Frank Mills

On September 22, 1914, Shoeless Joe Jackson sat on the Cleveland Naps dugout bench watching his newest teammate, 19-year-old Frank LeMoyne Mills, make his major-league debut. Seconds later, Shoeless Joe applauded Mills as he stood on first base after hitting a single. At 19 years old, with a batting average of 1.000, the baseball future of Frank Mills looked bright. Thus began a baseball odyssey that would years later, once again, intersect with Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Frances Lewis Mills was born on May 13, 1895, in Knoxville, Ohio. While he was still identified as Frances L in the 1900 Federal Census, the 1910 Census identified him as Lemoyne Mills.1 With his 1914 debut with the Cleveland Naps, as well as in the 1920 and later Federal Census reports, he was identified as Frank L. Mills.

Frank Mills’s father, Fred G. Mills (from the 1910 census on, he was referred to as Ford) was a grocer who later became a laborer making his living doing odd jobs. His father was also at one time the mayor of Sebring, Ohio, as well as the postmaster for Sebring. Frank’s mother was identified as Jennie Edwards. Jennie, whose full name was Mary Virginia Edwards, married Fred Mills later in 1895. Frank had three brothers and one sister.

By 1914, at the age of 19, Mills was beginning to show his baseball potential while catching for the Business Men in the Alliance (Ohio) City League.2 At least two professional baseball teams expressed interest in him.

The Dallas Base Ball Club, a Class-B Texas League team, recognizing Mills’s potential, offered him a minor-league contract on July 15, 1914. In the contract, Mills, who was to be paid $150 per month, was identified as Lemoyne Mills.3

Instead of signing the contract with Dallas, Mills chose to sign with Cleveland when, after a two-day tryout, manager Joe Birmingham “offered young Mills a very flattering contract and offered to take him on at once for work with the Naps.”4 Cleveland offered to pay Mills $350 per month.5   

Mills made his major-league debut on September 22, 1914, in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics at Cleveland’s League Park. Pinch-hitting against the Athletics’ Bullet Joe Bush, Mills “delivered with a single,” after which “Birmingham presented him with a new baseball on which were inscribed the name of all the Philadelphia players.”6 It was Mills’s only major-league hit.

Mills pinch-hit again two days later (he walked) and started two games at catcher, including catching 12 innings in a 12-inning 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on September 30. In all, Mills was 1-for-8. While behind the plate, he threw out three of the five baserunners who attempted to steal.

Mills was invited to spring training with the 1915 Indians7 (Cleveland changed its team name from Naps to Indians after the 1914 season), but never played in another major-league game.

Failing to make the major-league roster in 1915, Mills was sent to the Portsmouth Cobblers of the Class-D Ohio State League. He made his presence known in the first game of the season when “none of the opponents tried to steal off of him after seeing an exhibition of his throwing.”8

Mills played in 23 games for the Cobblers, hitting .271 and fielding .964.9 His Portsmouth career ended on June 3 when he “suffered a broken shin bone” while trying to block the plate in an effort to keep a runner from scoring. “The crunch of the bone as it snapped could be heard through the stands, and Mills fell to the ground groaning with pain,” the local paper reported.10

Later, in spite of his broken leg, Mills told Portsmouth president Gahleman that he “was doing as well as could be expected,” and that he “expects to catch a good many games for Portsmouth before the season is closed.”11 Two weeks later, a league umpire visited Mills at the hospital and reported that he had been operated on to remove “poisonous matter from his broken leg.” Mills was still confined to bed.12  

Once the leg healed, Mills was recalled by the Indians,13 but didn’t get into any games. He was invited to spring training again in 1916,14 but at the close of spring training, Mills, now identified as “Lee” Mills, was sent outright to the Indians-owned Davenport Blue Sox of the Class-B Three-I League.15

Mills began 1916 as the everyday catcher for the Blue Sox. On June 1, he became part of a controversy that led to a game being protested. After a player for the Moline Plowboys hit a high drive down the right-field line, umpire Jerry Eddinger allegedly consulted with Mills. When Mills told him the ball was foul, Eddinger then called the ball foul. Moline manager George Hughes said “he had no protest on the decision … but that he did protest having an umpire ask a player to make his rulings for him.”16

On June 24, while Mills was blocking the plate, his “left leg was broken between the ankle and the knee midway between the joints.”17 This break was in the same place as Mills suffered the year before while playing for Portsmouth. Two days later, while in the hospital, Mills was visited by umpire Jerry Eddington. As a local paper recounted it, “According to Jerry the umpires now working in the Tri-Cities … felt throbs of pity for Lee Mills lying at Mercy Hospital … bought a cargo of fruit for the injured player. (Mills) greeted them suspiciously and eyed the packages with wonder. When they were opened and spread about the room, Lee failed to make any remarks but reached for the bell and summoning a nurse ordered her to have the fruit analyzed in the laboratory. If it was all right, the player (Mills) further instructed her, he would eat some of it.”18  

With the severity of the broken leg, Mills was expected to spend six weeks in the hospital and to miss the entire season.19 However, he was out of the hospital and returned to the Blue Sox five weeks later. Two days after his return, he was “let go… it being necessary to cut down on expenses on account of the small attendance at the games.”20

Upon his release, the local newspaper commented: “Mills indicated he would leave … for his home in Ohio, where he has been offered a position as traffic manager for a wholesale china house. If Lee is as prolific in breaking china as he is with his legs, he’ll soon draw a release there too.”21

In the spring of 1917 Mills was again invited to spring training with the Indians, but was not offered a contract. That spring he married Mildred H. Lembright. The couple had a son, Jack, and a daughter, Marion.22 On June 5 Mills registered for the military draft. On his registration he indicated he was a “Railroad Employee” working for the “Pennsylvania Lines, Eastern Division.”

There is no discernible documentation that Mills served in the military. In fact, in a contemporary Youngstown Telegram political cartoon, Mills, in a baseball uniform, is shown shaking hands with a soldier. The caption reads: “Make A Good Start Frank, Give The Fans The Best (Nothing Too Good For ‘Jambar’) Make ’EM STAND THE TEST”23

As the 1917 baseball season opened, Mills thought Cleveland still “had a string” on him, but that he had “not been forbidden to play semi pro ball.”24 With this in mind, Mills joined McElroy, a Youngstown semipro team.25 Perhaps socially significant at the time, one of Mills’s McElroy teammates was an African-American named Claude Johnson.26

While Mills was with McElroy, umpire and former major-league player Bill Powell “voiced the opinion that right now Mills is a better catcher than some of the National League’s backstops who are drawing down big pay.”27

Mills continued playing semipro ball for McElroy in 1918 and 1919.28 At some point during this time Mills went to work as a clerk for Carnegie Steel (later part of US Steel).29

At age 25, after beginning the 1920 season playing for the semipro Castle Cords,30 Mills joined the Atlanta Crackers of the Class-A Southern League. The move from the Cords to the Crackers was not without controversy. Shortly after the Crackers persuaded Mills to sign with them, the Castle Cords sued the Crackers, claiming a “contract with [an] Independent Club is as binding as one with [a] league team.” The Crackers, who viewed the Cords as an “outlaw” team, did not respond, even though Mills had signed a contract to play with the Cords for the entire 1920 season.31 Still, even though Mills had broken his agreement with the Cords, he said he would have left Atlanta and gone back to New Castle if  Fred Carta, a Cords pitcher who had been sent to Atlanta to persuade Mills to return, had “come at him in the right manner,” which he did not, so Mills chose to stay with Atlanta.32  

Mills batted .205 in 54 games for the Crackers. A highlight came on July 17 when, according to the Atlanta Constitution, his “work behind the platter for the Crackers was worthy of commendation. Frank scored the only tally of the Crackers’ side of the game by tripling to the scoreboard. … In addition to the greatly improved brand of stick work Frank cut down three Bears trying to slip over the second by stealing method.”33

The Crackers offered Mills a contract for the 1921 season. The new contract called for a salary of $250 per month. It contained the standard reserve clause binding Mills to the Crackers after the season.34

Mills decided not to sign the contract due to having a “good position with the Carnegie Steel Company … (and) that the Southern League climate did not agree with (him)  or his family.”35 Mills asked the Crackers for permission to catch for a semipro team.36 

The Crackers denied permission and, exercising the reserve clause from his 1920 contract, sold him to the Brooklyn Dodgers.37

The move from Atlanta to Brooklyn was viewed differently by journalists from the two cities.

One article reported, “The Brooklyn club has acquired a promising catcher in Mills. He … is very active, especially in blocking low pitches; he hits well and he can run.”38 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle opined that “Mills … was worth a gamble,” but commented that “he would not have been considered if he had not refused to report to Atlanta.”39

The Atlanta Constitution wrote that Mills “is regarded as a major-league possibility by Richard Guy, sporting editor of the Pittsburg Leader.”40 The next day, the Constitution commented, “We are still wondering what in blue blazes Brooklyn will do with Frank Mills, whose only claim to recognition was … a fairly good throwing arm,” and noted, “If the Dodgers retain Mills until April 1, the Crackers are certain to come in for a few extra dollars.”41

In any event, Mills refused to report for Brooklyn spring training “because he wanted to be guaranteed his salary for a season,” and on March 28 it was reported that the club had returned him to Atlanta.42

Once again Mills refused to report to Atlanta and signed a semipro contract with McElroy.43 Having made the choice to report neither to Brooklyn nor Atlanta, Mills was violating the reserve clause from his 1920 contract and, in effect, violating a rule passed by the National Association in May of 1920 that “players who had ignored reservation rights of their clubs or jumped contracts would be … barred.”44

Then came the November 1920 National Association45 meeting where, as a result of the 1919 Black Sox scandal that resulted in the lifetime ban of Joe Jackson and seven other White Sox, the “barred” clause was changed to add that “any player taking part in games with discredited players who have been barred … will automatically be barred themselves.”46

Disregarding this rule, Mills played the 1921 season for the McElroy Furniture Men. Their first game was against “the fast colored aggregation … American Giants.”47 The Furniture Men went on to play a series of games against other semipro teams and occasionally against visiting major-league teams. As a result, Mills was barred from Organized Baseball for violating his obligations to the reserve clause and for playing with “discredited players.”48

Mills quickly challenged the decision and asked that he be reinstated and declared a free agent. National Association Secretary J.H. Farrell denied Mills’s requests. Mills appealed to major-league Secretary-Treasurer Leslie O’Connor, who responded that since Mills was a minor leaguer, the major leagues had no authority over his disbarment.49

O’Connor added, “There is no major league club which would give you a contract with the special provisions you demanded from Brooklyn. Your return by Brooklyn to Atlanta was not significant … as they purchased your services on condition that you should make good to their satisfaction.

“If you thought there was something suspicious about the transactions, why did you wait a year before presenting the matter, meanwhile playing (presumably) with ineligible players?”50

Having been rejected by both the National Association and the major leagues, Mills continued to play semipro ball while continuing to work for U.S. Steel. By 1926 Mills was playing for the General Tires team in the Ohio and Pennsylvania League.51

Technically, Mills, as a banned player, was not eligible to play in the Ohio and Pennsylvania League. As a result, while he continued to play for the General Tires, he continued to petition for his reinstatement to good standing in professional baseball.

In preparation for a personal appeal to Commissioner Kenesaw Landis, during the 1926 Joint Meeting of the major leagues in Cincinnati, Mills reported that he and General Tires business manager Jake Reisinger would draw straws to see who would meet with Judge Landis first. The local newspaper commented: “This is a delicate task and it will behoove Frank and Jack to leave the door open for a hasty retreat, as the Judge is a man of very uncertain temper.”52

Part of Mills’s argument for reinstatement concerned the reason he chose not to report to the Brooklyn Dodgers or Atlanta. According to Mills, he “had one more fling at professional baseball when he got a leave of absence from U.S. Steel in order to play with Atlanta. When he was sold to Brooklyn in 1921, U.S. Steel canceled his leave and he had to return to the steel company.”53

Meanwhile, perhaps in an effort to distance himself from his participation in the Ohio and Pennsylvania League, Mills agreed to join the semipro Coshocton Regulars.54 Mills played out the 1926 baseball season with Coshocton, a member of the Eastern Ohio League,55 while continuing to prepare for his face-to-face appeal with Judge Landis.

After meeting with Landis in Cincinnati, Mills said, “Everything looks favorable that I will be reinstated within a few days.” He added that “Landis listened to his plea with much more patience than he has been said to show “jumpers” in the past.56 (A player barred for violating his reserve clause was considered a “jumper.”)

While waiting on the response from Judge Landis, Mills agreed to a contract to become manager of the 1927 Coshocton Regulars.57 An important part of his agreement to manage the Regulars was the fact that they played only on Sundays,58 and he could stay on at U.S. Steel. In addition, Mills was able to recruit other players who had full-time jobs.59

In an interesting twist, Emmett Cain, a three-year starter for the Regulars, decided not to sign a 1927 contract. Cain said he wanted to be reinstated in Organized Baseball “and to do so must necessarily lay out of the Eastern Ohio League this year, because of the ineligible players connected with the loop.”60

While waiting for his own reinstatement, Mills continued to manage in a league that welcomed ineligible players. And he responded to Cain’s decision not to sign his contract by placing him “on the suspended list of the Regulars so as to be available for service with the local club if he does not succeed in being reinstated.”61

The 1927 season opened on April 24 with a 5-4 win against “Hans Wagner’s Twin Cities club.”62 A month into the season, Mills received a hand-written letter from Landis in which the commissioner wrote, “It is never a joy to me to have to say ‘no’ to a player.” He then denied Mills’s appeal for reinstatement and directed him to again consult with National Association Secretary Farrell.63

Having been rejected for reinstatement, Mills continued as the Regulars’ player-manager. By early September, they were in a battle for first place and Mills “set the hitting pace … having swung his bludgeon at a .356 clip.”64 By the end of the season the Regulars were the Eastern Ohio League champions.65

Mills was lauded by the Coshocton Tribune for arousing “the admiration of the fans in rival league cities by his clean playing and sportsmanship in not “squawking” at every adverse decision in a game.”66 The paper went on to say: “It is hoped that the business management of the Coshocton Club will exert every effort to bring Mills (back in 1928).”67

Though he had stated a desire to return as manager of the Regulars, Mills couldn’t get a commitment from the club, and in January 1928 he agreed to play for the Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, team.68 Then, in spite of having signed to play for Beaver Falls, Mills in late March ended up signing a contract to again manage the Regulars.69

Before Coshocton’s April 29 opening game, Mills was named manager of the Eastern Ohio League All-Stars for a game with the Homestead Grays, but the game was rained out.70

Then, a week after the opening game, Mills resigned. The Coshocton Tribune wrote that he and the backers of the Regulars were at odds and “it was decided to let him out.”71 Having resigned from the Regulars, Mills rejoined the General Tires team.72

In 1929 Mills was hired to manage the Youngstown Oaklands in the Ohio State Baseball Association.73 He was instrumental in the formation of the new league, which took teams from the Eastern Ohio League and the Ohio and Pennsylvania League.”74 Once again, the new Association teams would play only Sunday games.75

By the end of the 1929 season, Mills “was no longer on the active list as a playing manager,” choosing to concentrate on his duties as manager,76 as well as on his new position as a salesman in the slag division of U.S. Steel.77

In late June of 1930, Mills put together a team to play against the Pittsburgh Pirates.78 The Pirates won 16-3. The Coshocton Tribune reported: “The Mills aggregation … looked like the Mudville team of the bush leagues, and the Pirates made them look even worse.”79

While still hoping for reinstatement, during the following years Mills “managed Youngstown semipro teams and played in exhibition games against major leaguers under many aliases.80

In 1931 Mills gave up his attempts for reinstatement to Organized Baseball.81 In 1932 his wife, Mildred, died at the age of 34.82 (Mills married Velma Viola Weining sometime prior to 1940.)83

While continuing to be involved with semipro baseball in the Youngstown area, Mills learned that Judge Landis was “cleaning up” the banned lists. Mills again applied for reinstatement.84 This time he was successful. In 1934, Mills was informed that he was “restored to the good graces of Organized Baseball after having been outlawed 13 years.”85

Mills was 39 years old when he was reinstated. Too old to resume a career in Organized Baseball, he concentrated on his career at U.S. Steel. At the same time, he remained involved with the baseball world. Shortly after Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium opened in 1970, Mills had the honor of throwing out a game’s first pitch.86

Over the years, perhaps as a result of playing with or against each other on barnstorming teams,87 Mills and Casey Stengel had become close friends, often traveling between Pittsburgh and New York together.88 In 1978 Mills sent several photographs taken at Stengel’s home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a letter dated September 22, 1978, Hall of Fame Director Howard C. Talbot wrote: “The president and the board of directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., gratefully accept your generous gift of photos taken at Casey Stengel’s home.”89 

In addition, a picture of Mills, Charlie Deal, and Dutch Zwilling at a Stengel memorial service once hung in the Hall of Fame’s Stengel exhibit.90 Mills, sometimes with Stengel in attendance, would often get paid for his recitation of “Casey at the Bat.”91

Meanwhile, while concentrating on his U.S. Steel career, Mills became the company’s top slag salesman. (Slag was originally considered a waste product by the steel industry.) By 1957, he was selling over a million tons of slag each year.”92

Family lore says that early in his U.S. Steel career, Mills learned about a meeting scheduled to discuss plans for construction of the Ohio Turnpike. He worked his way into the meeting as part of the catering crew. Listening carefully to the conversations, he went back to his office and prepared a quote using slag as the base. The quote was accepted and, as a result, springboarded his career.93

Mills took courses in salesmanship and law and received a Bachelor of Law degree from LaSalle Extension University.94

Mills was promoted to manager of the slag sales division in 1953. He held that position until he retired in 1960.95 That year Mills was named to the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame.96

After his retirement, Mills continued his community-service activities while pursuing a favorite hobby, building purple martin houses and observing their habits.

Mills’s second wife, Velma, died on July 25, 1979. Frank Mills died on August 31, 1983.97 Frank and Velma are buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Youngstown, Ohio.

Frank Mills had a baseball career that spanned three decades. He had the high of a major-league hit when he was 19 and the low of being “outlawed” by Organized Baseball when he was 26. Neither defined Frank Mills.

One hit! But not just a “one-hit-wonder.”

Sources

Thank you to Frank Mills’s granddaughters Janice Conroy and Marilyn Lahiff for sharing their memories and the Frank Mills family scrapbook.

Notes

1 1910 United States Federal Census via Ancestry.com.

2 “Cleveland – Try Out Was Very Satisfactory to Nap’s Management,” Undated, unidentified clipping from Mills’s family scrapbook.

3 Contract Approved by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, Class B.

4 “Cleveland – Try Out Was Very Satisfactory.”

5 “Frank Mills Has Made Successful Career Selling Slag, Formerly Waste Product,” Youngstown Vindicator, August 11, 1957: A32.

6 “Old” Poke, “Went Direct to Cleveland from Semi-Pro Club,” Davenport (Iowa) Daily Times, April 3, 1916: 13.

7 Western Union Telegram, March 16, 1915 (Mills family scrapbook).

8 J.W. Collins, “Large Crowd Out for Opening Day; Big Parade Ushers in the 1915 Season,” Mills family scrapbook.

9 “Old” Poke.

10 “Local Catcher Was Cut Down at Plate, Score Was 3 to 0,” Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times, June 4, 1915: 10.

11 “Mills Not Discouraged,” Portsmouth Daily Times, June 5, 1915: 10.

12 “Mills Improving,” Portsmouth Daily Times, June 19, 1915: 2.

13 “Old” Poke.

14 “Here’s First Group of Indian Squad at Training Camp,” Cleveland Press, March 3, 1916: 16.

15 “Old” Poke; Jerry Mack, “O’Leary to Work Gould in Getaway Tilt Against Peoria Next Wednesday,” Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa), April 23, 1916: 22.

16 “Duggan Doubles in Eighth for Blue Sox Win,” Davenport Daily Times, June 2, 1916: 16.

17 “Blue Sox Catcher Breaks Left Leg in Collision at Plate; Out for the Season,” Quad City Times, June 25, 1916: 10.

18 “Just an Earful,” Davenport Daily Times, June 27, 1916: 10.

19 “Just an Earful.”

20 “Sure Bite Bug Bait,” Quad City Times, August 1, 1916: 8.

21 “Just an Earful,” Davenport Daily Times, August 5, 1916: 11.

22 1930 United States Federal Census via Ancestry.com.

23 “Keeping the Home Fires Burning,” Youngstown Telegram, undated article from Mills family scrapbook.

24 “Breaks Same Leg Twice but Won’t Permit Double Mishap to Interfere With Aspirations,” undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

25 “Breaks Same Leg Twice.”

26 Photograph with team member identification provided by Janice Conroy (Frank Mills’s granddaughter).

27 Photograph with team member identification provided by Janice Conroy.

28 “Composite Box Score of M’Elroys Shows Mills Away Out in Front” Undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

29 1920 United States Federal Census via Ancestry.com.

30 “Brooklyn Infielders Aboard Band Wagon,” Brooklyn Standard Union, February 12, 1921: 8.

31 “Atlanta Club to Be Sued for Signing Markle and Mills,” Undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

32 “Frank Mills Tells Why He Failed to Come Back,” Undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

33  Atlanta Constitution, July 18, 1920: 3

34 Contract Approved by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues Uniform Players Contract, Class A.

35 Untitled, undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

36 Untitled, undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

37 “Brooklyn Infielders Aboard Band Wagon.”

38 “Catcher Mills Is Capable Player,” Undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

39 “Mills Has Low Batting Mark,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle,” February 14, 1921: 18.

40 “Frank Mills Subject of Pitt Comment,” Atlanta Constitution, February 19, 1921: 10.

41 “Sammy Mayer Made Two Great Deals,” Atlanta Constitution, February 20, 1921: 3.

42 “Rain Stops Dodgers; Mamaux on Sick List,” Brooklyn Standard Union, March 29, 1921: 12.

43 “Stambaugh Leases Park?” Undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

44 Undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

45 The National Association was the governing body for the minor leagues.

46 “To Keep Game Clean,” Reach Official American League Baseball Guide 1921, A.J. Reach Company, 204.

47 “M’Elroy Team Ready to Start,” Youngstown Vindicator, April 30, 1921: 13.

48 Letter to Frank Mills from major-league Secretary-Treasurer Leslie O’Connor, March 13, 1922.

49 O’Connor letter to Mills.

50 O’Connor letter to Mills.

51 “Frank Mills,” Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, January 18, 1927: 6.

52 “Mills and Reisinger Draw Straws to See Which Must Face Landis First,” undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

53 “Frank Mills Has Made Successful Career Selling Slag, Formerly Waste Product,” Youngstown Vindicator, August 11, 1957.

54 “Hildebrand Released; Mills or Durant Will Take Place with Regs,” Coshocton Tribune, July 20, 1926: 7.

55 “Sixth Club in E.O. Loop to be Named Today,” Coshocton Tribune, February 27, 1927: 5.

56 Frank Mills Is Confident of Early Reinstatement,” undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

57 “Mills, New Manager of Regulars, Has Enviable Record; 31 Years of Age,” Coshocton Tribune, January 18, 1927: 6.

58 “Contracts Sent Out to Full Team; Only Cain and Storch to Be Kept,” Coshocton Tribune, January 23, 1927: 16.

59 “Contracts Sent Out.“

60 “Emmett Cain Will Not Be with Regulars This Year; Placed on Suspended List,” Coshocton Tribune, February 28, 1927: 6.

61 “Emmett Cain.”

62 “Regulators Defeat Twins, 5 to 4, in Opening Contest,” Coshocton Tribune, April 25, 1927: 4.

63 Letter to Frank Mills from Commissioner Kenesaw Landis, May 24, 1927.

64 “Regular-Tuscora Battle for Pennant Expected to Be Fiercely Fought,” Coshocton Tribune, September 9, 1927: 7.

65 “Manager Mills Makes Enviable Record and Brings Pennant Here,” Coshocton Tribune, September 27, 1927.

66 “Manager Mills.”

67 “Manager Mills.”

68 “Coshocton May Withdraw from Eastern Ohio Baseball Loop,” Coshocton Tribune, January 10, 1928: 1.

69 “Mills to Manage Coshocton Team,” Coshocton Tribune, March 25, 1928: 1.

70 “Coshocton Regs Look as Strong as Last Year; New Men in Box, Field and at Second,” Coshocton Tribune, April 15, 1928: 12.

71 “Frank Mills Resigns as Coshocton Regs’ Manager; Ed. Kelly to Hold Reins,” Coshocton Tribune, May 7, 1928: 1.

72 “Pearson Hurls Game for Tires,” Coshocton Tribune, May 21, 1928: 3.

73 “Mills to Manage Youngstown Team in Coming Season,” Youngstown Vindicator, March 4, 1929: 2.

74 “Baseball Fans Keenly Interested in Confab at New Philadelphia,” Coshocton Tribune, March 3, 1929: 10.

75 Youngstown to Be in League,” Youngstown Vindicator, March 4, 1929: 10.

76 “The Sport Market,” Coshocton Tribune, August 25, 1929: 10.

77 “Frank L. Mills; USS Executive,” Youngstown Vindicator, September 1, 1983: 1.

78 “Pittsburgh Pirates to Play Here July 10,” Coshocton Tribune, June 30, 1930: 7.

79 “Pirates Win From Opponents, 16 to 3,” Coshocton Tribune, July 11, 1930: 9.

80 “Frank Mills Given Reinstatement by Czar of Baseball,” undated, unidentified article from Mills family scrapbook.

81 “Frank Mills Given Reinstatement.”

82 “Mildred H. Mills,” findagrave.com/memorial/141285125/mildred-h__-mills. Accessed April 23, 2021.

83 1940 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com

84 “Frank Mills Given Reinstatement.”

85 “Frank Mills Given Reinstatement.”

86 Photograph with inscription provided by Janice Conroy (Frank Mills granddaughter).

87 Toni Harsh (Casey Stengel grandniece) interview, August 3, 2019.

88 Janice Conroy interview, May 24, 2019.

89 Letter to Mills from Howard C. Talbot, director, National Hall of Fame and Museum, September 22, 1978.

90 Photograph with inscription provided by Janice Conroy.

91 Janice Conroy interview, May 24, 2019.

92 “Frank Mills Has Made Successful Career Selling Slag, Formerly Waste Product,” Youngstown Vindicator, August 11, 1957.

93 Janice Conroy interview, May 24, 2019.

94 Frank Mills Testimonial, May 21, 1960.

95 “Frank L. Mills; USS Executive,” Youngstown Vindicator, September 1, 1983: 1.

96 “Frank L. Mills; USS Executive.”

97 “Frank L. Mills; USS Executive.”