An excerpt from the personal diary of Brooklyn Whales’ scout Malcolm Franklin. June 18, 1906 Heading into the draft, Skip [ed note: Whales’ GM/Manager Marques Williams] had made clear his wishes. Top-to-bottom throughout the organization, he wanted to emphasize players with strong fundamentals with the glove and to be opportunistic with any pitchers with projectable…
June 25, 1906 – by Ronald Schmidt Since this season, Philadelphia Brewers General Manager Martin Pitsch has faced more challenges by fielding a complete team of prospects rather than having a bunch of worn-out reservists. Philadelphia could sign three players for this draft in the first two rounds. In late November 1905, Philadelphia sent Junius…
In the concrete bunker in Brooklyn doubling as GM/Manager Marques Williams’ office beneath the Field of the Whales, two men with an uneasy history sat across from another. Like two boxers, they were sizing up their adversary for any sign of weakness. Williams, the legendary baseball man and profane giant charged with running the Brooklyn baseball operations…
Below is an excerpt from the seminal account of the tenure, trials, and tribulations of the second Commissioner of the Legacy Baseball League, Jacob Parker, from esteemed baseball historian Richard Abbott. This excerpt is published with the permission of the author in connection with the release of a new edition with an all new foreword….
After the 1904 Legacy Cup was placed in the trophy room at Boeselager Stadium, many fans wondered if the four trophies would need rearrangement. Philadelphia’s front office failed to sign significant improvements. Bradley Miller was the only free agent joining their ranks. The biggest Eastern League rivals stepped up. Many saw Brooklyn’s signing of Jackie…
July 17, 1905 – by Ronald Schmidt It is challenging to stand out in a team with stars like Leo McKenzie, Moriarty Stapleton, Stephen Millington, or Enrique Johnson. It’s easy for bystanders not to notice players at all. One severely underrated player is Lambert Holmes. When Holmes joined the Brewers for the 1900 season, he…
by Steve M. The Bakers are ‘rolling’ out their new rotation and the theme is “kiddie corps’. The senior of the group is 22 years old Caleb Cooper with one year of pro ball under his belt. Caleb was a free agent signing in 1901 and is considered a true ‘dirt dog’. One of the…
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 15th, 1905 Early this morning, boxcar after boxcar arrived at the elevated station at 36th and Market Street, Philadelphia, offloading droves of brown-coated Soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets. In response to the growing demonstrations among various labor organizations led by the Klu Klux Klan in protest of the Inter-Racial Championship game…
Philadelphia, PA April 10th, 1905 Boeslager Stadium became the center of a complicated controversy this week as both the Mayors Office and the Brewers General Management, in conjunction with LBL Commissioner Jacob Parker, announced an official date for the re-scheduling of the first-ever inter-racial baseball game between the Legacy Baseball League and the Legacy Negro…
The Philadelphia Brewers leadership, Karl and Walter Boeselager, and Martin Pitsch, sat in the German Corner Pub and read the telegram sent by the league’s front office. Senator Samuel Watson put the Inter-Racial Championship Game between the Philadelphia Brewers and the Chattanooga Nickajacks on ice. The delegation from Chattanooga was about to arrive in Philadelphia…