The Bay City Times - February 28, 1937 (Michigan Centennial Edition)
Bay City Independents Was First Club Formed.
Initial Organization Enjoyed Phenomenal Success Under Direction Of Frank Robards.
By Paul Jablonski
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Bay City was a booming lumber center when organized baseball first made its appearance here way back in 1882. Enthusiasm in the diamond game brought about the organization of the Bay City Independents by Frank R. Robards who served as manager and shortstop. The team enjoyed phenomenal success and after cleaning up all opponents in these ports, entered the old Northwestern League along about 1885. When the team disbanded a few years later it could point with pride to a balance of $1,600 in the treasury after all obligations were paid.
In 1890 Bay City and Saginaw combined their forces to enter the International League, other members including London, Buffalo, Hamilton and Toronto. The advent of John G. Clarkson, Harvard university pitching sensation who later gained fame in Major league circles, here at the turn of the century saw a local team entered in the Lansing State League and afterward the Southern Michigan, Clarkson was a real hero to baseball fans in those days as he organized a team of semi-pros and pitched at the Fairgrounds and later at the park bearing his name(1). When he retired he operated a cigar store on Center avenue for many years.
Southern Michigan Loop.
The Southern Michigan League was organized in 1909 and Bay City was a member of the circuit from its beginning to the time it was disbanded in 1915. Clarkson Park was constructed at the city limits on Center avenue in 1909 and dedicated in honor of the noted pitching ace that season. It was not until 1914, however, that the home team was able to figure in a championship playoff. Bay City was so far ahead in the first half that a split season was decided upon and Saginaw came through in the second half. In the title series Bay City and Saginaw battle all even through six games and then in the seventh and deciding contest, played before 5,000 fans here Sept. 22 of that year, Saginaw won, 4-3, in 10 innings behind the pitching of Jessie Haines who went up to the St. Louis Cardinals and still is listed as an active player of that team.
Partly due to the World war, the Southern Michigan League passed out of existence in 1915 but in 1919 the Michigan-Ontario League was set up and organized baseball again returned to the city. Another local bid for a title failing in 1921 when after taking the first half, the Wolves dropped the playoff to London.
Win First Pennant.
Under the leadership of Punch Knoll, Bay City realized its first pennant in 1923 when it swept through the single season to grab the flag. In 1924 the local nine grabbed off the second half and bid for another league title against Flint. The Wolves lost three of the first four games in the championship playoff then came through with the victories in the next three tilts to grab the crown.
The year of 1926 saw professional baseball make its final appearance here. The M-O circuit was consolidated to form the Michigan State loop to form the Michigan League that season when the Canadian entrants of London, Hamilton and Kitchener folded up. Bay City romped off with the pennant in the revised league in which there was no split season. In a post-season playoff with Springfield, of the Western League, the homesters lost four straight games, three at Springfield and one here.
There remained no league for Bay City to enter in 1927 when neither the Michigan-Ontario nor the Michigan circuits were revived. The grandstand at Clarkson Park was destroyed by fire that year but was rebuilt the same season so that the city would be ready to reenter organized baseball if given the opportunity. However on June 4, 1929 the grandstand went up in an incendiary blaze and this time no attempt was made to restore it. Minor league ball never returned thereafter as movements to organize leagues in the state in the ensuing years proved futile.
Many Graduates to Majors.
Mint League baseball here had many outstanding graduates. Hazen (Kiki) Cuyler was sold to Pittsburg in 1921 for $3,000 after starring in the Wolf outfield for a season and a half. Later, the Harrisville flash, drafted from semipro ball in Flint, made good with the Chicago Cubs and at the present time is an active member of the Cincinnati Reds.
The biggest price secured for a local ball player was the $6,500 which Sep Good brought from Detroit in 1923. Good, along with Jack Ziegler and Willie Ludolph made up a winning pitching staff which gave Bay City the pennant that year. Ludolph, under option from the Tigers, was recalled for season and is still toiling with considerable success as a hurdler for Portland in the Coast League.
Bud Connolly, third baseman, and Jose Neiter, pitcher, went up from Bay City to the Boston Red Sox in 1924. Others who advanced to the big leagues were Cy Simon, third baseman, Bill Whale, outfielder, sold to the St. Louis Browns for $5,000 in 1922 and Spence Harris, an outfielder with the Wolves who saw service with the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics and who now is with Minneapolis in the American Association.
