Pajot: Manning Vaughan and his long-forgotten baseball writing style
From SABR member Dennis Pajot at SABRMedia.org, the Baseball and the Media Committee’s website, on April 9, 2015:
Manning Vaughan was the main baseball writer of the Milwaukee Sentinel for much of the Deadball Era. His style was colorful and full of panache. Vaughan had a wonderful way of bringing baseball games to life in people’s parlors or at the local drinking establishments. Vaughan was a “homer” when the Brewers were winning, honest when things went bad, and always fair and gracious to the opposing team.
Vaughan was born in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1887, where his father, John, was in the laundry business. The family moved to Milwaukee a few years later, where the senior Vaughn established a laundry company. Manning graduated from South Division High School in Milwaukee in 1905.
His love of sports began early. Later in life Vaughan told this story about attending games at the old ball grounds at 16th and Lloyd Streets: “There were hundreds of knot holes in the fence at the old Sixteenth St. Park, and the kids used to stand on barrels, bicycles, boxes … anything to see the games. My folks refused to permit me to attend the Sunday games, but one Sunday afternoon I was at my favorite knothole intent upon the game when suddenly I heard dad’s whistle. Dad later said that I dropped from the bike on which I was standing as though I’d been shot.”
In high school Manning took up writing about the school’s sport teams and became manager of the football and baseball teams. He also told a story of how, as manager of the South Division High School nine, he once arranged a game with Lake Forest Academy, against his principal’s wishes, on a school day. The boys went down and defeated the Illinois team, but they had a difficult time “squaring” themselves with their principal when they returned.
Read the full article here: http://sabrmedia.org/biographies/journalists/vaughan-manning/
Originally published: April 10, 2015. Last Updated: April 10, 2015.