Bob Slater

 

St. Joseph’s first professional baseball team was the Redstockings in 1886, managed by John Albus, who played in a ballpark at 4th and

Hickory streets. Incidentally, that was the site of the last public hanging in

Buchanan County. The team wore dark green uniforms, red stockings, white caps for the players, a red cap for the captain. The 12-member team played 80 games; season tickets were $10 In 1892, the baseball team moved to a park at 6th and

Atchison streets — just south of the

Aquila building — that was rented from Milton Tootle for $500. 

St. Joseph in those early days played primarily in the Western League, a class A league. That was in the days when we had, below the majors, AA (American Association, International League and Pacific Coast League), A (

Western Texas and Southern leagues), B, C and D leagues. The electric utility owned the team during much of the 1890s. Streetcar fares to the ballpark were a good revenue source. The team through the years had various nicknames (one, with Davis Brothers as the sponsor, had “Aunt Jemina St. Joseph” on the front of the uniform jerseys. They were usually referred to as the “Pancake Eaters.) At various times the team was known as the Drummers, Saints, Packers, Cardinals and Jobbers. After not having a team from 1927 through 1929, the city built a new field at 27th and Messanie streets for the 1930 season. Dizzy Dean pitched for that tea; 3,000 attended his April 20 debut, and he beat

Denver, 4-3. Dizzy once was arrested for driving 60 miles an hour in a 30-mile zone on
King Hill Avenue

; he spent two hours in jail. The first professional night game in

St. Joseph was played at that field May 2, 1931. The Saints, still in the class A Western League, lost to

Omaha, 5-2. That ballpark burned down in 1933, a replacement was built at the same location. In one of the strangest legal suit I’ve ever heard of, a Julia E., White filed suit to have the park condemned as a public nuisance. She lived on Sylvanie, east of Noyes, and complained the lights and noise made it difficult to sleep. A judge agreed, said the land could be used for recreation only, and the grandstand was torn down in 1937. Professional baseball left

St. Joseph from 1936 through 1938, though returned in 1939. While the present Welch Stadium was being completed, games were played at what was basically a softball field, Thames Stadium, where the highway patrol office is now located. 

St. Joseph was now in the Western Association, a class C league. This was a different league than the class A Western. Instead of cities like

Denver,

Sioux City,

Omaha, Colorado Springs, etc., rivals were now

Topeka,

Fort Smith,

Muskogee,

Springfield,

Joplin, etc. The stadium was dedicated June 23, 1939, and the Saints lost to the Muskogee Reds, 12-11, before 3,500 fans. 

Lehr Construction was the general contractor on the WPA project, with the $100,000 cost paid by a combination of federal funds and money from a 1936 bond issue the city had passed to build some new fire stations and a new police station, among other items. Capacity was reported at 4,277. Incredibly, the stadium was built in just 10 weeks. You can view the stadium on microfilm from newspapers in

St. Joseph at the time of the dedication. 

 

The team had a working agreement with the St. Louis Browns, but the 1941 team pulled out and moved to

Carthage, Missouri (population, 10,000) because of low attendance. A Memorial Day doubleheader against

Joplin had drawn 334 fans to watch the 6th-place Saints. Stan Musial, playing with the Springfield Cardinals, appeared here during a four-game series in May, with 10 hits. Baseball returned to the Stadium in 1946, as a Cardinal farm club. The stadium was idle in 1952, as the Cardinals didn’t have enough players to stock the team. They returned in 1953, then for the 1954 season, the Cardinals and Yankees switched franchises, the Cardinal team going to

Joplin and the Yankee farm team coming to

St. Joseph. We were the Saints that year.  With the arrival of major league baseball in

Kansas City in 1955, there was no longer professional baseball in

St. Joseph. A few brief highlights: Yogi Berra, as a player for the Stockham Legion post in

St. Louis, became the first high-schooler to hit a home run over the 420-foot centerfield fence. Mickey Mantle played here in 1950, as a shortstop for the Joplin Miners. With an erratic throwing arm, the Yankees decided to make him an outfielder. 

Contrary to urban legend, legendary baseball manager Earl Weaver did not get married at home plate. Unfortunately, this has been published by someone not familiar with the facts. Weaver played 2nd base for the 1949 Cardinals, got married at

First English Lutheran Church (now First Lutheran) He played a night game after his daytime wedding, and got three hits. 

 

The heyday of minor league baseball in

St. Joseph was in the post-World War II years. In both 1947 and 1948, the Cardinals drew over 125,000 for their 70-game home schedule. Satchel Paige pitched on several occasions in

St. Joseph, both with the Kansas City Monarchs and with his traveling all-stars after the major league season. In those days, major league players weren’t making huge salaries and put together barnstorming tours at the end of the regular season, crossing the country to pick up some money. Dizzy Dean and Satchel pitched against each other on at least one occasion at the Stadium. 

Posted by: admin on Friday, July 25th, 2008
Filed under: Old Joe, General |