Polman: Remember the Kekiongas! Escaping down an 1871 Retrosheet rabbit hole
From SABR member Jeff Polman at Crooked Scoreboard on June 12, 2017:
Through rain, sleet, snow, gloom of night, and horrific political climates, nothing cheerily drops you down a rabbit hole better than an old Retrosheet boxscore.
The other day, needing a break from the tsunami of Trumpian noise coming from all corners of the Internet, a bookmark and two clicks took me right to the standings for the earliest year Retrosheet has on record: the 1871 National Association season. The “NA” had a decidedly short and lopsided schedule that year which ended with the Washington Olympics having played 32 games and the Ft. Wayne Kekiongas only 19. Other teams in that maiden season were the original Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, New York Mutuals, Troy (NY) Haymakers, and a pair of clubs called the Forest Citys, one in Cleveland and the other in Rockford, Illinois.
Intrigued by whatever the hell a kekionga was, I then hit up Wikipedia and found that Kekionga was the name of Chief Little Turtle’s Native American settlement, where the St. Joseph and St. Mary Rivers form the Maumee in Northeastern Indiana.
Read the full article here: http://crookedscoreboard.com/remember-the-kekiongas-escaping-down-an-1871-retrosheet-rabbit-hole/
- Related link: Read about the Kekiongas’ first game in the 1871 National Association at the SABR Games Project
Originally published: June 12, 2017. Last Updated: June 12, 2017.