Baseball in Kansas City

The Civil War introduced baseball to the armies of the South in prisoner of war camps. Frontier Forts Leavenworth and Scott both reported baseball activity during and immediately after the War.

In 1866, a year after the Civil War ended, Kansas City organized its first baseball team, the Antelopes. The team played games on an exercise field at 14th Street between Oak and McGee. At the end of the season, the Antelopes met the older Frontier Club of Leavenworth. The Antelopes won 47 to 27.

In 1884, the Unions, sometimes called Onions by the press, became Kansas City’s first professional baseball team. They played in the Union Association. The played at Athletic Park, in Cook’s pasture near Summit and Southwest Boulevard. Organized by baseball entrepreneur Ted Sullivan, Kansas City offered its first ladies day and rainchecks that year. Some Sunday crowds topped 5,000 as the team finished sixth, but reportedly cleared a healthy profit of $3,000 — 5,000. When the Kansas City contingent showed up for the winter meeting they met only representatives from Milwaukee. The league had folded, but neglected to inform the two clubs.

The next year Sullivan fielded another Cowboy entry in the Western League, but that league folded before the season was over. By 1886 the National League and David Rowe — one of baseball’s original “Big Four” — had gained interest in Kansas City. The “Cowboys,” admitted on a provisional basis, played their games in the city’s new League Park, situated on the south side of Independence Avenue at Lydia. The players called the field “the Hole” because when Independence Avenue was graded, dirt was pushed high along the edge of the street, making a mound along the field’s perimeter. It was a skin field without a blade of grass. After a rain the park would become a pond. It rained the day before the opening day of the 1886 season and the game had to be postponed until the field could dry out. The next day the Cowboys beat the defending champion Chicago White Stockings in a game that went 13 innings. Several gun incidents, on the field and off, convinced the Eastern baseball establishment that Kansas City was too rough for their ball players. Kansas City would remain the Westernmost extension of the National League until 1958 when the Brooklyn and New York clubs moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Undaunted by the National League setback, Rowe set up the Western League for the Cowboys. When that league failed to finish the season, he left Kansas City and became involved in the Players Union and the year-long strike in 1890.

Back at home, a group of business men found club acceptance in the American Association. The Cowboys never did very well, but they were major league. During the 1888 season, fans began calling the Kansas City Western Association team “the Blues” because they wore blue uniforms. They chose distinctive uniforms to differentiate them from the Cowboys who still played in the major league American Association. By 1889 the city was back to supporting only one club, the Cowboys. But, the Blues returned in 1890 to win the Western Association pennant in the final game of the year versus the Indianapolis Hoosiers. it was the first baseball pennant for Kansas City and a year in which the club cleared a substantial profit.

Over the next two decades, Kansas City professional baseball was played in Exposition Park, built in 1893 at 15th and Montgall, Sportsman’s Park, home to Kid Nichols’ Blue Stockings, at 17th and Indiana, Association Park — built in 1903 by George Tebeau at 20th and Olive; and Gordon and Koppel stadium — an old athletic field which housed the Federal League nine, at 48th and Tracy.

Kansas City had two teams in 1902 and 1903, the Western League Blue Stockings and the Blues who played in the American Association. From 1913 through 1915 there were again two teams. The Blues played at Association Park and the Packers of the Federal League played at 48th and Tracy.

Young brewery owner George Muehlebach started attending Blues games at Association Park. He built the Muehlebach Hotel at 11th and Baltimore in 1915, and in that same year he purchased a small holding of the Blues. Two years later Muehlebach owned controlling interest in the team. In 1923, after finding out that the railroad had exercised its option to construct tracks through the outfield of Association Park, he built a ballpark for his team at 22nd and Brooklyn. He named it after himself. The Blues won the pennant as fans packed the stadium in record numbers. The franchise had set a minor league attendance record of 309,000 in 1922, the last year at Association Park, which it broke with 430,000 in 1923, the first year at Muehlebach. The Blues beat Baltimore to win the Little World Series in 1923. The Blues won the pennant and series again in 1929.

But by 1930 the fans seemed to lose interest in the team. As ticket sales dropped, Muehlebach attempted to resuscitate the franchise by playing night baseball. Although there were some increase in ticket sales, it didn’t justify the cost of lighting the field. At the end of the 1932 season, Muehlebach sold the Blues and his stadium to a partnership that included the radio and movie comedian Joe E. Brown, E.E. Kayser of Des Moines — a boyhood friend of Kansas City Monarchs’ owner J.L. Wilkinson — and all-time great Tris Speaker. The group grew disenchanted with baseball as the Depression hit the area hard. They sold the club to Kansas City, Kansas, resident Johnny Kling at a bargain price. Kling had been the catcher on the Chicago Cubs team that won four pennants in five years, 1906-1910. He sold the franchise to Col. Jacob Ruppert of the new York Yankees in the summer of 1937. The price tag for the team and the stadium was $230,000. The Blues became a Yankee farm team. Many big league players appeared for this team: Phil Rizzuto, Jerry Priddy, Mickey Mantle, Moose Skowron, Johnny Mize, and Hank Bauer, to name a few.

At the same time, there was another professional winning baseball team in Kansas City. This team won more championships than any other in the city’s sports history. When these athletes played their home games in Blues’ Stadium, crowds filled the grandstand. The team was the Kansas City Monarchs, and from 1920 until 1955 they dominated black baseball.

The Negro National League of baseball clubs came out of a meeting of African-American team owners and sportswriters held at the Paseo YMCA and Streets Hotel in 1920. James L. Wilkinson, who started the All-Nations — players of different races and nationalities — put together the Kansas City Monarchs team that same year. Wilkinson, who was white, was respected by both players and members of the black community. He would own the Monarchs for over 28 years and eventually would become vice-president of the Negro National League.

The Monarchs won nine league pennants and were the first Negro World Champions. In 1921 they challenged the Kansas City Blues to a championship series at Association Park. The Monarchs won three out of the five games. When Babe Ruth came through town with his Traveling All-Stars in1922, the team lost both of their games to the Monarchs. The Monarchs won the first Negro World Series in 1924 and went on to win eight more pennants and another Series in 1942.

The Monarchs were the first to light ballfields for regular night games. In 1930 Wilkinson had a portable lighting system built. Poles that could be extended to a height of 50 feet and support six floodlights were powered by generators that were mounted on truck beds. The trucks were placed outside of the foul lines. The system cost more than $50,000, but the lights sold tickets to night games.

During the Depression, when ticket sales went down in Kansas City, the Monarchs took to barnstorming small towns, challenging local teams to earn money. They traveled in their own bus to 18 states. It wasn’t unusual for them to play one game in the afternoon, then drive to the next town to play another game under lights that evening. The Monarchs played anywhere from 80 to 150 games a season.

Leroy “Satchel” Paige has been called one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. He played for Negro League teams for 30 years, then he went to the majors. Paige started playing professionally with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts. He moved quickly to the “Big Leagues” with the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He joined the Monarchs’ traveling squad with a sore arm in 1939. Far from washed up, he used snake oil to revive his dead arm and starred for the Monarchs from 1941 until 1947.

The Cleveland Indians hired Paige in 1948.

He helped the team win the American League pennant that year. Later he pitched for the St. Louis Browns, and in 1965, when he was 59, Charles Finley hired him to pitch three innings for the Kansas City Athletics in order to qualify for baseball’s pension plan. Named to the Hall of Fame in 1971, Paige died on June 8, 1982, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, not far from fellow Hall-of-Famer Zack Wheat.

When Jackie Robinson, who had played for the Monarchs in 1945, was called up by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he broke the 20th century color barrier in the Major Leagues. This act started the decline of the Negro Leagues, which soon lost its best players to the majors where fans could see Paige, Larry Doby, or Monte Irvin against white Major League players.

Wilkinson sold the Monarchs in 1948, but the team carried on for 16 more years, barnstorming in small towns where they still attracted crowds. By 1964 the team was no more, but their history is on view at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at 1601 E. 18th.

In 1955, Arnold Johnson, a Chicago businessman who owned Yankee Stadium, bought the major league Philadelphia Athletics and moved them to Kansas City. The grandstand roof of the old stadium, now called Municipal Stadium, was jacked up in order to put a second deck under it to enlarge the seating capacity. Former President Harry S. Truman threw out the first ball of the 1955 season and attendance at the games hit over a million that year to set a franchise record which wa not broken until 1982. Kansas City fans loved the A’s.

It can’t be said that Kansas City loved the next owner of the team. When Arnold Johnson died unexpectedly in the spring of 1960, his family sold the team to Charles O. Finley, a wealthy Chicago insurance company owner. During the seven years that Finley owned the club, the team was in constant chaos. He fired 12 managers and kept threatening to pull the A’s out of Kansas City. When he moved the Athletics to Oakland in January 1968, it was the first time in more than 80 years that Kansas City did not have a professional ball club.

After some persuasion from Senator Stuart Symington, a commitment from the American League was made that Kansas City could have an expansion club in 1969. Ewing Kauffman agreed to put up the money needed to acquire the team then underwrite it until it could sustain itself. He paid $10 million for the franchise and began to put together an organization that would give Kansas City a World Series winner.

Mr. K. was a self-made man who had lived in Kansas City since he was eight years old. He was graduated from Westport High School and then served in the Navy during World War II. Afterward, he went to work as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. In 1950 Kauffman started Marion Laboratories out of his basement. He bought vitamins from manufacturers and packaged them under his company’s label.

Ewing Kauffman used his organizational skills and salesmanship to help guide the Royals to success. He hired baseball men, like Cedric Tallis and Lou Gorman and let them do their jobs. the team started out playing in the old Municipal Stadium. In 1973, the team celebrated moving into the new ballpark at Truman Sports Complex by hosting the major league’s all-star game. The Royals lost playoffs to the New York Yankees three straight times, 1976-1978, before beating the Bronx Bombers in 1980 on George Brett’s home run off ace reliever Goose Gossage. The Royals were in the 1980 World Series but lost, and they were in the 1981 and 1984 playoffs but didn’t win. However, Kansas City fans supported their team with near-capacity crowds at home games.

In 1983, Kauffman sold half of his interest in the Royals to Avron Fogelman, a developer from Memphis, Tennessee. It was Kauffman’s plan to eventually sell the remainder to Fogelman, too. However, by 1990 the developer’s investments had suffered sever losses and Kauffman was forced to buy back Fogelman’s share of the team.

When theroyals won the 1985 “I-70” World Series playing against the St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City fans went wild. Businesses and schools closed so everyone could attend the team’s welcoming home parade. Cheering fans lined up hours before the parade started, several people deep along the parade route from downtown to the Liberty Memorial. Thousands of pounds of confetti and shredded paper were thrown during the parade. It was a celebration that Kansas City fans would not forget.

Mr. Kauffman had not been able to find a partner who would invest in the Royals and eventually buy him out. In the spring of 1993 he presented a plan that would keep the Royals in Kansas City for at least six years after his death. The Plan proposed that local philanthropists contribute $50 million to be banked toward the team’s future, and the interest would be used to pay the Royals’ operating expenses. At Kauffman’s death, the team would be managed by a group of civic leaders. When the team was sold, the money from the sale would go to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

Those who had contributed to the plan could then donate their share to any charitable organization they wished. Kauffman’s estate would donate sufficient money to pay the Royals’ projected yearly losses during the transition time. At the time the plan was announced, Mr. and Mrs. Kauffman pledged $10 million toward the $50 million needed.

Ewing Kauffman died August 1, 1993. His wife and partner in the Royals, Muriel Kauffman, died March 17, 1995. In May 1995, the Internal Revenue Service approved the Kauffman’s plan to keep the Royals in Kansas City. The major-league owners gave their approval. When the rest of the $50 million was raised and in June, 1995, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation became the owners of the Royals. According to the Kauffman’s wishes, if there isn’t a local buyer within six years, the Royals can be sold to someone in another city.