Roger P. Hadix - Baseball in Colorado Springs

BASEBALL
IN
COLORADO SPRINGS

The IXL Club played the Valley Club of Pueblo in a two-game series. Pueblo won both games, 53-44 and 39-34. (Courtesy of Special Collections, Tutt Library.)

FRONT COVER: The Colorado College Tigers, shown here around 1980, played their home games on campus at Washburn Field. (General Baseball, Special Collections, Tutt Library.)

COVER BACKGROUND: The 1904 Colorado Springs Millionaires are seen here at Boulevard Park. (Courtesy of the Jay Sanford collection.)

BACK COVER: The 1882 Denver & Rio Grande Reds were sponsored by Gen. William Jackson Palmer and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Some of the ballplayers are wearing bow ties. (Courtesy of the Jay Sanford collection.)

BASEBALL
IN
COLORADO SPRINGS

Roger P. Hadix

Copyright 2013 by Roger P. Hadix
ISBN 978-0-7385-9954-0
Ebook ISBN 9781439642207

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013934877

For all general information, please contact Arcadia Publishing:
Telephone 843-853-2070
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To Rhoda Davis Wilcox and James Coakley Sr., teachers who inspired in me both civic pride and a passion for history

CONTENTS

I am often asked how long I have been working on this book. The short answer is, eight months. But the seed of this idea was planted 20 years ago. Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker, did a series on baseball for PBS. I had the opportunity to hear him speak about it in Denver, and that got me to thinking, If he can do a film, why cant I write a book about the history of Colorado Springs baseball?

As with any major project, there are many people to thank for their help and guidance. Mark Foster, a fellow Vintage Base Ball player who has read the literary version of this book, gave me invaluable input. Several people provided me with photographs, or items to be photographed, without cost, from their own collections or businesses. My gratitude goes to Jay Sanford, John Haney, Rich Gossage, David Raith, Michelle Anthony of the Manitou Heritage Center, Shirley Wade, Robert Howsam Jr., Al Walters, Richard Marold, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, and Dana Wessells, owner of Bennys Restaurant. Equally important are the photograph archivists, Katie Rudolph, the Pikes Peak Library District (now in Denver), Laura Fuller at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Coi Drummond at the Denver Public Library, and the staff at History Colorado. Many images come from the Special Collections at Tutt Library of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Last but not least, Ive received support from my brother, Stephen Long, my friends John Sumner, Judy Winnick, Alex Nunez, Shale Lepage, and the Colorado Vintage Base Ball Association, my coworkers at First Commercial Bank, the staff at Staples, Fed-Ex Kinkos, and Stacia Bannerman, my editor at Arcadia Publishing. If I have missed anyone, I offer my apologies; it was not intentional.

Deep drive, long fly ball, thats way back, and she is gone! That is a typical home run call of play-by-play announcer Dan Karcher for todays Colorado Springs Sky Sox radio broadcast. For the past 25 years, Colorado Springs has enjoyed AAA minor league professional baseball, courtesy of the Sky Sox. However, organized baseball began in Colorado Springs a long time ago.

The first report of a team being organized to play baseball in the area was in the Colorado Springs Gazette of May 31, 1873: Colorado Springs is to have a Base Ball club. And why not? We find it hard enough to string together a page of local items for the Gazette and anything which will produce a few more accidents [events] will be a perfect Godsend to us. About a week later, on June 7, an article stated, The Base Ball Club played their first game on Saturday afternoon last. We had a reporter on the grounds, but he came back disconsolate, for there were no accidents [events] worthy of note.

The 1874 IXL Club, presumably sponsored by the IXL Creamery, was the first named, organized team to play baseball in the Pikes Peak region. Colorado College fielded a baseball team from its earliest days, referred to by the paper as the College Boys, or Freshmen. Other teams were known as the Athletics, Experts, and Tray Artists.

By 1880, Gen. William Jackson Palmer, founder of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and the city of Colorado Springs, joined Denver and Leadville in establishing a state baseball league. The Denver & Rio Grande Reds, or Colorado Springs Reds, as they were also known, played the Denver Brown Stockings and the Leadville Blues. The Colorado Springs Base Ball Club, referred to as the Millionaires in the paper, was the citys first professional team, playing from 1901 to 1905 and for one more season, in 1916. A city league, run by former Colorado Springs Millionaire player Burt Jones, lasted throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. In the 1940s, Colorado Springs had a black semipro baseball team known as the Brown Bombers. Due to the efforts of H. Chase Stone and Bill MacPhail, professional baseball returned to Colorado Springs. The Sky Sox were the Class-A minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and played in the Western League from 1950 to 1958, winning pennants in 1953, 1955, and 1958.

Unfortunately, Colorado College eliminated its mens baseball program in 1995. The US Air Force Academy, however, continues to field a mens baseball team. During the 1970s and most of the 1980s, softball was the only ball being played in Colorado Springs. In 1988, Dave Elmore chose Colorado Springs over Sacramento as the new home of his Hawaii Islanders. The city benefited from the efforts of people such as Harry Salzman and the committee that brought the Islanders to Colorado Springs. The Sky Sox continue their relationship with Major League Baseballs Colorado Rockies. Many Sky Sox players get a chance to showcase their talents for the big-league team, only 65 miles away via I-25.

There will always be great stories that do not make it into a book, for a variety of reasons. In this case, four stories are unable to be highlighted and fully elaborated upon. The main reason for their exclusion is that companion photographs have not been found. The first is the story of the infamous 1912 Rocky Mountain League and the entry by Colorado Springs, known as the Millionaires. This team moved to Dawson, New Mexico, on June 15 and became the Dawson Stags. The president of the Rocky Mountain League, which lasted only one season, was Ira Bidwell. Prior to the Brown Bombers, there are reports of other black teams. In the first decade of the 20th century, a team of black players, the Zulus, existed, and in the 1930s, there was a team known as the Orioles. The great Babe Ruth visited Colorado Springs and put on a hitting exhibition on July 4, 1940. Inexplicably, it was not covered by the newspaper, and no photographs of Ruths visit exist. There is an excellent story by Danny Summers on this event that can be read in the April 2012 edition of Mile High Sports (www.milehighsports.com). Finally, any time a baseball player hits four home runs in a single game, it is a mighty achievement. Pat Serri did so while playing for the Sky Sox in the 1950s, but no accompanying photograph exists.