baseball Committee that only those four or five candidates were the ones worthy of admittance. What transpired in the committee voting remains unclear as the Early Baseball committee was only able to elect two new members to the Hall of Fame: John “Buck” O’Neil and “Bud” Fowler.
Donaldson received the fourth highest vote total, receiving affirmative votes from eight of the committee members. The vote totals, however, suggest that there was some horse trading involved as Committees wrangled with ballots filled with worthy candidates and a very limited opportunity to admit enough of them. The end result likely being that worthy candidates were not considered on their own merit and, instead, considered against the rest of the pool of candidates. As such, the process seems flawed especially when the Golden Days Era Committee was pointed to as a “court of appeals” for those passed over the Baseball Writers Association of America. In the cases of players like Donaldson, Vic Harris, and Cannonball Redding, none of them ever received their first day in court as the BBWAA could not consider them as they were not allowed to play in the American or National League because of their skin color.
I suppose we should be grateful that Buck O’Neil finally received his due. After all, it is shocking that it took until 2021 for him to be elected to the Hall of Fame. I consider the failure to admit him in 2006 when Negro League players, managers and owners were last considered for admission as one of baseball’s many travesties particularly as Buck passed away so shortly after the subsequent inductions. He may not have been the best player or manager to ever be involved in the game, but he was a tireless promoter of baseball including black baseball. Without Buck, Ken Burn’s Baseball would be far less interesting, and we would know far less about the Negro Leagues. One of my fondest memories as a baseball fan is seeing Buck work the crowd at Miller Park following his induction into Milwaukee’s Wall of Fame many years ago. Other honorees might disappear to their box seats but not Buck.
Playing for and managing the Kansas City Monarchs, Buck crossed Iowa many times. He also crossed Iowa and into Minnesota before he signed with the Monarchs. In 1936, he played with a team nominally called the Shreveport Acme Giants. I say nominally as they played part of their season as the Dunseith Giants in North Dakota and many of the players including Buck eventually joined with the Texas Black Spiders for a later season tour of Texas and Mexico. Before heading south to Texas and beyond, Buck’s Acme Giants and the Black Spiders played across Iowa facing local competition and each other numerous times.[5]
Hoping to make the Monarchs team in 1937, he settled for the Memphis Red Sox and ultimately settled in with the Zulu Cannibal Giants. The Giants played to racial stereotypes “appearing in full festive regalia consisting of grass skirts, ornamental headgear, painted faces, and in some instances, even bare feet.”[6] The players adopted African sounding names such as King Chebami, Wahoo, Nyassass. O’Neil’s assumed name when played with the Cannibal Giants was Limpopo. Despite the carnival-like costumes, the Giants players and teams were solid, advertising 104 games won out of 129 games played during the 1936 season.[7]
O’Neil traveled to Austin with the Cannibal Giants in 1937, but the weatherman did not help the situation at Marcusen’s Park. Excessive rain provided a muddy field for the teams. Hitting lead off for the Giants was “Limpopo,” playing first base. Buck, playing as Limpopo, fielded his position flawlessly despite a muddy field.
Buck would join the Kansas City Monarchs in 1938 and be forever tied to Kansas City and the Monarchs. It is certainly possible that Buck and the Monarchs may have come to Austin as well as they continued to play until 1965 and I’ve only worked Austin’s microfilm through 1957. It is also entirely possible, and, quite frankly, likely that between the Shreveport Acme Giants in 1936, Zulu Cannibal Giants in 1937, or Monarchs thereafter, that Buck played elsewhere in Southern Minnesota during what is now a Hall of Fame career.
With his election, Buck O’Neil can be added to the list of Hall of Fame players that played in Austin at some time during their career, joining Burleigh Grimes, Jose Mendez, and Satchel Paige as players and potentially J.L. Wilkinson as a team owner / manager. As to when John Donaldson might join Buck and his teammate Mendez on that illustrious list, under current Hall rules the Early Baseball Committee does not meet again until 2030. Let’s hope that the Baseball Hall of Fame realizes that four ballots per member is far too few when considering the quality of the candidates already deemed Hall-worthy and accelerates further consideration of those players not eligible for consideration by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
[1] Peter W. Gorton, “John Wesley Donaldson, a Great Mound Artist,” in Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota, edited by Steven R. Hoffbeck, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005,
[2] “John Donaldson,” Card 104, The Ted Williams Card Co., 1994.
[3] “Two Great Games,” Austin Daily Herald, September 17, 1914, 4.
[5] Paul R. Spyhalski, “How Buck Became a Texas Black Spider: John “Buck” O’Neil’s 1936 Baseball Season,” Black Ball: A Negro League Journal 8 (Dec. 2015): 82-95.
[6] “Cannibal Team to be Here for Baseball Stew,” Austin Daily Herald, June 23, 1937.
[7] “Zulu Cannibals Will Meet Austin Packers Here Friday,” Austin Daily Herald, June 24, 1937, 10.
Austin’s town ball teams have at times been truly dominant. The 1912 edition that featured future Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes claimed a state championship prior to the state tournament even being created. When Burleigh returned to Austin with his Brooklyn teammates in 1921 the Austin team was playing at what was called the Hormel Ball Park near what later became the Terp Ballroom.
Austin featured a Southern Minny League team and a “Hormel Good Foods” team playing an independent schedule during the 1930’s. Those games were generally played at what is referred to as the “Marcusen lot.” When the Austin Baseball Association made the commitment to field one primary team in the Southern Minny, the team responded by winning the State Class A Championship behind the stellar pitching of Phil Golberg and hitting and fielding of tournament MVP Johnny Hulet.
Austin won the Southern Minny playoffs in 1939 playing its last games at the “Marcusen lot.” Despite the general airing of grievances about the conditions at the Marcusen lot, the next available option and the option used until Marcusen Memorial Field was built was the use of the Mower County fairgrounds. At least one drawing shows the baseball diamond in the infield area of the old track. The use of the fairgrounds effectively made the teams homeless as they physically could not play during the fair and usually didn’t play at home after the fair as the “field” was trampled and rutted.
Austin claimed an additional state championship in 1942 when Phil Golberg returned from playing in New Richland and shared pitching duties with Fred Ludke. Even though games continued to be played in the Southern Minny during the war, those games were played under travel restrictions with far fewer players let alone the best players available to play the games as many stars of the League entered military service. Austin’s baseball teams still lacked a permanent home.
With the end of the war, thoughts turned to recreational opportunities for the returning soldiers. With more players available, the Austin Baseball Association decided to field a team in the Southern Minny League and a team in the Cedar Valley League in 1946. Emil Scheid was given charge of the newly (re) formed Austin Merchants in the Cedar Valley League.
Emil had been involved in town ball in Waseca prior to moving to Austin. He knew how to build a team and his Austin Merchants were dominant in 1946. They won the Cedar Valley League and advanced to the Class A state tournament. But for an ankle injury to Bud Stanek, they might have claimed the championship before settling for runners-up status.
Emil was given charge of the Southern Minny entry in 1947 and set the stage for his later teams bringing in Earl Mosser and Ray Riley from out of town replacing Austin hometown players in the process. The transition to out of town players didn’t always sit well with the locals especially when Ray Riley replaced Bernard Stanek in center field. Even though Emil’s Packers didn’t always hit to the standards expected by the Austin fans the team record improved from a 6 and 8 in 1946 to 9 and 5 in 1947.
The problem was that the Austin teams were still largely homeless and it took revenue to pay top talent to play baseball. When paying players to play, it also made sense to play more games than just on Sunday. The problem being that of all of the teams in the league, Austin was the town without a ballpark and with no ballpark there were no lights. With no lights, there was no night baseball and with no night baseball. With no night baseball, playing opportunities on weekdays were also limited.
That stadium situation was finally rectified on June 8, 1948 when Scheid’s Austin Packers welcomed Sam House’s Spencer (IA) Cardinals to Marcusen Memorial Park. Lights were installed and tested on June 7th. With no time to build stands, bleacher seats accommodating up to 1,000 fans were installed.[1] 1,084 fans attended the game and hopefully were on hand to see Red Lindgren hit the first home run in the new park in the eighth inning.[2]
Even though the park was open for business, there was the matter of a formal dedication. The Local 9-CIO sponsored the ticket sales for the dedication game with the proceeds to be given to the city to help pay for the lighting system.[3] The game was initially scheduled as an exhibition game against Faribault to be held during the evening of June 27th.[4] The game was washed away by the weatherman.
The dedication was finally rescheduled to July 25th after another attempt was washed away. The event featured the municipal band and remarks by Mayor Merril Rolfson and Frank Schultz as union chief. The dedication included not only the field but the scoreboard and flag. The flag was donated by the American Legion and the scoreboard was provided by funds from the Earl Peterson estate.[5] Red Lindgren homered twice and Dick Seltz held Faribault in check as the Packers beat Faribault 9-3.[6]
Even though the park was open for business, the matter of fan accommodations remained an issue. This photo from the Mower County Historical Society files shows the park as built but without the grandstand or, quite frankly, much in the way of fan seating:
Marcusen Park under Construction (Courtesy Mower County Historical Society)
The lack of fan accommodations had no impact on on- the-field performance. Scheid’s Austin Packers fell one out short of claiming the Southern Minny postseason title in 1948. His 1949 Packers utterly destroyed the Southern Minny losing only 7 of 35 games played and swept through the rest of the field at the state tournament to claim the state class AA championship.
Marcusen Memoral Park would finally have a grandstand during the 1950 season. Construction of the grandstand was scheduled to be completed in time for the season opener but as with many things baseball related, the weatherman intervened.[7] The season opened on May 21st without the grandstand being available even though its construction greatly impacted parking. The Packers won 4-3 in extra innings with 1,505 fans in attendance.[8]
The Packers then went on the road for an extended period of time. By the time the Packers returned home to face Faribault, sections A,B and C and part of section D were available to the public.[9] Extra seating was needed because the Austin Queens team hired Negro League great and former Cleveland Indian Satchel Paige to pitch an exhibition game for them against Scheid’s Austin Packers on June 7th.[10]
Work continued on the grandstand and all seats became available to the public for the Packers June 25th game against Owatonna.[11] With the grandstand finished, the matter of dedicating it was scheduled for August 1st[12]along with an announcement that an additional 1000 bleacher seats were being added down the first and third base lines to raise the Park’s capacity to 5,000. A previous crowd of 4,423 greatly exceeded the capacity of the new grandstand.[13]
The full page advertisement in the Austin Daily Herald announced the dedication of Marcusen Memorial Field.
Part of the dedication advertisement read:
Filling a long felt need Marcusen Memoral Field brings to Austin and Southern Minnesota a baseball field unsurpassed by any of its contemporaries. Seating capacity exceeds 4700. Accommodations for home and visiting teams. Concession stand and rest rooms for the public provide for every need.[14]
The one thing needed was a roof over the field as rain delayed the dedication until August 3rd. Claude Moore, chairman of the park and recreation board served as master of ceremonies and introduced the speakers that included M.G. Rolfson, mayor, Waldo Swanson, president of the Southern Minny, and John Mayer, president of the Austin Baseball association. 4,057 fans turned out to see the Packers do their part on the field by defeating Waseca 8-7 with some late hitting heroics by Harry Elliot.[15]
Scheid’s Packer teams continued to dominate the Southern Minny in 1950, 1951 and 1953 advancing to the state Class AA finals in each of those years. With that success came crowds to Marcusen Memorial Park as this photo from the archives of the Mower County Historical Society amply illustrates:
(Courtesy of Mower County Historical Society)
Somewhat ironically, between 1949 and 1953 the Austin Packers made the finals of the State Class AA tournament every year except one: 1952. That was the year that Austin and Marcusen Memorial Field actually hosted the state tournament. It was also the only year during that time frame that Scheid’s Packers failed to even reach the tournament.
The House that Scheid Built was the scene of countless battles in the Southern Minny until the League’s demise in the 1960’s. Marcusen Park was, however, much more than just the home of the Austin Packers. Marcusen Park was and is the hub of baseball in Austin hosting a countless number of high school, American Legion, VFW games since its construction and continues today thanks almost entirely to the volunteers of the Marcusen Park Baseball Association that maintain the Park.
Thanks to those volunteers, Marcusen Memorial Park remains as a monument to a time before baseball on television and the internet. Even now, Austin’s Greyhounds remain atop of the Twin Rivers Conference after a hard fought victory over the Waseca Braves reminiscent of games between the Austin Packers and Braves in the old Southern Minny.
Marcusen will host more baseball this season as the Greyhounds host the Dodge County Diamondjacks on July 24th at 7:30. That final game of the Conference regular season may well be a battle for the top seed in the conference playoffs. Let’s hope Marcusen Park will be hosting playoff baseball once again.
[1] “Packers Open New Ball Park Against Spencer,” Austin (MN) Daily Herald, June 8, 1948.
[2] “Packers Gain 9-5 Decision Over Spencer,” Austin (MN) Daily Herald, June 9, 1948.
[3] Tom Koeck, “Success of Baseball Park Dedication Must be Credited to Local 9-CIO,” Austin (MN) Daily Herald, June 16, 1948.
[4] “Marcusen Park Dedication Sunday,” Austin (MN) Daily Herald, June 26, 1950.
I usually present on baseball in Southern Minnesota at least every other year as part of the History Happy Hour at the Hormel Historic Home in Austin. With this year’s theme being the 100 year anniversary of women receiving the right to vote, Holly at the Hormel Historic Home decided to toss me a curve ball asking about Women in Baseball.
Interestingly, various bloomer teams were quite active in the area in the mid to late 1890’s and early in the next century. Two of the more interesting history nuggets from a regional perspective were the hiring of Patsy Lee by the Mason City Coca Cola Cubs as a pitcher in 1934 and the inclusion of Tillie Ford (sometimes listed as “Tilliford” in box scores) on the pitching roster for the barnstorming Texas Black Spiders when they toured the Midwest in 1935.
My presentation would have taken place on May 11th but with Minnesota under a stay at home order, we modified it to be a virtual presentation with video introduction and downloadable documents. The text of my presentation is included below in this blog post. The presentation slides that were / are meant to supplement the written presentation can be downloaded from the Hormel Historic Home https://www.hormelhistorichome.org/ by clicking on presentation “slides” or I can provide a copy to you if requested.
I would be remiss in pointing out that if the topic of Women in Baseball continues to be an interest for you after reading further, the Society for American Baseball Research Women in Baseball Committee will be holding a Women in Baseball Conference in Rockford, Illinois later this year. https://sabr.org/latest/call-papers-2020-sabriwbc-women-baseball-conference
Women in Baseball
For most of us, the movie “A League of Their Own” is our introduction and pretty much our entire understanding of Women in Baseball. As we would expect from a movie featuring Tom Hanks, there are many classic lines and scenes in the movie. One of those classic moments is Jimmy Dugan’s tantrum about crying in baseball.
The movie is a fictionalized story based on the actual All American Girls Baseball League formed by Phillip Wrigley in 1943. The League actually lasted until 1955. Even though the movie tryout scene shows instructors teaching young women to throw overhand, women and girls had been playing baseball or versions of it since the game was created.
One of the earliest examples of women playing in organized baseball is a photo from Thief River Falls, Minnesota in 1893. The caption with the photo indicates the women were playing in something called the Northern League and were apparently fairly successful. Unfortunately there is no microfilm of newspapers from Thief River Falls from early 1893 to learn more about this interesting photo.
Leaping further back in time, historians have documented women playing baseball at Vassar College as far back as 1865. In fact, baseball in its earliest form was a game played literally by everyone. Students of both genders played on school grounds.
The questions then become how and when did baseball become primarily a “gentlemen’s game.” The transformation really begins with early efforts to transform baseball in to “the national game.” Between 1830 and 1860, young men in the East began organizing formal sporting clubs mirroring the structure of their workplaces with bylaws, rules and codes. As these clubs continued to organize they started to compete against each other. In order to compete against each other common rules needed to be established.
The New York Knickerbockers club called for a meeting of local clubs in 1857 to create a structure for clubs. This gathering resulted in the formation of the National Association of Base Ball Players with sixteen clubs. The NABBP grew to include one hundred member clubs by 1865 and the NABBP used that leverage and structure to formulate rule changes to differentiate the NABBP game from playground pursuits. Unfortunately the NABBP’s leverage gave it the opportunity to define who could even play in an NABBP sanctioned game ultimately allowing color and gender barriers to be raised.
At the same time, the early game of baseball was in active competition with other sports and recreation activities such as cricket, yachting and horseracing for interest and participation. In order to meet that challenge, baseball organizers had to change the perception of the game from being a childish game involving a bat and ball to an adult pursuit and more specifically a manly pursuit. Interestingly, the other challenge was the fact that baseball was regarded as anything but a gentlemen’s game with brawling, gambling and cussing a common feature of the early game. As such, the presence of women watching the game was viewed as a way of grounding of the game away from the moral excess.
As baseball continued to evolve to include professional players, baseball as an institution needed to continue to be differentiated from a game and skill level that anyone could play. As baseball continued to evolve, control of the professional game developed into ownership circles with the formation of the National League in 1876. Upon becoming professional, competition for fan dollars became even more intense as the players now expected to be paid and team owners wanted to make their own profit as well.
With that competition for fan dollars, it became necessary to establish that it was a man’s game and that the women’s game was inferior if not a denigration of women’s beauty and purity. John Montgomery Ward was one of those early players. He, among many others, re-told the history of the game but highlighted details to make it seem more gentlemanly, professional and a completely American invention. Ignoring the fact that women actually played the game extensively, he stated:
“Base-ball in its mildest form is essentially a robust game, and it would require an elastic imagination to conceive of little girls possessed of physical powers such as its play demands.”[1]
Even as the history of baseball was being re-written to eliminate women from it, there were ongoing efforts to keep women from playing the game. Debra Shattuck’s book Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers not only describes some of the early pioneers but also discusses a number of the themes or arguments that the baseball “institution” and press used to “discourage” women from even playing the game while at the same time emphasizing that the game was uniquely a man’s game:
Allowing Women in Baseball was equal to giving them equal rights.
Men needed to maintain special social spaces for themselves (Hold the Line, Gents)
Athletic displays diminished the moral purity and the feminine modesty of women (Stay on the Pedestal Ladies)
Women were unable to grasp the concepts of the game and /or were unable to physically compete in the game (Say it Ain’t So)
If they could compete, they must be a freak of nature (It’s not me, its you)
Arguments about whether athleticism was compatible with being feminine:
Women were not intended to be ball players. Physical activity was dangerous to women’s reproductive health.
A woman had to choose between being athletic and being feminine or beautiful[2]
As the theme of the year’s History Hour Programs have been Women’s Suffrage, the first justification for preventing women from participating in baseball as anything other than a spectator obviously ties in to the overall theme of the year. A number of the other themes are very similar if not identical to the reasons for not extending the right to vote to women identified by Jamie Timm in her excellent presentation on Women’s Suffrage that started the History Happy Hour season for the calendar year.
In 1895, a number of Bloomer Girl teams were circulating the country. The Bloomer reference was a reference to the loose fitting trousers in the fashion of suffragist Amelia Jenks Bloomer often worn by the players and itself a slight towards any female who would appear in public “immodestly.”
The Boston Bloomer Girl team visited Algona, Iowa in 1895. Two of the newspaper articles are included below:
These two articles illustrate a number of author Shattuck’s themes: a reference to a desperate effort to attempt to play the game, the impact of playing the game on their beauty, and denigration of the most talented as not meeting the feminine ideal.
Women’s teams generally continuing to be referred to with variations on Bloomer Girls names continued to travel the country. The power point presentation slides include two articles from the Lyle Tribune promoting a visit from the Boston Bloomer Girls in 1905. This team was likely being promoted by J.L. Wilkinson, later owner of the all-male All-Nations team and the Kansas City Monarchs. As you can see, they were travelling fairly well in their own train car and carrying everyone thing they needed to create a baseball park that would exclude the non-paying public.
Even so, some were still not impressed with their willingness to dress immodestly or compete on the field.
A few early women baseball pioneers:
Elizabeth Stride grew up in the coal mining hills of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. William Conner paid her $100 a week to pitch for professional teams. On July 2, 1898, the then 21 year old Elizabeth using the name Lizzie Arlington appeared in her first professional game pitching four innings for the Philadelphia Reserves. Three days later she entered a regular minor league game for Reading in the ninth inning. Even though she was successful in getting out of the inning, her appearance failed to increase attendance enough to justify the salary. She later signed up for a bloomer team.
Alta Weiss – was born in 1890 in Ohio. She was a natural born pitcher. Her family was vacationing in Vermillion when she played a game of catch. After seeing her ability to throw the ball the mayor of Vermillion suggested she be signed by the Vermillion Independents. She was 17 at the time. The manager of the Independents wanted nothing to do with a woman playing baseball. Alta struck out fifteen men in an exhibition game and set the crowd abuzz. The manager soon changed his mind and signed her.
She wore a blue skirt in her first semipro game. She pitched five innings giving up four hits and one run. She played first base for the rest of the game. She pitched seven more games for the Independents drawing more than thirteen thousand people with many of them brought in by special trains.
She later pitched with a semi-pro team called the Weiss All-Stars. Her high school’s commencement date was actually adjusted so as not to conflict with one of her pitching engagements. She eventually entered medical school.
Maud Nelson – Some women ball players exist as flashes of history. Maud Nelson was anything but a flash in the pan. Born in 1881, she played on early bloomer girl teams serving as pitcher or at third base. She drew rave reviews for her pitching in 1900. She was still making guest appearances with her Boston Bloomer Girls teams at age 41 in 1922. She and her husband John B. Olson became owner of the Western Bloomer Girls. She was also connected to many other bloomer teams.
The Western Bloomer Girls featuring Maud Nelson came to Minneapolis in 1916. The power point slides include an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune promoting a Bloomer Girls game to be played at Nicollet Park in Minneapolis. A couple of things to point out: Clearly there is the novelty of not only a female pitcher but a female of Native American descent no matter how crudely referred to in the article. The reference to all “fair tossers” referencing the gender as not only the fair sex but also indicating that the entire team was made up of women. A number of Bloomer teams would also use men as either a pitcher or catcher or both. Some of the more famous men to play on Bloomer teams include Smokey Joe Wood and Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby.
In 1916, there were other Bloomer Girl teams. The U.S. Bloomer Girls made a tour of southern Minnesota. A game at Austin was planned with advertising in the Austin Daily Herald. (See the “U.S. Bloomer Girls” slide for a copy of the advertisement) Unfortunately that game was rained out. That same Bloomer Girls team managed to play games at Owatonna, Preston and other towns, however.
Bloomer Girls teams continued to tour the country into at least the 1930’s. Much like the black baseball teams, they were separated from “organized” baseball. That is until a minor blip in 1931. That blip was Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell. Jackie Mitchell was signed to a minor league baseball contract with the Chattanooga Lookouts by Joe Engel during March of 1931. Joe Engel was himself quite a promoter and an exhibition game against the New York Yankees was the perfect opportunity to exploit his new signee.
Jackie entered the game on April 2nd to face Babe Ruth. After a called ball on her first pitch, the Babe swung at two pitches and the fourth was called for a strike. The reward for her efforts in striking out the Great Bambino was getting to pitch against Lou Gehrig. Gehrig swung at three pitches and went back to the dugout bringing up Tony Lazzeri who drew a walk. Not many major league pitchers could lay claim to retiring Ruth and Gehrig in the same inning let alone striking them out creating the debate of whether it was reality or a promotion that continues to this day.
Jackie never got a second chance in organized baseball. Baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis stepped in and voided her contract saying baseball was “too strenuous” for a woman. Landis, of course, was notorious for maintaining the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” that precluded blacks from playing in organized baseball. With the banning of Jackie Mitchell from organized baseball, the “Gentlemen’s agreement” now clearly allowed only men regardless of actual gentlemanly disposition who could not be considered colored.[3]
In many ways, however, Jackie’s feat, real or not, reignited interest in women playing baseball. Another standard bearer for women in baseball was Babe Didrickson. Born in Beaumont, Texas, Babe as she became known mastered most any sport she attempted. She entered the American Athletic Union track and field competition winning five events, tying one and finishing fourth. She won two gold medals and a silver medal at the Olympics.
With few paying athletic opportunities available to women, she turned to playing on a men’s basketball team run by the House of David promoter Ray Doan. After the basketball season she agreed to a monthly contract to appear on one of the House of David baseball teams. She also pitched in exhibition games during spring training although not faring very well against major league hitting. As a barnstormer she generally pitched a few innings each game but she was likely a better hitter and was capable of playing in the field due to being such a great athlete. After “retiring” from baseball, she would dominate women’s golf until her death in 1956. I have never found a reference to her House of David team playing in Austin but did come across a reference to her playing golf in Albert Lea once.
Apparently the idea was good enough to be copied by others. Mason City’s Coca-Cola Cub club hired “Patsy Lee” to pitch for them in 1934. She came by way of the Hollywood All-Stars and would generally pitch one inning for Mason City. The power point slides include some of the advertising for a game played at Algona. The first game was rained out. On July 1, 1934, Patsy Lee and the Mason City team came to the Marcusen lot. Patsy pitched the first inning giving a no-run performance although the Austin Daily Herald felt the Austin players did her a favor by smacking into sure outs.
A year later, the barnstorming Texas Black Spiders had a female pitcher advertised as Baby Tilliford. She was sometimes referred to as Tillie Ford as well. I’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out her origins and even found an article on a Faith Hassel Butcher in which she talks about pitching a couple of innings for the Black Spiders. Unfortunately her age doesn’t line up with appearing with the Spiders in 1935. Ms. “Ford” actually toured fairly extensively with the Spiders in 1935 including one appearance in Austin at the Marcusen lot where she pitching the first inning. She continued with the team all the way to their return to Mineola, Texas at the end of the season.
The article I found on Faith Butcher implies that the Black Spiders may have used a female pitcher on other occasions. I’ve found no evidence, however, that the Spiders used a female pitcher ever again in Austin.
As we move forward in time, we return to the All American Girls Baseball League. If your only exposure to women’s baseball is the movie “A League of their Own,” you see the men returning from the war and a desire to close out the league. The League actually lasted until 1954 with the Rockford Peaches being one of the more successful franchises. The Minneapolis Millerettes would become Minnesota’s only franchise in the AAGBL in 1944. The Millerettes were tied to the Minneapolis Millers and Nicollet Park with the Millers. The Millerettes could only play their home games when the Millers were on the road.
Despite a relatively strong start to the season, the Millerettes fell into last place by July 5th. With attendance in Minneapolis down and the cost of a trip to Minneapolis being one of the longest and, therefore, most expensive trips for the other teams in the League, the League opted to schedule the remainder of Millerettes’ games on the road. Not surprisingly, the Millerettes disappeared from the League at the end of the season.
It would take only a few more years for Minnesota to have an even greater mark for Women in Baseball, however. Marcenia “Toni” Stone was born in West Virginia but attended Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. At age 16, she was touring with the Twin Cities Colored Giants, a black barnstorming baseball team. She was sometimes being referred to as “Tom Boy” Stone.
She signed with the New Orleans Creoles in 1949 and toured with them into the Midwest. The Creoles visited Winona in July with Toni Stone playing one inning at second base. A portion of the pre-game promotion article and a photo of Toni Stone from the Winona newspapers is included in the power point slides.
In 1953, Toni Stone signed with the Indianapolis Clowns becoming the first woman to play in the “formal” Negro Leagues. Playing second base, she replaced a player you may have heard of: Home Run King Hank Aaron who had been signed by the Milwaukee Braves. Following her into the Negro Leagues were Mamie Peanut Johnson who was the first female pitcher to pitch in a Negro League game and Connie Morgan who would play second base when Toni moved on to the Kansas City Monarchs.
Dunning Field in St. Paul was renamed Toni Stone Field in Toni’s honor by the City of St. Paul. The Field is just south of I94 and west of Lexington near the campus of St. Paul Central High School.
Minnesota would again be part of history when the St. Paul Saints signed Ila Borders to a professional contract in 1997. She would actually make her professional debut in Sioux Falls with a packed stadium and ESPN on scene. Perhaps there was too much pressure as she hit a batter, balked and retired without retiring a batter. Eventually she would be traded to the Duluth Dukes where she would be bounced between the bullpen and starting rotation as managers struggled to find the best way to utilize her pitching abilities.
On July 24, 1998, she became the first female pitcher to record a win in pro men’s baseball in a 3–1 home victory against the Sioux Falls Canaries. A baseball from the game and the line-up cards were donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York by home plate umpire Steve Wammer.
So as we get to the end of my presentation, we may wonder why more women haven’t played in baseball. The modern reality is that early on boys are told to play baseball and girls are told to play softball. In the entire history of the Little League World Series, only 19 girls have ever played in the Little League World Series. Two of those 19 have been from Minnesota including Maddy Freking who played second base for Coon Rapids team this past summer.
Interestingly, Mo’Ne Davis who drew so much attention as pitcher in the Little League World Series in 2014 is playing softball in college. With such an acclaimed female athlete being shunted into softball it seems unlikely that women will ever be able to make the jump into affiliated baseball.
The current emphasis by major league baseball on home run hitting with launch angle essentially eliminates much of the fundamentals of bunting, situational hitting or base running on which a player like Toni Stone might have been able to excel. To counter the ability to launch home runs major league teams and pitchers have turned to faster fastballs higher in the strike zone which is exactly the opposite of how Ila Borders was able to pitch down in the strike zone with location rather than speed.
In addition, the simple lack of ability to play against male competition in baseball makes the likelihood that a female could make the jump to affiliated baseball much more unlikely. When black ballplayers like Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays were finally able to join the major leagues starting in 1947 they were able to perform at such high levels in affiliated baseball precisely because they had been playing under organized rules, on organized professional teams just as long if not longer than some of the white players. Unfortunately women still do not have that opportunity making it that much more unlikely that we will see a female Jackie Robinson any time soon.
[1] Debra A. Shattuck, Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers (Chicago: Univ. of Ill. Press 2017), 99 (quoting John M. Ward, Base-Ball: How to Become a Player; With the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game (Philadelphia 1888).
[3] There were instances where certain male players could pass or attempted to pass as Indian instead of black. These included Jimmy Claxton who at one time pitched for Good Thunder and in later years for the Mason City Black Bats. Jimmy, who was black, signed with the Oakland Oaks claiming to be from a reservation in North Dakota and pitched in one game before being outed as black. Charlie Grant was also signed as “Tokohama” to play with the New York Giants before being discovered as black when the team travelled to Chicago. Interestingly, Cuban born players could play in the major leagues depending on their skin color – Dolf Luque could, but Jose “Black Diamond” Mendez could not.
Moose Skowron may well have the most name recognition of any of the Southern Minny alumni. Interestingly, Moose actually only played part of the 1950 season with the Austin Packers playing his first game for Emil Scheid in June and ultimately appearing in 23 (of 35) regular season games. Moose’s future Yankee’s teammate Johnny (Doc) Blanchard played in far fewer games for the Faribault Lakers in the Southern Minny in 1951 before signing with the Yankees.
New York Yankees 1961 Home Run Heroes:
Roger Maris (61), Yogi Berra (21), Mickey Mantle (54), Elston Howard (21), Bill Skowron (28), Johnny Blanchard (21)
There are likely two reasons why Blanchard signed with the Faribault in 1951. The team was managed by Shanty Dolan and Blanchard shared the left side of the Carroll Merchants’ infield with Shanty’s son Bobby Dolan in the Iowa State League the previous summer. Second, Faribault was much closer to his home in Minneapolis than Carroll, Iowa.
Shanty was also likely looking for extra power in his Faribault lineup after outfielder John Ewaniak was hit by an errant fast ball from Austin’s Carl DeRose and lost for the season in the season’s first game. Interestingly, DeRose and Ewaniak also both played in the Iowa State League in 1950. Ewaniak was the leading batter in the Iowa State League in 1950 winning the ISL batting title with a lusty .413 average and tying for the League lead in home runs with 14. DeRose spent the summer with the Spencer Cardinals and won the final game of the championship series for Spencer after spending the early part of the season building up arm strength.
In actuality, Blanchard actually only played in a few games in the Southern Minny for the Lakers in 1951 hitting .333 in just 12 at bats with a single home run. The pro scouts were already on to him based on his performances for Minneapolis Central High School and with the Carroll Merchants in 1950. Ultimately the Yankees won him over.
Blanchard made his debut for the Carroll Merchants on June 29, 1950. Joe McDermott, New York Yankees scout, was in attendance at the game.[1] Blanchard played third base and had one infield hit.[2] The 17 year old from Minneapolis Central High School was just warming up.
Blanchard was 2 for 4 with a triple against Audubon in the next game. “Doc” Blanchard was hitting eighth in the Merchants line up. Bobby Dolan was 2 for 5 while hitting third in the Merchants lineup.[3]
Blanchard continued to move up the line-up card going 3 for 5 against Storm Lake with 2 runs batted in. Doc was now hitting seventh in the Merchants’ lineup.[4]
Blanchard had one of Carroll’s five total hits against former St. Louis professional Bob Eisiminger. He was four for six in an exhibition game against Coon Rapids.[5]
The Daily Times recognized his batting prowess on July 6 referring to him as the “Youthful John Blanchard, the Twin Cities third sacker with the dynamite in his bat.”[6] Blanchard, now hitting third, went two for four with four runs batted in on two home runs. [7]
Facing Carl DeRose and the Spencer Cardinals, Blanchard batted in three runs. Blanchard was hitting .462 at the time.[8] He followed up with a 3 for 5 night with two runs batted in against Bancroft.[9]
Of his start in the Iowa State League, the Carroll Daily Times noted on July 11 that “John Blanchard leads the Carroll batters, compiling a .444 average for eight contests … and that’s not bad for a 17-year old high school youth who will be a senior at Minneapolis Central high school next year.”[10] Even though the Merchants were in the midst of a losing streak, the Daily Times of July 13 noted Blanchard to be one of the bright spots as he had “not been checked in nine games for the Merchants.”[11]
Unfortunately the Daily Times article had the same effect as talking about a no-hitter as Blanchard had his first 0-fer that evening. He was robbed of a hit on a vicious drive to center and a hard hit ball to right tailed foul before he took first base on a walk.[12] His batting average would continue to level off at .329 throughout the month of July. Even so, he would trail only player-manager Tom Sheehan for the team lead.[13]
There were still bright spots with him going 3 for 5 against Schaller with a single, triple and a home run.[14] He collected four hits against Schaller with three of them being doubles. He also knocked in three of Carroll’s ten runs.[15]
In August, he moved further down in the line-up to hit behind Sheehan and also out to left field on occasion. He responded well in his first game in left hitting a home run (his fourth) and a double.[16] Back at third base but still hitting behind Sheehan he blasted a three run homer to right-center and a double to single-handedly outscore the Lakes team.[17] He was four for five including two doubles against Estherville on August 14. He knocked in four of the Merchants runs.[18]
He cleared the bases with a triple against Mason City and started a big inning against those Legionnaires with a double in the eighth.[19] He hit his sixth home run of the season against Storm Lake on August 23.[20] With the top spot in the League standings on the line, Blanchard “had a field night collecting four hits in four trips to the plate.”[21]
Winning the regular season title was certainly a team effort but the 17 year old Blanchard certainly had an impact. He hit .345 in 171 trips to the plate. His production included seven home runs and 46 runs batted in which tied him for second best on the team. He led the team in doubles with 14 and had more extra base hits than anyone else on the squad.[22]
The big three of Bill Evans, Dick Giedlin and Tom Sheehan were held in check in the first round of the League playoffs by Mason City. Blanchard, however, was one of Carroll’s top hitters in the series posting a .417 average on five hits in twelve trips. The Merchants finished off the Legionnaires for the right to face the Spencer Cardinals in the finals.[23]
Before even facing a pitch from the Cardinals, Lou Schweers was lost for playoffs after crushing two fingers on his pitching hand. The popular Dick Giedlin also left the team for a tryout with the Tigers before returning to Notre Dame for school. With all the changes to the roster, Blanchard was expected to play somewhere in the outfield.[24]
Spencer’s roster was also in triage mode with injuries to several key players. Spencer was fortified by Faribault’s Augie Schlaffer among others for the final month of the season and playoffs.
The walking wounded of Carroll did manage to take Game 4 of the series. Tom Sheehan sat out his second game of the series and shortstop Bobby Dolan left Game 2 in the fourth with a sore arm.[25] Spencer’s Carl DeRose finished off the depleted Carroll team with a 10-1 win with rumors of DeRose’s signing by Emil Scheid in full view in the Iowa newspapers.
For his efforts throughout the 1950 ISL season the young Johnny Blanchard was named a second team all-star in the League by Jim VanHeel of Mason City.[26] His batting average was good enough for seventh in the League. He was also on the leader board for triples with four, runs (41) and runs batted in (46). Given that level of success as a 17 year old, it is no wonder that he was pursued so heavily by major league scouts throughout his senior year at Minneapolis Central.
Even though Johnny (Doc) Blanchard ultimately left the Faribault Lakers after only 12 official at bats, he serves as a prime example of players spending a year or two in the Iowa State League and moving up to the Southern Minny. Joining Bobby Dolan at Faribault would be Ewaniak and Audubon hurler Bob Eisiminger. Carl DeRose would have a season for the record books with Austin in 1951 but I’ll leave that story for another day.
[22] “Legionnaires Here Tonight in Playoff Series Opener,” Carroll (IA) Daily Times, August 30, 1950, 8; “Statistics,” Carroll (IA) Daily Times, August 30, 1950, 8.
[23] Howard Brantz, “A Sporting Glance,” Carroll (IA) Daily Times, September 2, 1950, 3.
[24] “Merchants Add Petrazelka, Dunagan to Baseball Roster,” Carroll (IA) Daily Times, September 6, 1950, 3.
[25] “Merchants Get Off Floor After Near Knockout, 4-3,” Carroll (IA) Daily Times, September 7, 1950, 6.
[26] Carroll (IA) Daily Times, September 12, 1950, 3.
The benefit of doing a history blog is that you can write what you want without deadlines. I had intentions of doing an article on Jack Shepard’s time in Austin with the 1952 Austin Packers or something on Burt, Iowa’s hiring of “Lefty” Derrick as a pitcher in 1949 for Black History Month. And, then, sometimes, something else strikes you.
In this case, one of my Christmas presents was Phil Dixon’s great book The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour and a recent plane ride gave me time to actually read it. As usual, Dixon provides a great historical context for that 1934 post-season barnstorming tour while focusing not only on the Dean brothers and their entourage but their many black opponents including the Kansas City Monarchs, New York Black Yankees and Pittsburgh Crawfords featuring Satchel Paige. That tome along with Jeremy Beer’s Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player demonstrate the importance of being able to demonstrate you were at least as good if not better by being able to openly compete against each other regardless of race and arbitrary racial boundaries. Looked at another way, these two books also illustrate the great “what if” question of what could have been if Satchel Paige had been able to play an entire career in the major leagues or if Oscar Charleston or Josh Gibson or many others would have ever received the chance.
That ability to compete against the best, particularly against Dizzy Dean, reminded me of a brief conversation I was able to share with Ginny Baynes, the daughter of Austin great Johnel “Phil” Golberg. We were able to talk about Phil’s baseball background a bit. She seemed thrilled when I was able to confirm that Phil had indeed pitched against Dizzy Dean and had won that game. The locally produced Lyle Community Sports and Sorts History 1875-1990 correctly identifies Phil’s two no-hitters during the 1937 season but got the decade wrong when it lists Phil’s victory over Dean in the 1930’s. The game actually occurred in 1942 in Mason City.
To back up a bit, Johnel “Phil” Golberg originally signed with Austin part way through the 1931 season. He would pitch or play center field during the 1932 season often helping win his own games with his bat. He would also play with Faribault in the Southern Minny and also played in the Northern League. In 1934, he signed with the independent Hormel Good Foods team in Austin and coached both the Austin high school and Legion baseball teams for many years.
In 1937, the Austin Baseball Association decided to focus Austin’s efforts on a single baseball entry into the Southern Minny with that team named the Austin Merchants. Goldy was originally selected to be the back-up pitcher for the Merchants’ team but he became the feature pitcher and he did not disappoint. The team posted six wins in the month of May including Golberg’s no hitter over New Richland. He posted four shutouts in the month allowing only 3 runs in the entire month.
His domination continued with his only League loss coming in extra innings in a game in which he started. Entering regional play to enter the state tournament, Phil threw a no-hitter against the Cedar Valley All-Stars and shutout Farmington at Owatonna. Austin knocked off Ivanhoe, Raymond and Sturgeon Lake to claim Austin’s first state championship in the tournament era.
Big Phil would continue to be a mainstay with the Austin teams through the 1939 season. He suffered a rib injury during the 1939 season leaving Austin in desperate pitching straights. He did recover in time to pitch a few games before the playoffs and matched up with Owatonna’s Fred Ludke in a winner take all match up in the first round of the Southern Minny playoffs. It took ten innings for Austin to emerge victorious with Owatonna intentionally walking Golberg in the 10th to load the bases in order face Johnny Hulet, the MVP of the 1937 state tournament. Phil was still good hitter even though he was now spending far more time on the mound than in center field. Austin finished off New Richland in two games to reach the Class AA state tournament.
Fortunately the Southern Minny had now jumped classification to eliminate some of the preliminary rounds. The jump to Class AA, however, also indicated that the competition was going to be stiffer. The Tradehome Shoes team from St. Paul found Golberg’s initial slants to their liking and Austin was swiftly knocked from the tournament.
As the 1940 season began, the Austin Baseball Association and Golberg were unable to come to an agreement. Austin turned to outside pitching and Big Phil was signed by the New Richland entry in the Southern Minny League. Interestingly, Phil continued to coach the Austin High and Legion baseball teams.
In this undated photo likely from the summer of 1940 or 1941, coach Phil Golberg is shown in a New Richland baseball uniform with a team of younger Austin ball players that appear to have Legion Baseball patches on their left sleeve.
Phil Golberg in a New Richland uniform with an Austin American Legion team
Without Phil as a pitcher and home town player, Austin would struggle throughout the season even losing to Golberg on a near hitter as Austin dropped their first three games of the season. Adding salt to the wound, Golberg was also named a Southern Minny League All-Star. When the dust settled, Austin and New Richland posted identical 8 and 6 records with Golberg’s success being more impressive as he was pitching for the smaller town team.
Austin was swept out of the playoffs by Albert Lea in the first round while Golberg’s New Richland team defeated Waseca two games to one. New Richland lost the winner take all final to the eventual state champion Albert Lea team in the League Finals 4-3. Golberg was drafted by Albert Lea to participate in the state tournament.
Phil was back with New Richland in 1941 leading the Southern Minny in wins with 9 in a 14 game league schedule. Unfortunately New Richland was paired up with Owatonna and Al Bell in the first round of the playoffs. Bell finished second in wins to Golberg with 8 and was in the midst of a pitching streak that gained nationwide coverage. New Richland wound up losing to Bell 1-0 and 2-0. Phil was again drafted to participate in the state tournament as Owatonna captured the Class AA title in 1941.
Phil returned to Austin for the 1942 season sharing pitching duties with Fred Ludke who came over from LeRoy. The pairing worked wonders with Austin leading the League with a 12-2 record. In addition to a sterling league record, Austin travelled to Mason City to face Dizzy Dean and the North Iowa All-Stars. Dizzy pitched only the first two innings giving up a four hits including a home run and walked one. Big Phil pitched all ten innings striking out 14 to beat the Hall of Famer.
Excerpts from the Austin (MN) Daily Herald, July 13, 1942.
Advancing into the League Playoff, Austin pushed past Owatonna in the first round of the playoffs with Phil and Fred Ludke each getting a win. In the winner take all final against Albert Lea, Golberg allowed ten hits to win 7-4.
Interestingly, Phil and his catcher John Butorac made news as an all-bespectacled battery in 1942. The Austin Daily Herald noted that they were the only battery to both wear glasses in Minnesota town ball. Interestingly, one of the photos provided to me by Ginny Baynes was a photo of Phil along with Austin catcher John Butorac likely from that 1942 season and possibly related to that very article as both are shown wearing glasses:
Phil Golberg and John Butorac (courtesy of Ginny Baynes)
On another side note, Big Phil got the start in the Class AA State Tournament in 1942. He had a rough outing against West St. Paul forcing Ludke to come on in relief. Austin still won the game 11-7. During the game, Phil broke his glasses and not surprisingly had some difficulty throwing strikes and finding the strike zone. Paul Matti, a draftee from West Concord, beat Mitby-Sather 1-0 in the next game for Austin to claim its second state tournament title but its first in Class AA.
Phil entered the military service and was wounded at Normandy. He kept tabs on the Austin team and the Austin Daily Herald kept tabs on him. Phil even organized games on the base and returned to Austin to pitch a few exhibition games after the war.
Phil played in and won many great games for Austin’s baseball teams in a career that spanned at least a decade. As a coach, he worked with and developed many future ball players both in the high school and Legion baseball programs. Given Dizzy’s status as a Hall of Famer and the national attention he drew to himself winning 30 games in 1934 and the post-season tour, a victory over Dean may have truly been the largest feather in his cap.
I’ve been pushing forward on my Southern Minny related research for an eventual presentation on integration in the Southern Minny League from Ted “Double Duty” Radcliff and Lefty Gread McKinnis’ appearances for the Rochester Aces in 1948 to Art “Superman” Pennington for the Mason City Braves and Dick Newberry for the Rochester Royals in 1957 along with a hoped for appearance of Sherwood Brewer in Winona. Along the way, I sometimes get a bit distracted and clearly this time it is Ray Rosenbaum’s fault.
While running through the 1955 Southern Minny season in the Austin Daily Herald I ran into a series of articles covering the invitation and attendance of former Austin Packer Ray Rosenbaum at Game 1 of the World Series and his other potential adventures in New York City. It turns out that after three eventful summers of baseball with Emil Scheid’s Packers, Ray was named an MVP of Army baseball in Europe.
Playing with the 39th Regimental Falcons team in Europe in 1955, Ray posted a 7-1 record while averaging 10 strikeouts per appearance. At the dish, Ray posted a .383 average in 35 contests. I managed to obtain a photo of Ray crossing home plate following his 11th home run of the 1955 season – a three run shot in the finale of a series between Ray’s Falcons and the VII Corps Jayhawks:
Ray “Rosey” Rosenbaum crossing home plate following a three run home run.
Ray received 56,740 votes to be named the most valuable player in a poll conducted by Stars and Stripes. His reward was the trip to New York City including Yankee Stadium alongside George Morgan, of the Bitburg Barons. An archival photo by Stars and Stripes shows the two MVP’s meeting Billy Martin before the game. https://www.stripes.com/blogs/from-the-archives/meeting-billy-martin-1955-1.485859
From their box seats above home plate, the two MVP’s watched the Yankees take Game 1 with Whitey Ford outlasting the Dodger’s Don Newcombe. Their reward also included lodging at the Waldorf-Astoria, tickets to Broadway shows, and media appearances with the likes of TV pioneer Dave Garroway.
Rosenbaum and Morgan engaged in a game of “predictions” during the game with Morgan coming out on top. Fortunately for Brooklyn, Rosenbaum’s prediction of a seven game series proved true with the Dodgers taking the series via a shutout in Game 7.
Even though it was pitching and offensive prowess that propelled Ray to the MVP designation in 1955, left handed pitching was his calling card when he arrived in Austin, Minnesota ready for action in the Southern Minny on May 31, 1952. Called in to relieve Al Fleiner, Rosenbaum turned in 6 2/3 innings of serviceable relief. Most importantly, Ray issued only four walks as control had been a significant problem for the Packer moundsmen to that point. Seven games into the season, the Packers were in last place with only two wins with Ray now having one of them.
Ray’s ability to silence opposing bats helped stabilize an otherwise floundering mound staff. His efforts resulted in him being named to the 1952 Southern Minny League East All-Star Team. Rosenbaum started the last two games of the playoff series against Albert Lea losing the final game 1-0 but he gave up only four hits in the loss after no-hitting Albert Lea for six innings.
During the regular season, Ray won 8 and lost 5 in 112 2/3 innings. Only Carl DeRose had more wins on the Austin pitching staff posting 10 of his own, down substantially from Carl’s 17 wins the year prior.
Ray returned to Austin in 1953 with Austin having high expectations of him based on his prior year’s service. Ray settled in pushed his record to 5-1 by tossing a three hitter against Owatonna. His next victory came again at the expense of the Aces behind a five hitter and a ton of run support as the Packers blasted the Aces 12-2. By the end of the regular season Ray posted a 10 and 7 record while also earning some renown at the plate later in the season.
It was in the postseason, however, where Ray shown brightest. He was credited with two wins in each round of the Southern Minny League Playoffs and two wins in the state tournament as Austin claimed the AA State Championship behind an 8-1 complete game nine hitter from Rosey in the championship game.
After another season at Purdue in which Ray was named the MVP of the mound staff, expectations were high in Austin for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, Emil Scheid was looking forward to a dominating season from the left hander. Secondly, Ray was set to be married in Austin in June. Upsetting the apple cart, Ray announced early on his intentions to turn professional.
With a fiance from Austin and nuptials on the horizon, Ray elected to return to Austin and rejoin the Packers. Unfortunately any repeat of his past success was limited by arm soreness following a relief outing and a later injury to a finger on his pitching hand when hit by a pitch while attempting to bunt. With his record on the mound for the Falcons in 1955 and photo touching home plate for the 1958 State Champion Austin Packers on page 114 in Townball: The Glory Days of Minnesota Amateur Baseball by Armand Peterson and Tom Tomashek it is obvious that he was able to make a recovery from his arm troubles in 1954.
I’ll get back to my research this weekend although it may be some time I am ready to document more of the Ray Rosenbaum story.
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