LET'S PLAY BALL





PICTURES OF AUBURN'S BASEBALL TEAM



Pictures Furnished By The Nemaha Valley Museum


Story By Connie Rooten

The back of the team picture (#136) has the following list of surnames:
HECK, CULWELL, KRACSBURG, HASTY, LACY, BEAVERS, VOLINE, CLEVENGER, BUTCH, HIGGINS, HALE, AND REYNOLDS. This is the order they're listed in but no indication if there is any correlation to the picture.


Professional Baseball in Auburn
by Connie Rooten

(Note: Connie Rooten's Grandfather lived in Kansas, but played professional baseball for the Auburn team. Connie wrote this for us at my request. Her story takes up quoting from a Kansas newspaper when the Auburn team was the visiting team in Kansas. The date is circa 1908. Thank you Connie for submitting this.)

CASINO STACK UP AGAINST FAST ONES

- Auburn Team Has Splendid Record and Games Promise to be Speedy--

The Casinos will play the fast salaried team from Auburn, Neb. today and tomorrow at Lake ball park. Auburn has played 46 games and lost but 9, the Colored Giants being the only team to best them in a series. Among their opponents is the Seward, Neb. team, three time champions of the state. The Casinos however expect to take at least one from Auburn barring mishap.

The visitors [that's Auburn!] will line up as follows: Parker, of; Beave, 2b; Lacey, 3b; Hawkins, c; Fitzgerald 1b; White, ss; Schott, p; Clevenger, rf; McAdams lf; DKratzberg, p; Switzer, p.

The regular scale of prices hold for this series, ladies being admitted free today, and ladies, and gentlemen accompanied by ladies free to the grandstand tomorrow.

----End Of Newspaper Article----

(My grandfather, William "Bud" Lacy was the 3rd baseman. Postcards from Bud in 1909 telling of a great season lead me to that guess. In 1910 he played for a different league that didn't play Seward. I sure didn't know that Colored teams played White teams. I knew they had separate leagues before they were integrated, but was it common for them to play against each other?) I have old postcards that were written to and from Bud during 1909-1910. From these I have figured out that he stayed at the Millar {Miller?} Hotel in Auburn during the season. He returned to Everest, Kansas during off season. The team had a good record, played 78 games and only lost 18 at the time of one card in 1909. They played Robinson (KS, probably) Sept 16-17-18, 1909. A postcard of the team was made, as one young lady (an early baseball groupie?) thanked Bud for sending her a copy. For two years an Eva Bennett, who lived on a farm outside of Humbolt, NE, wrote to Bud during the off season. She knew he had 'an Everest girl' but didn't give up until around 1911. My grandfather married 'that Everest girl' in 1912.

I was sent pages of the Reach Official American League Guide from the Baseball Hall of Fame. They show the MINK (Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas) League beginning in May of 1910. My grandfather is shown as a pitcher for the league. Unfortunately he wasn't in any of the team pictures there. The MINK League teams were Auburn, Falls City, Clarinda, Shenandoah, Maryville and Nebraska City. Falls City was the winner that year. The league ended in 1913. I know Bud was playing before the MINK league began--the article mentions playing in Auburn and Seward, and a postcard from 1909 mentioned Robinson. What league could this be? Surely there would be some news articles with such a good record going.


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