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Baseball Calls: Arkansas Town Baseball in the Twenties Author(s): David D. Dawson Source: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), pp. 409-426 Published by: Arkansas Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40027827 . Accessed: 10/06/2014 14:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Arkansas Historical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.45 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:41:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Baseball Calls: Arkansas Town Baseball in the Twenties

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Baseball Calls: Arkansas Town Baseball in the TwentiesAuthor(s): David D. DawsonSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), pp. 409-426Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40027827 .

Accessed: 10/06/2014 14:41

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Arkansas Historical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheArkansas Historical Quarterly.

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Baseball Calls:

Arkansas Town Baseball

in the Twenties

DAVID D. DAWSON

BELOW THE FIGURES of several young men playing baseball, the

newspaper advertisement reads, "The baseball diamond calls, boys. The sound of the olf pill hittin the padded mitt or cracking against the olf hickory will soon be 'your dish.'"1 The aim of the 1926 advertisement was to sell baseball

equipment for Daggett's Drug Store in M arianna, Arkansas, but the message went beyond peddling gloves, bats, masks and balls. These words were bound to arouse the senses of anyone who had played the game or been a fan. Come

spring, baseball truly did call, and small towns in Arkansas responded with zeal.

Baseball's popularity as a community activity was enormous in Arkansas during the twenties. It was a game played not just by youngsters, as is the usual case in small towns today, but by adults as well. For instance, local Sunday schools often joined together to play baseball. In McGehee the Fats

David Dawson is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Arkansas. This article won the 1995 Arkansas Historical Association's Lucille Westbrook Award for Local History. In this article he focuses primarily on towns in eastern and southern Arkansas, their newspapers being the best available sources. However, baseball was played in small towns all over the state, as shown by reports of scores in the Arkansas Gazette (Arkansas Gazette, April 27, May 2, 4, 5, June 10, 1924; June 5, 7, July 8, 9, 1925).

!Marianna (AR) Courier-Index, April 22, 1926.

THE ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY VOL LIV, NO. 4, WINTER 1995

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410 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

and Leans, men from the town's various Sunday school classes, played for charity. The response of the local newspaper in 1924 reflects the support for continuing such events:

It has been suggested that the town of McGehee declare a half holiday each Thursday after 3 p.m. and everyone go to the ball park for a lot of good old time fun and amusement. This, it seems to us, will be a very fine thing to keep up the spirit of fellowship and good will among all people of the town.2

Sunday school leagues were also formed. Marianna had a highly organized league with managers, assistant managers, captains, bat-boys, and water carriers selected for each team. The players had to be residents of the county and approved by the league's board of directors. Regular attendance of Sunday school was expected from each player. Four denominational teams made up the league, each with an unusual nickname: the Baptist Submarines, the Methodist Chicken-eaters, the Christian Bolsheviki, and the Presbyterian Blue Sox. The local newspaper covered the teams as if they were in the big leagues, with box scores and detailed game descriptions each week.3

Other town groups formed teams as well. Newport businesses organized teams made up of employees and formed a league in 1925.4 In Osceola the business men played against the professional men in some very serious baseball games. Friction between the two teams drove Osceola's mayor to promise to have "special policemen on duty to preserve the peace."5 In Gurdon most businesses closed to watch the town's bachelors take on the local married men. A good crowd saw the single men win in what was the first baseball game after the fencing of the town's field.6

Baseball as a community activity in Arkansas extended to women as well. Their participation was often limited to serving refreshments at men's games, but sometimes the women did take the field. In 1925 in Gurdon the mothers and teachers affiliated with the high school Parent Teachers9 Association

2Desha County (AR) News, May 29, 1924. ^Courier-Index, March 25, 31; June 16, 1922.

'Newport (AR) Daily Independent, July 24, 31, 1925. 'Osceola (AR) Times, July 2, 1920; May 13, 1921. 6Gurdon (AR) Times, April 8, 15, 1926.

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ARKANSAS TOWN BASEBALL 41 1

played the mothers and teachers affiliated with the grammar school in a baseball game umpired by two local preachers.7

Baseball's popularity as a community activity in Arkansas during the twenties is perhaps best found in town baseball. During this period, as in other places in America, towns in rural areas commonly formed baseball teams and competed with teams from other towns.8 Town baseball was, in fact, a colorful and significant part of Arkansas's social history. There was hardly a community in Arkansas that did not have a baseball team. Towns as small as Evening Shade, Alicia, and Felsenthal, all with populations under three hundred, had teams. Larger towns such as Corning, Gurdon, and Osceola, with around fifteen hundred people, had teams, as well as those with populations over three thousand, such as Batesville, Marianna, and Newport.9

At first glance Arkansas would seem to be an unusual place to study baseball's significance in the twenties. It has often been argued that baseball represents America; it is after all, our "national pastime." This was explored well in Ken Burns1 recent documentary, Baseball, and the companion book, Baseball: An Illustrated History}0 In this representation, though, baseball's popularity is often linked to the rise of cities and urbanization, which is true enough for professional baseball, especially in the twenties. It was in this decade that America officially became urban. In 1920 the census said that for the first time the majority (5 1 .4 percent) of Americans lived in larger towns or cities (areas with a population of 2500 or more).11 Places where professional baseball flourished were overwhelmingly urban. The smallest city in 1920 with

7Ibid.,Aprill6,1925. 'Richard C. Crcpeau, Baseball: America 's Diamond Mind 1919-1941 (Orlando:

University Press of Florida, 1980), 56.

'Department of Commerce, State Compendium: Arkansas; Fourteenth Census of the United States (Washington, DC: GPO, 1924), 23-24.

"^Geoffrey Ward, Baseball: An Illustrated History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994). Other sources on baseball's influence on America include Bruce Catton, "The Great American Game," American Heritage 10 (April 1959); Richard C. Crepeau, Baseball: America's Diamond Mind; Steven A. Riess, Touching Base: Professional Baseball and America in the Progressive Era (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980); Harold Seymour, Baseball: The Golden Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971); David Q. Voigt, America through Baseball (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1976).

"Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Abstract of the Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1923), 74.

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412 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

a big league team was Washington, DC, with a population of 506,588. 12 And during this decade, often called "The Golden Age of American Sports," baseball reigned supreme. An average of 9 million people attended professional games from 1920-1929, up 50 percent from the previous decade.13 Massive ballparks were built, such as New York's Yankee Stadium. The salaries of players rose too, as did their name recognition. Babe Ruth, only one of many prominent baseball players in this period, today remains one of the most popular sports figures in history. The twenties marked what baseball historian Harold Seymour calls a "new era" for professional baseball. Among other things, the rise in per capita income, the growth of the cities, and the increase in leisure time for industrial workers contributed to the explosion of professional baseball's popularity.14

However, baseball was more than a big-city game in the twenties. Arkansas is an ideal place to verify the game's popularity in rural areas. While the 1920 census labeled America as urban, Arkansas was still largely rural - 83.4 percent rural.15 Yet the game was phenomenally popular in the state. Though baseball's urban connection may have reached fruition in the twenties, the game's hold on Arkansas's small communities remained strong.

The game itself, which many say embodied the American character, certainly contributed to baseball's popularity in small-town Arkansas. In America Through Baseball, David Q. Voigt asserts that the dominant value of American social history is the "celebration of individualism," and baseball provided a road to individual recognition.16 Young men could make a name for themselves through hitting, pitching, or fielding prowess. Bill Dickey, Lon Wameke (the Arkansas Hummingbird), and Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean proved this. Each began playing baseball in Arkansas before eventually becoming a member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. 17

Baseball also had an element of democracy. People could play the game without any regard to propriety or class status. Nor were any of the niceties

12Ibid., 87-90. l3Rick Wolff, ed. The Baseball Encyclopedia , 8th cd.(New York: Macmillan, 1990), 7. "Harold Seymour, Baseball: The Golden Age, 343.

"Department of Commerce, Fourteenth Census, 75.

"Voigt, America Through Baseball, 7, 10. 17Wolff, 846, 2280. Robert Gregory, Diz: Dizzy Dean and Baseball During the Great

Depression (New York: Viking Press, 1992), 26.

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ARKANSAS TOWN BASEBALL 413

associated with other sports, such as golf or tennis, present in baseball. The lack of refinement was most obvious in baseball's treatment of the umpire, who, as today, was a target for intimidation and abuse. Baseball has been described as "plebeian, down-to-earth, and robustious."18 It was everybody's game; the materials were inexpensive, and any open field or lot was suitable for a game. "Baseball was within the reach of all men, satisfying to both spectator and player," declares baseball historian Richard Crepeau. "It was a game of the people, played by and for them."19

Generally, baseball in the twenties provides a dual reflection of American life during a time of transition. While it may be thought of as an urban phenomenon, examining baseball's impact on the rural communities in Arkansas reveals the game's importance to small towns. Just as baseball played by professionals is important to understanding urban America in the twenties, so is town baseball important to knowing Arkansas's small communities. Appropriately enough, just as there was a Babe Ruth playing baseball in New York, there was a Babe Oglesby playing in McGehee, Arkansas.20

As the end of spring approached, Arkansas's small communities began organizing their teams. Sometimes interested players simply gathered at a local establishment, as in Corning, where hopeful players for the town baseball team met at Toalson's Bakery. In McGehee potential ball players were requested to sign up for tryouts at Desha Drug Company.21 The preceding year in McGehee, those wanting tryouts saw the manager, Dutch Malnar, at the local freight office. While most towns kept the organization simple, others had a more business-like operation. Magnolia organized its 1923 team at the offices of the Chamber of Commerce. Officers chosen for the club included a secretary of treasury, a committee of finance (two members), a board of governors, a publicity manager, and finally, the team manager.22

The towns had good reason to identify with their teams because the players were, for the most part, local, ordinary citizens. The McGehee newspaper reported, "Efforts will be made to acquire from local players a team

18Catton, Great American Game, 18.

l9Crepeau, Baseball: America 's Diamond Mind, 25. ^McGehee (AR) Semi-Weekly Times, June 22, 1926. 2lIbid., March 29, 1927; Clay County (AR) Courier, March 31, 1923.

^Magnolia (AR) News, May 24, 1923.

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414 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

that will be a credit to McGehee, as well as furnish outdoor sport for the summer."23 The left fielder for the Huttig team was also an insurance agent in town, while in Newport a local preacher played catcher one year for the town team.24 When Peewee Stallings returned from college, "where he devoted his time to acquiring the art of painless dentistry," he took his position behind the plate for Newport.25

Representative of the roster of a town baseball team is that of Newport's 1922 team. Next to each player's name is his place of employment. The list reads like a town census:

Stallings, student; Fritsch, railway clerk; B. Patton, McFadden cotton office; Herbert Wise, grocery clerk; Thompson, Newport Handle Woiks; C. Patton, McFadden cotton office; J. Jones, Southern Cotton Oil Company; Cobb, Newport Creameiy Company; J. Chase, student; C. McDonald, Phillips-Ferguson agency; A. Patton, McFadden cotton office; Webb, student; Pete West, cafe; B. Gore, McFadden cotton office; O. Motley, Motley Bros, garage; Schumann, Arkmo Lumber Co.26

Team managers normally were ordinaiy local citizens as well, and were sometimes part of the line-up. Francis W. Scott, the Huttig manager, also played shortstop, and Gurdon's leader, Dr. R. E. Scurlock, played first base. Other managers included H. C. Patton of Newport, a cotton buyer, and Dutch Malnar of McGehee, the freight office employee.27

For sane town baseball teams, winning superseded any notion of keeping the lineup restricted to local players. Some teams searched not only outside the town for players, but beyond the county and state as well. Magnolia, for instance, recruited talent from Russellville, Texarkana, Hope, and as far away

^McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, March 29, 1927.

"Huttig(AR) News, June 23, 1923; May 24, 1924; Newport Daily Independent, March 17, 1920.

^Newport Daily Independent, June 14, 1922. "Ibid., June 29, 1922. 21

Huttig News, May 5, June 23, 1923; Gurdon Times, April 24, May 8, 1924; Newport Daily Independent, September 6, 1921; McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, June 8, 1926.

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ARKANSAS TOWN BASEBALL 415

as Tennessee.28 The use of out-of-town players, who were often referred to as imported players, usually became an issue in the hometown newspaper of a losing team. After the Evening Shade team lost two of three games to Batesville, the Sharp County Record credited the former's losses to Batesville's use of a hired out-of-town pitcher:

It is said by many from here and elsewhere that our boy s were the best players and but for the fact that the other side had an imported pitcher, they would have won all the games as indicated by the second game in which the pitching prodigy did not play. This pitcher was a professional who could easily afford to guarantee his game for sufficient pay. Of course all the players on this side were amateurs, and should not be required to play against professional players.29

In a championship game against Newport in 1921, Batesville was again accused of importing a pitcher. However, this time Batesville lost the game. After first making the imported player an issue, the Newport Daily Independent changed its sentiment and played down the incident, saying the town was not concerned about the identity of the player, "being entirely satisfied with having licked him."30 Perhaps die most outstanding example of the use of imported players in Arkansas occurred in 1920. After being banned by professional baseball for their gambling activities, some members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox team traveled the countiy to any town that would pay them to play. The desire to beat a team of players from the Mississippi towns of Merigold and Boyle led Arkansas City, Arkansas, in 1920 to hire two of the more famous "Black Sox," Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte, to play for them in a heavily wagered game. The strategy worked, as Arkansas City won easily. The turning point came when Jackson drove a ball "to the top of a negro school house far outside the park" for a grand slam.31

Because most of the players on a town baseball team were local, using imported players was often a contentious issue, especially between intense

"Magnolia News, May 24, 1923.

"Sharp County (AR) Record, July 8, 1921.

^Newport Daily Independent, September 6, 1921. 31

George A. McNeely, "Baseball in Desha County," Desha County Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring 1977): 58-59.

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416 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

rivals. Newport and Batesville had one of the biggest town baseball rivalries in Arkansas, going back to 1869, when the Stonewalls of Jackson County, of which Newport was the county seat, played the Independents of Independence County, of which Batesville was the county seat, in what may have been the first scheduled game between two communities in Arkansas. The game ended after three innings with the Independents winning thirty-two to three. The Jackson County captain complained that the Independence pitcher threw too hard and jerky. The umpire turned a deaf ear as the Independents walked off with the top prize, a silver goblet.32

During the early twenties, the rivalry was still alive. In 1921 Newport defeated Batesville in what was called the state championship game. Following the game, Newport advised Batesville to arrange games with much smaller towns like Moorefield, Ash Flat, Evening Shade, and Sulphur Rock. "Newport has 'passed' aplenty and is now looking for more worlds to conquer." The next year both teams planned a rematch. The managers of each club exchanged letters until an agreement was reached. A point of concern was who should be allowed to play. Manager H. C. Patton of Newport wanted to use players from within the county, while W. D. Gray, representing Batesville, wanted to use only players from within the town's corporate limits.33

One thing the managers agreed on was restricting hired players. As Gray described it, this would not only be more economical but fairer to the players as well.

If we use no hired players, we can split two games, and if crop conditions remain good I have hopes that we can make another trip to Little Rock on Labor Day, as we did last year. Our country teams will draw just as well as hired ones, and we will eliminate several hundred dollars of overhead expense by cutting out hiring of players. Our own men will improve their game too. It is pretty tough for a boy to

32Pat Allen Bailey, "A Century of Baseball in Jackson County," The Stream of History y 7, (July/October 1969): 7-13; Duane Huddleston, "A History of Batesville' s First Baseball Team, the Independents, and its 1869 Record," Independence County Chronicle 9 (July 1968): 43-49.

Newport Daily Independent, September 6, 1921; June 27, 1922.

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ARKANSAS TOWN BASEBALL 417

practice and work and then be left out of the lineup in a big game.34

The managers signed a contract, which included provisions stating that no hired players could be used, only players residing within the corporate limits of each town could participate, and expenses for twelve players would be paid to the visiting team. If the games were split, a third game would be played on neutral grounds.35

The Newport players were encouraged by the local press to practice and work hard. "There must be no loafing, but every man is asked to get on his toes and form an organization capable of winning from the Batesville athletes and retaining the reputation of Newport for heady, spirited, fair, clean baseball." The first game was played at Newport Stores and businesses closed in both Newport and Batesville and fifteen hundred fans attended the game. Newport won the first game and Batesville the second. The deciding game was never played.36

Another fierce rivalry that demonstrates the issue of using out-of-town

players was that between Osceola and Blytheville. When these Mississippi County towns played baseball in the twenties, allegations often followed

concerning the use of imported players. After Osceola beat Blytheville in

1920, the Osceola Times reported, "The two teams will meet again in this city this afternoon and it is rumored here that Blytheville is beating the brush all over southeast Missouri in an effort to find players strong enough to humble the Osceolans."37 Apparently Blytheville succeeded as they took the next two

games from Osceola. Claims were then made that Blytheville's team was

composed of players from St. Louis and the Southeast Missouri League. Their

battery (pitcher and catcher) in the second game was reportedly from the St. Louis Cardinals. The Osceola newspaper warned of the consequences in

continuing this practice:

The rivalry between the two cities ran high but the custom of

importing outside players is calculated sooner or later to kill whatever interest might otherwise be taken by local fans here and at Blytheville.

"Ibid.

^Newport Daily Independent, June 29, 1922. "Ibid., June 29, July 15, August 12, 19, 1922. "Osceola Times, July 16, 1920.

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418 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

. . . The sooner the management of the two teams decide to play all home boys the better it will be for baseball in the community.38

What the evidence suggests is that the use of local players was important, but so was winning. If an out-of-town player was exceptionally talented, there is little doubt that he would be recruited by teams other than his hometown one.

Blacks, however, were never recruited by the town teams, regardless of talent. However, black communities did have their own teams, though they were seldom mentioned in local newspapers. Baseball in Arkansas, as in the rest of the country during the twenties, was not democratic when it came to blacks. Nevertheless, blacks played, but without the respect given their white

counterparts. For example, when the town of Huttig built a new baseball park for its Fourth of July celebration in 1923, the lumber was "to be furnished free

by the Union Saw Mill Co. and the labor by the colored people." The blacks were then allowed to schedule a game with another black team on the morning of July 4, before any of the scheduled activities began.39 When an all-black Cuban baseball team visited Arkansas to play Dan Braden's Crack Colored Club of Osceola, it was reported that game day would belong to the black team and its black fans. This was followed by another notice: "The grandstand will be reserved for white fans.9940 One all-black Arkansas baseball team which did become well known in the mid-south was the Claybrook Tigers of Crittenden

County. Sponsored in 1929 by John C. Claybrook, a prominent black farmer and logger, the team gained a following of black and white fans. The Tigers went on to play National Negro Baseball League teams such as the Kansas

City Monarchs, Birmingham Black Sox, and the Memphis Red Sox.41 The discrimination did not extend to Native Americans. It was quite

common for Indians to show up on the rosters of town teams, usually as

imported players. One of the more famous was Moses Yellowhorse, a one- time major league pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who hurled for the

31bid., July 20, 1920. "The Huttig News, June 23, 1923. ^Osceola Times, September 13, 1929.

4IMargaret Elizabeth Woolfolk, A History of Crittenden County, Arkansas (Marion, Arkansas: M. E. Woolfolk, 1991), 119.

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ARKANSAS TOWN BASEBALL 419

Newport team in 1925.42 Even the Osceola team, the same club whose local newspaper attacked Blytheville for using imported players, added John Wesley, a full-blooded Indian from Oklahoma to its roster in 1929.43 In the major leagues, as well, Native Americans were regularly playing alongside whites long before blacks were allowed to do so.

The opening day for town baseball teams in Arkansas during the twenties was anytime between early April and almost June and sometimes even later. Occasionally there were hitches for the first game, as when Delight could only field seven players, but the season opener was usually a big time. It was a day devoted to baseball, as stores and businesses were encouraged to close early so their clerks could make the afternoon game.44

The other significant day for town baseball, July 4, reflects Arkansans' attitude in the twenties toward the game. Only something considered purely American would have been part of the country's most patriotic holiday, and in Arkansas, baseball was certainly a big event on the Fourth of July. In places such as Huttig, Delight, Lonoke, Pocahontas and others, the Fourth of July program was similar. A picnic and barbecue was followed by political speeches, then usually two or more baseball games played in the afternoon.45

Town baseball games were a major activity at other community events as well. When people gathered together, baseball often had a role. The Clay County Courier advertised a picnic and barbecue in Peach Orchard, Arkansas, for August 1 and 2, 1922, with Gov. Thomas C. McRae attending. The Orphans1 Home Brass Band was to perform and the town baseball teams of Corning and Hoxie were scheduled to play, with the winner to take on Piggott.46 A similar "Get Together" picnic and barbecue, held in Harrisburg in 1923, also featured baseball, along with speeches by United States senators Thaddeus H. Caraway and Joseph T. Robinson. The Harrisburg town team beatWeiner7-0.47

42 Newport Daily Independent, July 30, 1925.

"Osceola Times, June 28, 1929. "Pike County (AR) Tribune, April 14, 1922; Newport Daily Independent, May 30, 1925;

Gurdon Times, April 8, 1926.

"Huttig News, June 23, 1923 and July 2, 1927; Pike County Tribune, June 25, 1926; Lonoke (AR) Democrat, July 6, 1922; Pocahontas (AR) Star Herald, June 29, 1923.

"Clay (AR) County Courier, July 14, 1922.

"Harrisburg (AR) Modern News, July 20, 1923.

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420 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

The remainder of the season, teams played whomever and whenever they could. Normally opponents would be from the same county or a neighboring one. If a team was good, it might have trouble scheduling games with nearby opponents. When this happened to the McGehee club, manager Leo Malnar responded by putting a statement in the newspaper saying his team "challenges any team of any place, from Little Rock to Monroe, Louisiana." He was probably embarrassed by this bold challenge, since over the next three games, McGehee tied the Jerome team and lost two straight to Dumas.48

The team schedules were generally somewhat rigorous. Most players had jobs and families to attend to when not playing baseball. Typically, most town teams played two or three games a week against other nearby towns. However, teams sometimes traveled relatively far distances to play games. In 1927 McGehee made the estimated sixty-mile trip to Lake Providence, Louisiana, to play a game, then went thirty miles east to Collinston, Louisiana, for another before returning home.49 A good glimpse of a typical schedule comes from this four-week schedule for the Osceola club:

Osceola at Turrell, Sunday, June 26 Covington at Osceola, Thursday, June 30 Nehi Team of Memphis at Joiner, Sunday, July 3 Blytheville at Blytheville, Monday, July 4 Senatobia, Miss., at Osceola, Thursday, July 7 Deering, Mo., at Deering, Sunday, July 10 Wynne, Ark., at Osceola, Thursday, July 14 Turrell, Ark., at Joiner, Sunday, July 17 Staff-O-Life, of Memphis, at Osceola, Thursday, July 2 1.50

As for the game itself, town baseball was in line with traditional descriptions of the Great American Game. It was not for the soft or decorous types; it was often rough and unrefined. When Newport's catcher, Herbert Wise, fractured his hand on a pitch, he went to the doctor only to return in the seventh inning to swat a triple, which opened up the game for Newport. Occasionally injuries were more serious. In a game between Branch and

"McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, June 29, July 13, 20, 1926.

49Ibid.,July8,12,15,1927. "Osceola Times, June 24, 1927.

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ARKANSAS TOWN BASEBALL 421

Ursula, Jess Maness, town marshal of Branch, was struck by a pitch. He stayed in the game and got a hit before falling unconscious. Maness died eight hours later.51

Umpires had to be tough as well. Often only one umpire worked a game, so it was easy for him to become a target for fan and player frustration. Sometimes it was as harmless as the local newspaper complaining about "some off-color umping." Other times it got much more serious, as in the incident following a game between Lake Village and Arkansas City. "Joe Forte, who was the umpire, took on a body guard to protect him on his way home, to keep the Lake Village Lions off, who did not approve of his decisions at times." Oddly enough, Lake Village won that game by a score of 19 to 8.52 The management of the Magnolia team may have had something like this incident in mind when it said attempts would be made to have a city official on the ground every game to "insure law and order."53

It was necessary, of course, for each town to provide its local baseball club with some form of financial support. Teams were sponsored by businesses, organizations, and even citizens to some degree. The Magnolia ball club received enough donations from businessmen to defray expenses for the first month in 1923. In Lonoke it was a tradition for local businesses and citizens to join together and form a team. The McGehee team was fortunate enough to have the support of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, while Warren was sponsored by the Southern Lumber Company. Osceola raised money for its town baseball team by playing baseball. Fans were charged fifty cents to see the town's professional men take on the town's merchants in a baseball game, with the proceeds going to the town team. In Huttig enough money was raised in 1924 to buy a dozen new uniforms from A. G. Spaulding & Company. This included shirts, trousers, stockings, caps, and belts.54

Yet once the season was underway, local support through paid admission to the games was usually crucial to the maintainence of a team. Marianna was

"Newport Daily Independent, May 27, 1922; Newark Journal, June 12, 1924; Courier- Index, July 15, 1921.

52Clay County Courier, July 20, 1923; McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, June 25, 1926.

"Magnolia News, May 24, 1923.

"Ibid., May 17, 1923; Lonoke Democrat, June 8, 1922; McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, April 21, 1925 and April 5, 1927; Warren (AR) Eagle Democrat, March 8, 1928; Osceola Times, July 2, 1920; Huttig News, May 5, 1923.

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422 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

encouraged by the large attendance at one game because there were enough paying fans to cover the cost for balls. Gurdon's team faced a more serious situation in 1924. "The boys say they cannot continue to play unless all those who come out pay to see the game," the local newspaper reported. Often teams such as the one in Jerome allowed free admission, but "passed the hat" during the game.55 Whatever it took, teams usually scrounged enough money to buy equipment, uniforms, and everything else needed for the season.

Attendance was an important part of showing support for the home team, but it played just as significant a role in supporting the visiting team as well. Traveling expenses for a visiting team were usually covered by the home team. When Newark went some thirty miles to play Newport, the local newspaper reminded fans of this obligation. "Baseball fans of Newport should remember that it costs money to bring a team to the city, and everybody should give his support to the boys Friday when the game starts at South Side Park." When Cardwell, Missouri, visited Corning, a similar plea for support was given.56

It is difficult to determine attendance at the town games with any precision. Though newspapers often reported large crowds, numbers were not often used. Where attendance figures were given, it seems the crowds were relatively large. When Newport played in 1922 at Searcy, a town of about twenty-eight hundred, the attendance was estimated at four hundred. For a game between Batesville and Newport in 1922, an estimated fifteen hundred fans filled Newport's South Side Park.57 In 1929 an estimated six hundred fans showed up when Rector played at Osceola, a town with just under two thousand people. On another occasion, it was reported that fifteen hundred people crammed Osceola's Driver Park to watch the local club play a team from Haskell, Oklahoma. People were turned away from the game. "The ones that couldn't get a close-up gathered in the court house, Shipley's Grocery Store, and on the box cars on the Frisco tracks."58

Attendance at the town baseball games was significant enough in some small towns to warrant personal mention in a local newspaper. It was common

55 Courier-Index, June 21, 1923; Gurdon Times, May 8, 1924; McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, June 20, 1927.

"Newport Daily Independent, May 16, 1922; Clay County Courier, July 20, 1923.

"Department of Commerce, State Compendium: Arkansas, 24; Newport Daily Independent, June 5, July 15, 1922.

*Osceola Times, May 31, June 21, 1929.

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for towns such as Luxura or Whitton to have space for their news in a larger paper. This news often included a list of attendees of town baseball games. For instance, under "Luxura Items" in the Osceola Times there is a short list of people who attended a ball game in Blytheville. In the same edition, under "Whitton Items," it is reported that "Dr. Brown and family attended the ball game at Wilson Friday evening."59 This sort of attention given to attendance seems to reveal a sense that the fan had performed a civic duty, small as it may have been, but one worthy of reporting.

Town baseball was for females as well. Not only did women attend the ball games, they were encouraged to do so. Many town teams had a ladies night, on which women were admitted free. When Nashville played Dierks at home it was announced that, "Ladies will be admitted free, as will also one- armed and one-legged men and children under 6 years old."60 A double-header between Wardell and the Evadale and Whitton teams was well attended by a crowd from Wardell, "including a number of pretty girls who cheered the home boys on to victory in both games." Notice was then given for games between Wardell and Whitton and Marie. "The girls from Whitton and Marie had better turn out to the next ball game in force, for the Wardell girls are going to be there to boost the home boys to victory."61

Other evidence also suggests that teams had strong fan support. When the Harrisburg team traveled to Marked Tree in 1921, some twelve miles away, fans in thirty-one automobiles made the rough drive. Considering Harrisburg's size (population 1,3 IS) and the condition of Poinsett County's roads at this time, which often required going miles out of the way to reach the nearby town, getting thirty-erne cars to Marked Tree for a ball game was a certain sign of support for the local team.62 Sometimes special trains ran to transport fans to out of town games. One such train carried 150 people from the Louisiana towns of Homer and Haynesville to a game in Magnolia. Batesville fans going to a Newport game could ride the local Cushman. Supporters of the Corning team could go by rail to Cardwell, Missouri. In this instance, if the game was

59Ibid.,Juncl7,1921. "Nashville News, July 2, 1924. "Osceola Times, July 9, 1920. ^Modern News, July 22, 1921; Department of Commerce, State Compendium: Arkansas,

23.

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424 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

not over by five o'clock, the P.S.E. Railway Company was willing to delay the westbound train about an hour.63

The optimism of spring was evident in the local press coverage of the town team. Fa* town baseball the beginning of each new season brought with it an air of confidence in the local team. Newspapers often referred to the talents of specific players and proclaimed high hopes for a good season. A typical headline in March or April might read something like, "Prospects for Baseball Good" That the present team was one of the town's best was another common claim. Town spirit was often expressed in these pre-season praises. In 1924 the Nashville News reported, "There are many baseball fans in Nashville who will be glad to learn that the city has a winning team who can put up a real exhibition." The Dierks Banner predicted that "some real classy ball will be played by Dierks1 boys." And according to the Lonoke Democrat, the local baseball team would meet their opponents on the diamond "with a determination to win honors for Lonoke."64 How long this positive sentiment lasted depended entirely on how well the home team played. Some teams, after enjoying the optimism of spring, had to endure the scorn of summer.

Even when the team won, there was concern about how they played. After Dierks whipped Possum Hollow 12-2, the Dierks Banner jeered the team for looking out of practice. "They fielded nicely, but some of them, at bat resembled a washerwoman with a battling stick frailing [sic] at bull bats."65

After losing to the town of Strong 22 to 1 0, the Huttig News offered their local team some advice:

What's wrong with us? Simply this we must have more boys out at regular practice, a willingness to play ball and subordinate themselves to the positions allotted them and get right down to real business, and with team work of this sort there is no reason why we should not win ball games.66

"Magnolia News, June 21, 1923; Newport Daily Independent, July 14, 1922; Clay County Courier, July 27, 1923.

"McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, June 8, 1926; Eagle Democrat, March 8, 1928; Nashville News, June 25, 1924; Dierks (AR) Banner, May 18, 1922; Lonoke Democrat, June 8, 1922.

65Dierks Banner, June 8, 1922.

"Huttig News,lAsy 1, 1920.

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Later in the summer the Dierks Banner spoke more harshly to the town's team:

It is disgusting to the lovers of baseball in Dierks to note the triflingness of our talent. Enough boys here to have a half dozen ball teams, and we can't have one. The town has never failed to give support to a team that made a showing.67

Finally, there were times when the local newspaper was merciless in deriding the town baseball team. Even though the McGehee club won the first half of the season in 1928 and would be playing in the championship series, the McGehee Semi-Weekly Times slammed their recent play:

Playing their customary miserable game the McGehee Boosters lost another contest Thursday, this time to the Dermott Rams, 8-0. The locals have degenerated to such an extent that it is disgusting to watch them go through their diamond antics, and Thursday's performance was no exception to the general rule. Only the fact that the Boosters wore baseball suits enabled the spectators to ascertain the motivation of their ludicrous endeavors.68

The town baseball season usually wrapped up by the end of September. The players and fans returned to their routines without baseball and looked forward to the next spring, when organizing the team, making proclamations, playing and attending the games would all take place again. It was an important ritual throughout most Arkansas towns during the twenties.

Ultimately, town baseball's impact did extend outside the small towns. According to Richard Crepeau, baseball in the twenties, though emerging as an urban sport, was still closely tied to its rural origins. Town baseball not only provided men with recreation, but it lured the youth to the game. This had an effect on professional baseball down the line. Crepeau writes:

There was more town baseball being played in 1 927 than at any time in the previous ten years. This was good, not only for those playing the game, but good for baseball itself, for it was the town teams that were building the foundation of organized baseball. These towns and hamlets, also referred to as "our real United States," were more

"Dierks Banner, June 27, 1922. "McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, September 4, 1928.

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important to baseball than all the big-league owners with their huge structures and high-salaried players.69

Arkansas towns certainly could speak proudly of players like Dickey, Warneke, and Dean, but the most revealing aspect of town baseball in the state was the popularity of the game itself within the community. It was as much a game for those players and fans who never cared about seeing a big-league stadium as it was for those who dreamed about it constantly. In fact, antagonism with the major league and its big-name stars sometimes emerged. In an exhibition game in Little Rock, the Newport Daily Independent reported that Babe Ruth was "anything but brilliant." He was described as "money- hungry," and it was suggested he be kicked out of the sport.70 Participants and fans of town baseball expected and required hard play, a reflection of agrarian values. Town baseball was a game that captured the spirit and personality of small communities.

For small towns in Arkansas, baseball was important in forging community spirit. Citizens supported and turned out for their team and expressed frustration, even criticism when the team played poorly. The team's performance was a reflection of the town's status. Parallel to the urbanization of baseball in America in the twenties, the small towns in Arkansas held on to their individuality by rallying around the baseball teams.

Moreover, examining Arkansas town baseball during the twenties reveals a colorful story of baseball's impact on rural communities during the urbanization of both America and sports. The story tells of more than just a superficial fondness for baseball. It tells of an attraction and dedication to the American character which the game was perceived to represent. Arkansas town baseball was a simple, democratic, and robust game to which the communities could relate; it was something the people could participate in, support, and identify with. Even as the game began to be taken over by the big cities, small towns did their best to hang on to it. The popularity of town baseball in the twenties shows that the game was more than an emerging city activity during this period. And if nothing else, town baseball was important because it was played, and played often, in Arkansas's small towns.

69Crep&LU, Baseball: America 's Diamond Mind, 55-56.

^Newport Daily Independent, April 7, 1922.

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