Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Baseball and opera? Baseball — a children’s game — became a gentleman’s sport in the mid-19th century. An 1866 game between the Kansas City Antelopes and the Leavenworth Frontiers was followed by dinner and an evening at the opera. But as the sport became more popular and crowds increased, baseball gained a rowdy image. A game between the Antelopes and Atchison Pomeroys ended in a riot, with the umpire fleeing for his life. Local legend says the Antelopes then hired loyal fan and famed gunman "Wild Bill" Hickok to umpire. The Antelopes won, 48 to 28.
Already known as the national game in the 1850s, baseball soared in popularity around 1900. The Topeka Weekly Reader cried, “Lawrence has got it, Leavenworth’s got it, Topeka’s got it, we've all got it!” In Johnson County, as throughout the rest of the country, churches, businesses and fraternal clubs organized teams that became symbols of community pride. Horse-drawn wagons, trains and trollies carried players and fans to games. The contests took place in pastures or in more elaborate fields such as Starwood Park in Zarah, Fairview in Olathe, and Hocker Grove in Merriam. Local fan Ken Bradshaw remembered, “People every Sunday came via the Strang Line to watch baseball.” Lenexa resident Marie Krumm summed up baseball’s importance by saying, “It was our summer amusement.”
Beginning in the 1870s, baseball changed from a pastime played in empty lots into a highly skilled game of professionals performing for paying fans. At first only the pitcher was paid to play. Hired pitchers were especially common for important games, such as those between long-standing rivals like Shawnee and Merriam. Claude Hendrix, who was paid to pitch for the Olathe squad in 1906, later joined the majors, pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Eventually, the other members of a professional team were paid to play also. The Unions were Kansas City’s first major league team in 1884. They disbanded at the end of their first season with 16 wins, 63 losses and 3 ties.
The Cowboys represented Kansas City in the National League in 1886. The team is perhaps best remembered for its rowdy behavior. Manager David Rowe routinely carried a gun and reportedly shot catcher Charles Briody in mid-season. The team was expelled from the league because of low attendance and “hooliganism.”
The Federal League was the last attempt to field a third major league in the United States. Kansas City’s entry, the Packers played in Gordon & Koppel Stadium at 49th and Tracy from 1913 to 1915.
The Blues were Kansas City’s leading professional team by the late 1880s. The Blues played in the Western Association from 1888 to 1897, in the Western League from 1898 to 1901 and joined the American Association in 1902.
Owner George Muehlebach built a new stadium for the Blues at 22nd and Brooklyn in 1923. Regarded as one of the best in the minor leagues, Muehlebach Stadium seated 16,000. That same year, the Blues won the Junior World Series, beating the International League champions. The Blues boasted nine .300 hitters that year, including Bunny Brief (known as the home run king in the American Association) and Dutch Zwilling (who became team manager and later president of the Ban Johnson League).
The New York Yankees purchased the Blues in 1937. Branch Rickey pioneered the idea of a farm system for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1920s, and the Yankees perfected the idea. Mickey mantle, Gerald Priddy, Phil Rizutto and Hank Bauer played with the Blues before going on to New York. The fans, however, resented being in a second-class league and the “mass production” of talent. The Blues left Kansas City in 1953.
For almost a century, baseball was segregated. Organized in 1920, the Monarchs played in the Negro National League. They were widely regarded as the “New York Yankees of the Negro Leagues.”
The Monarchs beat Babe Ruth’s All Stars in both games of a doubleheader in 1922. They also captured the city championship in 1922, beating the Blues five games out of six. Because of similar defeats in other cities, Commissioner Landis banned games between black teams and intact white teams. Only “all-star” white clubs could play black teams after that year.
In addition to playing games within the Negro National league, the Monarchs barnstormed throughout the midwest. They played wherever they could draw a crowd, sometimes playing as many as three games a day. In the 1930s, they played in 18 midwestern states, Canada and Mexico, providing entertainment for thousands of rural Americans who had no other contact with professional sports.
Several factors led to the integration of major league baseball — World War II propaganda against racism, the financial success of the Negro Leagues during the wartime boom, and increasing demands by blacks for equality. Branch Rickey signed Monarch rookie Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945. The last color barrier in baseball fall in 1970 when the commissioner appointed a committee to select former Negro leaguers for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Former Monarch Satchel Paige was the first selected in 1971.
Since the turn of the century, having a professional team in the best league possible wa san indication that a town was progressive and growing. Getting the A’s to move from Philadelphia to Kansas city symbolized Kansas City’s transition to a major league city. President truman threw out the first pitch for the opening game in 1955, and 1.4 million fans cheered the A’s in their first season.
Charles Finley purchased the A’s in 1960. His many efforts to woo fans became known as Finley’s Follies. He painted the stadium yellow, turquoise, pink and orange. He opened a zoo beyond left field. He outfitted the team in garish uniforms. he installed “Harvey,” a mechanical rabbit which provided the umpire with new balls. He had a mule named Charlie O. as a mascot. Finley also fired managers, constantly threatened to move the team, and had a losing record. Attendance declined and he moved the team in 1967.
Ewing Kauffman was awarded the franchise for an expansion team in 1969. Demonstrating their commitment to major league sports, Kansas Citians approved $71 million for a new sporting complex. Royals Stadium opened in 1973 and was showcased to the nation in that year's All Star game.
In 1976, 1977, and 1978, the Royals won the American League West division title. And each year they were defeated in the playoffs by the New York Yankees. After the 1980 victory over the Yankees, the Kansas City Times reported, “Kansas City erupted like a champagne bottle kept on ice too long.” They lost the World Series to the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1984, the Royals lost the playoffs to the Detroit Tigers. Their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985 made the wait worthwhile.
--ALBUM vol 3, no. 3 (summer 1990)