Bueling: New book by SABR member Terry Bohn recounts early days of North Dakota baseball
From Lynn Bueling at the Bismarck Tribune on October 9, 2016, with mention of SABR member Terry Bohn:
Terry Bohn loves baseball! While family is his first love, baseball ranks right up there in second place. He reminisced how that love grew, first by sitting with his grandfather and listening to games on the radio. It’s not much of a stretch to think that grandfather probably taught Bohn much about the sport by explaining its basics, then the finer points, maybe showing how to mark a scorecard and giving Bohn a model to emulate as he reacted to the highs and lows of the games.
As Bohn involved himself more deeply in the sport, he joined the Society for American Baseball Research, an organization formed in 1971 of baseball professionals as well as “just plain fans.” As a full-fledged member, he can draw information from the society and add research to it. For this book, Sunday Afternoons on the Prairie: The Growth of Baseball in North Dakota, the author did not limit himself to only that resource. His footnotes indicate he searched old newspapers and found a great deal of the material he includes in his story.
He traces the story of baseball in North Dakota to territorial days when the game was first played in the military forts. The familiar name of Capt. Fredrick Benteen and a team known as the Benteens suggests he was something of a promoter. Troopers even played the game while on the Black Hills Expedition in 1874. Whether Lt. Col. George Custer approved isn’t known, but, while he was off climbing Harney Peak one day, Bohn quoted from a man’s diary, “On the occasion of Custer and the press being absent from camp, the troopers had a ball game.” Maybe the old adage fit about the cat being away so the mice dared play.
Read the full article here: http://bismarcktribune.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/book-recounts-the-early-days-of-baseball/article_2f7bc5bd-7419-5a5e-a84e-112962877db0.html
Originally published: October 10, 2016. Last Updated: October 10, 2016.