Friday July 5, 1901
Written by Scoop Waltner—Doves Beat Writer
In an interesting spectacle, Eric Hortness has been tabbed as the new General Manager for the Chicago Doves, a member of the Legacy Baseball League that plays in the Great Lakes Division of the Western League. Hortness was introduced at a press conference that was held at Chicago’s The Bismarck, a hotel owned by the Eitel brothers. Several in attendance considered the location for the press conference ‘strange & eye-opening’.
The new GM has his hands full, and he knows it. After the 1900 season, which saw the Doves reach the Legacy playoffs, the 1901 season was drastically different. Chicago finished 44-54 overall, 3rd in the division and 27 games behind Twin City Empire. With an ever-aging roster, Hortness will be tasked with bringing the Doves back to respectability and vying for the playoffs once again.
Hortness has been brought into Chicago from South Dakota. In South Dakota, he spent several years playing and running a semi-pro team, the Freeman Merchants. During the week, he was a school-teacher. On weekends his focus was with the Merchants and their weekend games. “Listen”, said Hortness, “if I can recruit guys to move to Freeman and play for the Merchants while also working, I won’t have any problems recruiting players to Chicago to play baseball as their job.”
When asked about his new role, Hortness had this to say, “I know what I have signed on for. This is going to be a challenge, but a challenge that I happily accept. My first order of business is going to be getting a new manager hired for the ballclub. For reasons that nobody knows, our previous manager, Kevin Jacobson, has been let go. I reached out to Kevin, he has no interest in coming back to the Doves, no reason given, just a no, not interested. We move on. I need to find somebody that will bring us back from being the ‘rat in the sky’, which are pigeons, and get us back to being Doves. Once we have a new manager, we will move on down my list of things that need to happen.”
A few more points on the mysterious case of Kevin Jacobson not being asked to return. He won the 1900 Manager of the Year Award and is the only manager the Doves have known, leading them to three playoff appearances in the seven years of the league. Some suspect that there is much more to this story than just a manager being let go.
On the subject of more to the story and the interesting location of the Hortness press conference. It’s widely known that the Eitel brothers (Emil, Karl, Robert, & Max) have very close connections with mobsters in the Chicago area. Only time will tell what will happen going forward, but one thing we can assure our readers…..the Doves will be an exciting and interesting club to follow.