April 10th, 2021.

A cool spring afternoon in the Delano neighborhood next to downtown Wichita.

There is an excitement in the air.

It's a day long overdue along Wichita Riverfront.

This is good to get in here.

Finally.

Opening day for Wichita's new minor league ballpark has finally arrived.

Thank you, ma'am.

Have a go.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

The $75 million Riverfront Stadium was built to host Wichita's new minor league team.

The Wind Surge.

But the Wichita State Shockers are getting the honors of hosting the first game here against the Houston Cougars.

How do I get tickets?

Got to scan that.

A new stadium opening is special and rare.

After all, it's been 87 years since the opening of the former Lawrence Dumont Stadium.

Fans wait in long lines to get a chance to see the results of the lengthy construction process.

Well, I don't know what to expect.

That's part of the reason we're here, is to see exactly what's different.

This opening is special because even though Riverfront Stadium was ready for baseball and fans a year ago, the COVID 19 pandemic brought baseball here to a halt.

The history of Kansas baseball could fill volumes.

Everybody in baseball, like I said, tell me you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever making that work in Wichita.

The Shockers are champions, unbelievable story.

It was always us against the world, basically.

So there were definitely some naysayers.

Just, you know, it been here, done this.

Teams have come and gone.

We don't need a new stadium.

All of that stuff you would hear in most markets that have had teams and left.

Why, even the smallest Kansas communities had their town teams.

And competition was fierce.

But it was.

We need the best players because we've got to beat that.

Other town over there.

And the best players.

Well, they weren't always in the major leagues.

Sometimes they played for local companies.

So it had started way back with railroad teams.

And the best of those teams started coming to Wichita to compete in, first a statewide, then a nationwide tournament.

The NBC tradition is strong.

You know, 86 years straight now.

But the main attraction was Fireball.

Sadly, in the nation and in Kansas, some weren't allowed to play with others.

Baseball has always had a certain element of segregation.

Oh, yes, Kansas does have a great baseball history and it has a very diverse baseball history.

I think Kansas is a superb baseball state.

I think baseball has always been a strong sport in Kansas.

And the strongest and most skilled of players when they got the chance would swing for the fences.

Swinging for the fences now, that's what they do.

This program is brought to you by the following: The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission.

The commission serves as the administrator of the NBC World Series.

We are excited to be a sponsor of this PBS Kansas documentary and are extremely proud of the impact that the NBC World Series has had upon the history of Kansas baseball.

Also brought to you by locally owned Meineke of Wichita Hutchinson and Derby.

Whole arms busted.

Only option is to replace it.

Just scratched.

Unnecessary repairs don't fly outside a repair shop.

They shouldn't fly inside one.

Meineke doing car care.

Right.

Also brought to you by Fidelity Bank.

Our next move will shape the future of Wichita.

Let's lean into the challenges and believe in the promise that progress holds.

And by Humanities Kansas.

We believe that stories carry our culture and ideas change the world.

Wichita spent $75 million to replace the Depression era constructed Lawrence Dumont Stadium with the modern Riverfront Stadium.

Riverfront was all ready for ball in 2020, but with everything in place for players and fans, the gates remain locked.

It was like being dressed up and no place to go because of the pandemic.

2020 happened is what we say.

Obviously, the COVID 19 pandemic.

Obviously, it was just different, you know, and I think like so many businesses and industries, we had to adapt the best we can.

Jared Forma was the general manager for Wichita's new minor league team, the Wind Surge at the start of its first season.

His staff worked to be ready for the expected 2020 opening, and then the virus hit like a wicked knock down pitch.

Obviously, it threw a curveball at us that nobody could have foreseen, and you just adapt the best you can.

That adapting meant laying off or furloughing much of the staff.

And as if that wasn't enough of a blow out of left field, something much worse struck the team.

Team owner Lou Schweich Heimer died after a battle with the COVID 19 virus.

He was only 62.

But Lou's vision and dream to reestablish a successful minor league team in Wichita lives on through the Wind Surge staff he organized.

He's here every day with us.

You know, our whole mission is to fulfill Lou's dreams and visions.

If you look closely behind home plate, you can see Lou's name in the turf.

Opening a new stadium in Wichita is such a special event.

The new Riverfront Stadium gets two openings.

The Wichita State Shockers versus Houston Cougars game gets the honor of hosting the first game here.

The Wind Surge calls that the soft opening.

Obviously, when you do a soft opening with 7500 people, it's not so soft.

But overall, it's just a tremendous, tremendous day.

Then a month later, the evening of May 11th, 2021, what the team calls the hard opening of Riverfront takes place.

Thousands more turn out to see Wichita's new Double-A minor league team and to take in the new ballpark with its modern amenities.

I think, honestly, it's something that Wichita really needed the stadiums absolutely gorgeous.

The way that it was built was is completely amazing.

The newness of Riverfront Stadium, with all the improvements in the fan experience, catches fans attention.

It's a game changer.

You know, the the ballpark is the star of the show.

And I think will be for years to come.

Now, these conveniences are an expectation now, but they are a far cry from what our ancestors had while playing and watching early day baseball in Kansas.

So keep watching for more on the historic riverfront opening coming up.

But before we dive too deeply into the new team and new park, we look back at baseball's beginnings in Kansas to appreciate its history and how far the game has come.

It was Christmas Day in Emporia, the year 1858.

Presents had been exchanged and dinner eaten.

And though there was a chill in the winter air, a game of baseball was played in the town's public square.

This, according to an Emporia newspaper account published New Year's Day, 1859.

There may have been and likely were earlier games in the state, which didn't happen to get noticed and written about.

It evolved from kids games over centuries.

Baseball historian and author Mark Eberle wrote the book Kansas Baseball 1858 to 1941.

He was on the faculty of Fort Hayes State University.

He's written extensively about Kansas baseball history.

The game we play now was referred to as the New York game, and there were somewhat similar games that were played in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

I grew up playing neighborhood sandlot baseball.

Why, I still have the same glove that I got for my eighth birthday, and it's still ready for play.

But I couldn't imagine as a youth, just how old the game of baseball was.

Baseball was played since the 1840s in several Northeastern states.

As pioneer settlers migrated to the plains of Kansas, They brought the new sport with them, at least by the late 1850s.

That was before Kansas became a state.

January 29th, 1861.

Then there was a baseball surge in the Sunflower State after the Civil War ended in 1865.

And the soldiers who had played in the Northeast principally sort of became missionaries and they spread the game throughout really the rest of the country.

The war, more than anything else, was responsible for baseball going throughout all of the area of the United States.

Bob Rives follows Kansas baseball closely.

He authored the book Baseball in Wichita.

And then when the war was over, they took it back home with them.

And so I think the spread of it really owes a lot to the Civil War.

Dreifort says baseball spread quickly among the soldiers because the game could be played almost anywhere if there was a field or open lot.

And you could play with any number of players.

Town ball.

You can play with five or you could play with 55, you know, depending on how you want to draw up the rules.

And they made the rules up as they went along.

But the game is still the same, you know.

Now throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball.

The first formally organized, incorporated ball team in Kansas was the Leavenworth Frontier Baseball Club.

Records indicate the Leavenworth Frontier Club pay dues to the National Association of Baseball Players.

In December of 1865.

Vintage baseball clubs like the two you see behind me playing a game here at the Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita are trying to keep the memory alive of the way the game was played in the mid 1860s and 1870s.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cowtown, where this afternoon you will witness a match between your hand-picked hometown club representing Wichita.

The Wichita Bulldozers, and the Wichita Red Stockings.

And our esteemed guests from Topeka.

The Westerns.

This particular game is a reenactment of a game played in 1879.

Wichita.

Vintage ball games allow spectators to see the differences in the game of that era and compare those to today's game.

Enough is the same that everyone recognizes what we're doing, but there are enough interesting differences that people go, Wow, that's that's kind of neat.

And you can even see where some of the rules of today evolved based on the way we'll play in the 1860s rules.

Now, imagine, if you will, Wichita in the summer of 1879, nine years after the city was incorporated, these Topeka and Wichita teams played each other.

The Topeka Westerns were considered the powerhouse team of that era in Kansas.

So Wichita formed a club called The Bulldozers to try to beat Topeka.

The game was played at what was then the Wichita Fairgrounds.

The fairgrounds were located in the three and 400 blocks of North Main.

Blocks where the Epic Center and Wichita City Hall are now located.

Back then, the rules called for the pitcher to throw the ball underhanded and the batter, called a striker then, requested a pitch location.

What would you like, sir?

What's your pitch?

Fair pitch.

Fair pitch.

High or low?

Well, with rules like that, it's no wonder the scores were high.

This was before baseball mitts came about also.

So players caught barehanded.

If a ball was caught on the first bounce, the batter was out.

The baseballs were also different then and softer than modern baseballs.

It's a one piece design, unlike today where they have they sew the two pieces together.

So you can see on the bottom, that's where it starts.

And all four sections come to a top.

These were town teams of that period.

Now we'll talk more about town teams coming up and you'll see more of this vintage game.

The very first ball clubs were more of a gentleman's social club and they were people that ran stores.

They were those who had control of their work and could break away for a game and leave others to run the offices and shops they left behind.

As early Kansas communities were settled, many of the towns organized baseball clubs for local entertainment and exercise.

Wichita had some baseball firsts, to its credit.

Soon after, the early day Cowtown incorporated, in 1870.

They have some of the first I mean, it was it was a cow town.

It was almost like anything goes.

Baseball team, fine.

Black people want to play baseball.

Fine.

Women want to play baseball.

Fine.

And so, I mean, it just kind of was everybody was into everything at that time.

And so they ended up with some of the some of the first back then.

And like Eberle says, Wichita's openness included women's baseball.

His research finds that the first independent women's baseball club in Kansas, a neighboring state, was actually organized in Wichita in 1873, three years after the city incorporated.

Eberlev says those early teams preceded the first barnstorming women's teams.

Now, often, women's teams were associated with the baggy pants the women wore called bloomers because of that, the women's teams and their players were often called bloomers.

This photo shows the Boston Bloomer girls visiting Pratt, Kansas August 6th, 1912.

The Industrial Revolution was underway in that era.

More people were leaving the farm and moving to towns and cities, finding indoor jobs there.

And so there was this big move that we need to get out.

We need to get some exercise like we did back when everybody was working on the farm.

So many turned to playing baseball to fill their exercise needs.

That helped to further popularize the game in Kansas.

I think the thing that's always benefited Kansas is the the large number of of town teams.

Semi-Pro teams, amateur teams, and just the fan base in a lot of small towns around Kansas.

What else is there to do?

You know, you go watch baseball.

Town teams brought on increased competition.

Kansas towns were driven to find the best nine ball players to compete against other communities.

Now, here's a photo of the Leoti nine players from 1896.

The examples of the Kansas Town teams goes on and on.

Our photos come from individual collections and city and county historical museums.

This photo shows a ball game in the town of Summerfield, which is on the Kansas Nebraska border in Marshall County.

The writing on the photo indicates the game here was between the towns of Blue Rapids and Frankfort, both also in Marshall County.

The attendance indicated is 2000, which was about four times the population of Summerfield then.

These photos indicate how important town ball and Industrial Team Ball was back then.

There was heated competition.

We need the best players because we've gotta beat that other town over there.

It was a time of town boosterism.

The small community of Trouesdale even called their team the Trouesdale boosters.

That Edwards County community is no longer incorporated.

But more than a century ago was populous enough to field its own team that competed against other Kansas town teams.

Sometimes cities then would shut down.

Towns shut down to give everyone a chance to attend the game.

Some town teams would resort to paying for an out of town ringer, often a real good pitcher or catcher to tilt the competitive advantage their way.

When gate receipts were collected, there might be a split with the winning team getting 60% to the losers 40%.

But in Kansas town team baseball was terribly important.

In small towns.

And in fact, there were fights and there were other things going on that really meant there was a very fierce competitiveness among small towns.

Some of those rivalry games would be attended by more spectators than the combined population of the playing communities.

As Kansas towns grew into larger cities, some fielded several ball teams, which eventually led to inter-city league play.

There were a tremendous number of teams playing in Wichita.

There were several reasons baseball flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Radio and television hadn't been invented yet.

If you wanted entertainment, you didn't typically find it at home.

Back then, people looked for reasons to get out of the house.

Houses were a place you want to get out of.

They didn't have air conditioning.

They were small for large families.

And so you didn't want to stick around a house.

So people got out of their hot houses and either played ball or went to the local ballpark and watched games.

At times, the stakes of those town team games went well beyond the game's box score.

Some of those towns at the time were vying for who gets to be the county seat and things of that nature.

They were trying to survive.

So town baseball in Kansas was more than just a game.

Winning was connected to surviving.

So it was a way for you to brag and try and recruit more people to come to your community and those sorts of things to try and grow and become the prominent town in an area.

As popular as baseball was becoming in Kansas.

You would be wrong to say it was universally accepted.

It had its detractors.

Most of the resistance tended to focus on what day of the week they were playing.

There were blue laws forbidding games being played on Sunday.

The Sunday baseball issue was nationwide.

It wasn't just here.

It was all across the country.

It affected major league teams in some places, as well as town teams.

But Sunday was often the only day of the week players could get a game in.

That's because a six day workweek was common back then.

Baseball supporters might build a diamond just outside the city limits because what happened was there was a contention that it was against the state constitution.

You weren't allowed to play on Sundays.

Players were even arrested for playing on Sunday.

A lawsuit made it to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Supreme Court said, no, they're talking about gaming and what they're talking about with gaming when they wrote this was gambling.

So if they're not gambling, then there's really no law against it on the state level.

And so then it was left to the cities to decide.

And some cities still banned baseball and other sports on Sunday right on into the 1900s.

Some ballparks continued to be constructed outside city limits.

So a game could be enjoyed on the only day of the week most workers had off.

And so that's why they wanted to play on Sundays.

More people were free because they didn't have to work.

Baseball wasn't necessarily the only game in Kansas towns, but in that era it was the most popular.

The phrase baseball as the national pastime goes as far back in print as 1856.

At a point, the town teams began to organize into leagues for scheduling conveniences.

Because it was just it simplified the process of knowing when your games were going to be.

Instead of having to negotiate each game individually.

More teams organized and more playing fields were needed as cities grew.

And it was pervasive.

And by that I mean there were diamonds all over town.

People could get to a game pretty easily, or they could go to see the local minor league team.

So as the popularity of baseball spread across the plains of Kansas, the ballplayers needed diamonds to play on and the spectators needed grandstands to sit in to view the games.

Admission could also now be more easily charged with enclosed parks.

This was necessary to cover traveling expenses for visiting teams and raise a prize purse for the teams.

This is the Pioneer Park Field Grandstand in Kinsley.

It's the second oldest grandstand at a Kansas baseball park.

The original wooden grandstands were erected in 1899, but burned in 1931, then rebuilt in 1934.

The rebuilt stands have wooden seating with a stone support structure.

Most of the state's original wooden ballpark structures have been rebuilt with longer lasting materials.

Originally, Kinsley South Park shared a space with a horse track in front of the stands.

Here, a Trotter horse race passes in front of the grandstands.

The enclosure gave shade to the spectators on hot summer days.

Towns across Kansas started building their own covered grandstands for baseball and other events.

These grandstands were important to civic pride and simply for a place to meet.

They could play other sports in front of the grandstand.

They could have horse races in front of the grandstand.

They had political speeches in front of them.

It was kind of an amphitheater where everybody could come for whatever and do something outside whatever required a large seating area.

Eberle says the Joe Campbell Memorial Stadium in Rossville, northwest of Topeka, is said to be the oldest Kansas grandstand still in use.

It was built and first used in 1924.

The Rossville and Kinsley ballparks are two of several historic Kansas ballparks.

So they're scattered around the state.

And so those old ballparks are really, I think, important in the sense that they can still be used for what their original purpose was.

And it ties you to that long, long history that goes back to the 1850s in Kansas for the sport of baseball.

Wichita went through boomtown growth in the late 1800s.

As the city grew, so did the number of ball teams increase.

And that required more ball diamonds to play on.

The Epic Center Building at 301.

North Main in Wichita is the tallest building in Kansas.

But in the late 1800s, this block was an empty city block.

Early Wichita ballplayers set up a playing diamond here.

There are stories of cowpokes playing ball here, as well as physicians and lawyers teaming up against each other in games here.

But the first ballpark in Wichita that was really billed as a ballpark was in the 1000 block of South Main Street.

And that was at that time, the end of the streetcar line.

Those streetcars brought people south from downtown on Main Street.

Our drone video picks up no evidence of that ballpark at Main.

And Gilbert now in what is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Wichita.

Just consider how many attended the final game of the 1911 season, deciding the champion of the South Central Kansas League.

Mulvane and Clearwater were the two town teams.

Their combined population then was 1600.

Yet the game drew 2000.

So it was of tremendous local interest.

And these town team competitions were a tremendous source of local pride to those Kansas towns.

It was very often boosterism again, these people, really.

That's how you get 2000 people to come to a ball game where 1600 people live.

Eberle says town teams peaked after the First World War and continued to be played right into the Second World War in the 1940s.

Many of the towns couldn't muster a team because so many eligible players went off to war.

And then after the war, town team baseball had to compete with Americans discovery of other activities.

It became too easy to do too many other things.

We have vehicles that take us anywhere we want to go so we can go to a lake instead of sitting around town and watching a baseball game.

So the competition for activities to do began to increase substantially.

Town ball in Kansas and other states hasn't completely faded away, but isn't as widespread as before World War II.

Industrial or company ball teams were organizing and getting popular in the same era of the town teams.

So in the same way the towns used to compete against each other, sometimes companies would compete against each other.

Company teams go back to the 1860s in many of the nation's large cities.

Company teams played games against their work competition or within their company.

These teams were usually company sponsored and bore company logos.

Whether it be a factory, whether it be the oil field or whatever it might be.

You have all these employees.

It was a way to entertain them.

And so they would bring in some ringers, sometimes those companies would.

You wonder how much those players actually had to work for the company and how much time they actually just spent getting ready for baseball and playing games.

In modern baseball, the goal with a minor league player is to get to the major leagues.

After all.

The minimum annual salary for a major league player in year 2021 is more than $570,000.

But decades ago, some company players could actually turn down big league contracts and make more money playing at home.

In 1915, an oil boom erupted in Butler County, east of Wichita.

Oil towns formed to service the burgeoning industry and to house the oilfield workers.

There were towns like Midian and Oil Hill in Butler County.

William Allen Green writes in his book Midian, Kansas History of an Oil Boomtown that Oil Hill and Midian fiercely competed in annual baseball series against each other.

In 1919, Green writes that the Midian team hired the great Casey Stengel, Roy Sanders and Joe Crisp.

All Major League players.

Those players could be described as ringers to help Midian win against Oil Hill.

Well, it worked.

Midian won 1-0.

Stengel, he writes, had a contract dispute with the Brooklyn Dodgers then, so he hired himself out to industrial teams.

Stengel played for five major league teams in his career and later managed the New York Yankees to seven World Series championships.

Stengel ended his career with the New York Mets.

The story is indicative of what town and industrial teams would do to win and how professional players supplemented their big league salaries.

Greene's book indicates the Empire Company gave their ballplayers the highest labor classification.

$9 a day, plus splitting the gate receipts at each game they played in.

Some of those workers continued to work for the company after their playing days were over.

Those players preferred that job security to the insecurity of being a professional ballplayer, especially at a time when players were traded like commodities and lacked pensions.

In cities like Wichita, these company teams organized into industrial leagues.

Airplane companies had teams, including the Boeing bombers and the Cessna Bobcats.

The sports pages of the local papers then, the Eagle and the Beacon, regularly posted all the league standings.

There was an appetite for city league ball news.

Those teams fielded quality players, and fans turned out to see them.

The photos of the teams and their stars filled the sports pages.

One of the biggest stars at the time was Glenn Hoge.

To this day, Hoges daughter, Glenda Spears, loves to brag about her father's baseball playing days.

Spears saved about every newspaper story of her dad's career on the Wichita Waterman team.

Back in the 1920s to 1940s era.

One of these newspapers called him the Babe Ruth of the Sandlots.

Glenn Hoge and the Wichita Water Team won both city and state championships.

If there's any doubt to how talented the Waterman team was, just look at the record of their ten straight wins.

It includes beating the highly vaulted Kansas City Monarchs 4 to 3 in 12 innings.

Kansas baseball history includes semi-pro baseball.

We generally associate professional baseball with the organized major and minor league teams.

Semi-Pro was totally outside of so-called organized baseball.

Semi-Pro teams were often part of industry leagues where the players worked at the company, which sponsored the team and paid the players.

Town teams would also include semi-pro players.

The Boeing Bombers were an outstanding example rapid transit Dreamliners who became a real factor in semi-pro baseball were typical of that sort of team.

And there were times when some of the semi-pro players could make more money at their playing level than minor and major league players back then.

Six or $700 a month, which was a very good salary at that time.

The Rapid Transit Company ran Wichita's busses.

The company ball team was really good.

They had a lot of former major leaguers who played for them, including Bobby Boyd, who had come here after a long Major League career.

Before Bobby Boyd settled down in Wichita, he played for several major league teams, including the Kansas City Athletics.

Boyd was the first African-American to sign with the Chicago White Sox.

He drove busses while also playing for Wichita's rapid transit company, after his Major League career.

He died in Wichita in 2004.

Boyd is a member of the Kansas and Wichita Sports Hall of Fames, as well as the National Baseball Congress, Hall of Fame.

Once old time, local baseball got organized into playing leagues, playoffs followed.

Then in 1931, a Wichitan by the name of Raymond “Hap ” Dumont is credited with founding the first statewide tournament.

Now we won't talk about those tournaments without also talking about where the games were played.

Island Ballpark on Ackerman Island seated fans for tournament, minor league and other exhibition games.

The Island Park Stadium was built in 1912 on what was a large sandbar in the Arkansas River.

It was north of the Douglas Street Bridge.

The sandbar started to form in the 1870s and grew to several acres.

Now just think the general location of today's Exploration Place and its surroundings is about where Ackerman Island, with its ballpark and Wonderland Amusement Park, including a large roller coaster, used to be.

Today's single channel river setting looks a lot different than when baseball was played here.

The ballpark burned in 1933, various reasons were given.

I think they finally decided somebody carelessly discarded a cigarette.

The destruction of that stadium set other things in motion.

The Depression era works Progress Administration, WPA already wanted to fill in the West River Channel and return the river to one larger channel to help control flooding.

So with the island park gone, Dumont needed a new venue for his games.

He turns to Wichita City leaders for help and makes a promise he says if the city builds a new stadium ballpark, Dumont will organize a national tournament to play there.

The Lawrence ballpark also became a WPA project.

It was the start of the National Baseball Congress.

The NBC.

Hap was able to convince the city to build a new stadium, and they did that.

And then, of course, in 1935 was the first year for the NBC World Series.

Hap Gets a hold of Satchel Paige, who's one of the most famous pitchers ever to play the game.

And the rest is history, as they say.

Raymond Dumont, with the nickname Hap, short for Happy, was a sports columnist, and he also sold sports equipment and promoted baseball tournaments.

Now, he knew if he could get Satchel Paige to play, fans would fill the new ballpark.

When you think of Kansas baseball, I think everybody's got to know about Satchel Paige and his great performance when he came down to the NBC tournament in 1935.

Some baseball historians say, Leroy Satchel Paige is the greatest pitcher of all times.

Paige wasn't from Kansas.

He was born in Mobile, Alabama.

Here's what the Great Hall of Fame, Saint Louis Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean said about Paige's fastball.

Dizzy Dean saw him and Dizzy Dean looked at Satchel Paige.

He said, “Boy, he makes my fastball look like a change up.

” Paige is forever connected with the beginning of the National Baseball Congress tournament and Kansas baseball history.

So Dumont wanted Paige and the Bismarck, North Dakota Churchills club baseball Paige pitched for in the tournament that first year in 1935.

Dumont offered Paige $1,000 to play.

Dumont didn't have the money, but expected the tournament's gate receipts to more than cover the expense.

They did.

1000 bucks was a lot of money in those Depression era years.

At the time.

$1,000 would pay a doctor for three months or a lawyer for four months.

And Paige gets paid that to come in for a two week tournament.

And Satchel Paige, why was he playing in the NBC World Series?

Why was he not playing in the Negro Leagues?

Because he could make $1,000 in two weeks.

At events like the NBC because he was such a great player.

Paige, of course, did play in the Negro Leagues, including for the Kansas City Monarchs and later for the Cleveland Indians once integration came to the majors.

But like Shaad says, Paige did a lot of barnstorming games for pay on the side.

You figure you paid him $1,000.

Actually, he's getting off cheap, guys.

They pack that ballpark.

Every time Satchel pitched.

Paige's pitching carried the Bismarck team to victory in Wichita's first NBC tournament.

So they go down there and, man, they clean up the NBC tournament.

After the NBC win.

And before leaving the state, the team plays a game in McPherson.

So they stopped at McPherson.

And that night, Satchel Paige, he called in his outfield infield, and he struck out the side with nobody on the field.

That was one of the ways Paige entertained the fans with his dominating pitching.

That kick started Wichita's NBC tournament, which continues to thrive decades later.

The NBC history is, to me, the leading point of baseball history in Wichita.

I mean, 86 years, there's no other organization that has been here that long playing the sport that we all love.

And while we're talking about tournaments and series, what many might not know is that the college baseball World Series once had its series in Wichita.

The year was 1949.

That was a year before the World Series was played in Omaha, where it's been ever since.

Now, the question is, did Wichita miss an opportunity to be the regular host city?

Or was it a case of too many games for one Wichita Stadium to schedule?

There was really no fault on Wichita's part.

It was just that, like I say, they'd been trying for years to get minor league baseball back here and got it.

And then they had all that other baseball going on in the same ballpark, and the NCAA was just afraid it might not all balance up.

The NBC tournament has attracted thousands of players on teams from all corners of the U.S. and from beyond our nation's borders.

We've seen Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and Tom Seaver and so many others of the greats of the game, so many Hall of Famers that have played in that tournament as college players.

So it's a it's a huge part of Wichita's baseball legacy.

The NBC players can range from those excelling on the sandlot to those destined to the big leagues.

And former major leaguers.

Now, any real ball fan who looks at the list of NBC Hall of Fame members will be amazed at the players coming through the Wichita tournament.

Now, there were numerous stars like Ozzie Smith and Roger Clemens, all who starred in Wichita before reaching fame in the majors.

Also on that Hall of Fame list for his pitching exploits in the NBC State tournament is Isaiah “Fireball ” Jackson, one of the more interesting Kansas baseball historic stories.

Isaiah just dominated.

Gerald McCoy makes it his life's mission to tell the story of Isaiah “Fireball ” Jackson.

Jackson got the nickname “Fireball ” because of his lightning fast pitches.

McCoy grew up in Wichita and says was a family event to attend the NBC tournament games every summer at Lawrence Stadium.

It was a chance to see players that would someday be in the big leagues.

One night, the family took special notice of the Lansing prison team playing here.

They were very much the center of attention even while the game was going on over here.

All the kids, especially the kids, they ran down to the far end of the grandstand that they could see them warm up.

Mike Kennedy, longtime voice of the WSU shockers, also remembers those games when the prison team caused such a great commotion, at just entering the ballpark.

Well, when they bring those guys here and every kid in the ballpark would run from wherever they were in the stadium to that end of the stands, to see them bring in the guys in.

Seeing inmates in handcuffs and shackles was a must see for the kids.

But so was Jackson's pitching.

Anybody that was a kid in those days that would go to the NBC.

Turner will tell you about Lansing Penitentiary and Isaiah “Fireball ” Jackson.

The stadium was packed the nights the Lansing prison team played.

McCoy says the prison team as a whole really wasn't all that good.

But Jackson was so good on the mound, he could carry the team on most nights.

He was center stage in the spotlight.

He was the guy that brought everybody out to watch the ballgame.

The story of Isaiah “Fireball ” Jackson is one of the sad Kansas baseball stories.

In 2018, McCoy authored the book Fireball!

The Tragedy and Triumph of Isaiah Jackson.

Jackson was born in Osawatomie, Kansas.

Three year old Isaiah and his four siblings were abandoned when their parents divorced.

Isaiah spent years in Topeka orphanage, then later was sent to juvenile detention in Hutchinson.

But he had committed no crime.

They just had no place else to put him.

Once Isaiah was out, he found his older brother, Moses, in Kansas City.

Sadly, Moses introduced Isaiah to a life of crime, and both Jacksons were sent to Lansing Prison for armed robbery.

There, he excelled at pitching for the prison team.

Word of his pitching exploits reached the ears of Hap Dumont, founder of the NBC tournament.

Dumont arranged for the Lansing team to play in Wichita.

Dumont, the consummate promoter, knew fans would pack Lawrence Stadium to see a pitcher like Fireball play.

Well, he was right.

He's probably one of the greatest unknown baseball legends in Kansas baseball history.

Fireball drew Major League attention from the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies.

The teams were hoping Jackson would get an early parole.

Well, it didn't happen.

Then the Pittsburgh Pirates took interest in Fireball.

And when Jackson was finally paroled, the Pirates signed the pitcher to a minor league contract and sent him to their Reno, Nevada, class 18.

In hindsight, we can now see that that was probably the worst thing you could have done to Isaiah, was send him to Reno, Nevada.

Jackson still didn't know how to function outside institutions.

No one ever taught him how to do even the simplest things in life, including how to drive a car, balance the checkbook, count money, or even use a telephone.

Long story short, he got in trouble again and was back in prison.

He just was in no way, shape or form prepared to be on his own.

In later years while in prison, Fireball turned his attention to painting.

He excelled at this art.

That was while he was in the Missouri prison system.

He never pitched on the outside again.

The Pirates never did put him on waivers.

They held his contract rights for ten years while he was in prison, just hoping that he could get a another work release.

Jackson was a model prisoner and an inspiration to other inmates to rehabilitate themselves.

Jackson died in 2004 at age 64 after a battle with cancer.

The NBC tournament began to evolve in the latter sixties and the seventies.

The town teams and semi-pro teams of decades past are replaced with teams filled with collegiate players who play in the NBC tournament, hoping to get the attention of pro scouts.

Collegiate players play on teams from Alaska to Florida, Maine to Hawaii and on Kansas teams like the Liberal BJs, Hays Larks, the Broncos of Wichita, Hutchinson and El Dorado and many others.

So many of the greatest players in the game have come through Wichita to play in that tournament.

The athletes who play in the NBC here know this is a tournament Major League scouts attend.

Players understand if they play well, this could lead to professional status.

The players that have come through Wichita and then have gone on to Hall of Fame careers at the Major League level.

I mean, we have over 800 players that have been a part of the NBC World Series and then gone on to play at Major League level, not just professionally, but in the Major Leagues.

It's hard to touch that, I think.

Its a great responsibility to keep it going.

And it's always going to look different than it did ten years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago.

On July 1st, 1859, Amherst College and Williams College played the first intercollegiate baseball game.

They played under Massachusetts Rules, quite different than today's rules.

40 years later, April 14th, 1899, Fairmount College.

Now Wichita State University played its first baseball game against Southwestern College of Winfield.

Fairmount Baseball continued over the next couple of decades with only modest success.

Then baseball ended at Fairmount after the 1923 season.

WSU's John Dreifort says the reason was simple.

Money.

Money.

Fairmount College was really on the edge of bankruptcy many times.

It just simply didn't have the money.

Fairmount College became Wichita University and then Wichita State University.

Campus baseball restarted in 1948 and continued through 1970 before the university benched it again.

I'd just like to say I was probably just dumb enough, you know, to believe that we could do it.

And no one was going to tell me it can't be done.

In the 1970s, WSUs then athletic director Ted Bredehoft had the dream of resurrecting Shocker baseball for the 1978 season.

The school wanted to hire an established NCAA Division one coach to get it started.

But WSU had a shoestring budget of only $50,000 to start from scratch.

With such a meager budget, everyone brought in for the coaching interview ran for the hills... except one.

I wanted to see if we could do something, frankly, that no one else had ever done.

And that's exactly what it was.

And that's exactly what happened.

From a dream in 1978 to World Series champs in 1989.

It's like a fairy tale story.

The thing that made Wichita State successful was obviously Gene Stephenson's desire, his passion, his energy.

We did things here that no one ever thought was possible.

I know that.

It's the Shocker baseball story many of their fans are familiar with.

The Shockers quickly became regular visitors to the College World Series in Omaha, including being runner ups three times.

What's not as well known were the obstacles faced to just getting started.

Baseball experts discouraged Stephenson from even coming to Wichita.

Baseball people, professional baseball people gave me the the fear of feeling like you're making a huge mistake, Gene, that you can't do that there.

It'll never happen.

Never happen.

They would say.

Some were even more animated about it.

Everybody in baseball, like I said, totally.

First of all, the biggest comment I heard more than anything else.

You don't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever making that work in Wichita.

Stephenson was an assistant baseball coach at the University of Oklahoma then.

The Guthrie, Oklahoma native acknowledges he was in a good place at OU.

You've got the best of all worlds at Oklahoma.

We're going we've been five years in a row to the College World Series.

Even so, Stephenson says college baseball head coaches weren't changing jobs.

There wasn't a coaching turnover like in football and basketball.

He saw the WSU offer as a chance to be a head coach.

I hate to say I'm dumb, you know, but.

But I just wouldn't listen to it.

Because there were no other opportunities available.

WSU offered him $1,000 a month, half his pay at OU.

And oh, by the way, the school didn't even have bats and balls to play with.

But what facilities did you have?

None.

No, no.

We had nothing.

No place to practice.

No locker rooms.

No equipment, no anything.

When you look at the present day Shocker baseball facilities on the WSU campus, it's hard to imagine the program's humble beginnings.

The Shocker facilities with Eck Stadium and Tyler Field are regularly ranked in the top ten of all college baseball.

What WSU has now helps coaches recruit ballplayers who have expectations for year round training facilities and a beautiful ballpark to play in before cheering fans.

Brent Kemnitz is a WSU assistant athletic director.

He became part of the new Shocker baseball program in 1978, first as a graduate assistant and then the pitching coach.

Like some of the new players, then Kemnitz didn't think about how little the program had.

But facilities and all those things, I'd never had it.

Coming from small town America, Perry, Oklahoma, so it wasn't a big deal.

I just looked at it as a great opportunity.

An opportunity of a lifetime.

You might say.

But I was a graduate assistant.

But Gene did give me the pitchers.

My very first year, I'm 21 years old.

I'm the pitching coach.

Back then, he says, there was nothing to know about Shocker baseball.

Building a baseball program from scratch meant selling Genes vision for Shocker baseball.

We sold the people we sold the vision that we had.

And once again, we fed off Gene.

I mean, that was Gene's vision.

And he had a lot of confidence, Nothing was going to get in his way.

He says the program worked with what it had and didn't let what it didn't have get in the way of progressing.

Kemnitz remained pitching coach 38 years before becoming an assistant athletic director.

In those early years, players changed from street clothes into their uniforms, inside their cars.

I tell our guys now I dress in the same place that they're dressing now was just a parking lot, you know, a nice locker room.

Hibbs played years 82, 83 and 84.

Baseball practices started in the late winter.

The team had to search for indoor places to practice off campus.

Hibbs says the team went to local elementary, middle and high school gyms.

We were in gymnasiums around the city.

I mean, we were everywhere where we could get to practice.

On campus, the Shockers had to share and yield the practice field to the marching band and the soccer club.

We were the low man on the totem pole.

I mean, we were below the low.

The university really didn't have enough money to fund baseball, particularly starting from scratch.

So Stephenson had to look for funding elsewhere.

I was Wichita's biggest beggar at that time.

He was the program's chief fundraiser, and it wasn't a short lived situation, he says.

I became Wichita's longest running beggar.

And it actually worked.

Local business owners helped with funding for equipment and uniforms.

I didn't want to look like a ragtag operation.

One of Stephenson's early recruits was Joe Carter.

Carter became a Shocker baseball legend and an all-American.

He went on to star in the major leagues.

Carter is best known for hitting a walk off home run in 1993 that won the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Carter probably described his former coach's situation best by saying Stephenson was given the keys to a new car.

But first he had to find the car parts, build it and get it running.

Yesterday.

The first year we played at McAdams Park, we played at West Side Athletic Field.

We played at any place we could find because we didn't have a field.

But they were winning.

We won 43 games the first year we beat KU, we beat K-State.

We even beat Oklahoma State.

So the very first team he put on the field was a competitive baseball team.

They didn't have growing pains.

They didn't have “oh, were 15 and 40.

” They didn't have one of those years.

They were a winning program from the very outset.

And winning helps recruiting.

The next year, the second year recruiting, we brought in Joe Carter, we brought in Phil Stephenson, we brought in Don Heinkel.

Those three players are in the college baseball Hall of Fame.

That second year, the team won 65 games.

Even with early success, Stephenson says it was a challenge to impress some in the athletic department.

Case in point in March 1979, the Shockers won games in New Mexico.

Stephenson calls the campus to report the scores.

No one answers.

He says it took 6 hours before a basketball trainer finally answered the phone.

Gene reports the winning scores to which the trainer says: Nobody cares here.

Don't call back again, he said.

And furthermore, if baseball ever makes a nickel or a dime at Wichita State, I will kiss your butt at second base.

I never forgot that.

It was the indignity the program endured until the Shockers winning ways began to open eyes.

Stephenson set the bar high, speaking on February 11th, 1977, about his plans for Shocker baseball.

He stunned Wichita's by making this bold prediction.

Within four years after we start in 78, we're going to be competing, challenging for a spot in the World Series, College World Series.

Now, that was before a team was recruited, practiced or even played a game.

Stephenson studied the faces in that room and concluded what they were thinking.

There's no way in hell that's ever going to happen and, you know, for him to sit there and act like that and say it, it's not going to happen, can't happen.

Impossible.

But it did happen.

The Shockers set a new NCAA single season winning record by winning 73 games in 1982.

In that fifth year, WSU makes it to the finals in the College World Series.

Were in the College World Series 82 championship final game on national television.

Every one of our games.

And no, we didn't win it.

But it was the greatest thing in the world for our program because it gave us nationwide relevance to everybody.

Stephenson says that World Series run demonstrated the Shockers aggressive play on the diamond and made WSU a destination for prospective recruits.

They wanted to come to Wichita above any place else.

They didn't know we didn't have anything.

Still, they didn't know.

We had no locker room.

We had no place to dress.

We dress in our cars.

But they knew there was a winning attitude.

Facilities would have to come later.

When you're winning, things tend to be better.

Little by little, facilities got built, which most college programs would now envy.

They are as good as anybody in the country right now.

As good as anyone, he says.

And the Shockers kept playing well, making it back to the World Series finals in 1989.

This time, they would not be denied.

Since mid 2019, you could find Eric Wedge in the dugout of the WSU shockers as head coach.

But from 1986 through 1989, Wedge was the Shockers catcher.

During those years, the team was making postseason tournament and World Series runs.

Leading the way as he would all season was catcher Eric Wedge.

Wedge says he knew WSU was where he wanted to play college ball.

You know, I really loved the atmosphere and you know, and they had established a reputation.

I remember being at home, you know, in junior high and high school and watching them play on ESPN in the World Series back in 1982.

So there's a lot of name recognition.

You know, I put them up with the Texases, the Miamis, the Arizona States.

So, you know, for me to have the opportunity come here, it was something I definitely wanted to pounce on.

Wedge says WSU baseball was well-established by the time he started playing in 1987.

It was now up to those late eighties teams to take it to the next level.

We felt like anything short of going to college World Series was a disappointing season, but ultimately we weren't just satisfied about getting the College World Series and we wanted to get there and win.

Finally, in 89, they put it all together and reached the pinnacle of college ball.

As Voice of the Shockers, Mike Kennedy calls the game.

[Radio Announcer] Shockers are champions!

Unbelievable story.

Wichita State has won the national championship.

A complete game victory.

Wichita State has done it in unbelievable fashion.

Three times The Shockers would be the runner up in the College World Series 1982, 1991, and 1993.

When you visit Eck Stadium, you can see the years of their college World Series appearances displayed on the press box facade.

For now, 1989 stands alone.

And they won the national championship in 89, and they come back and they have a celebration here at the ballpark.

And it was the most full it had ever been.

I mean, the guy the bus came over the hill out there on 21st Street and the guys went nuts when they saw how many people were in the stadium because it had never been that full for a game.

And from that point on, Wichita State was also one of the nation's attendance leaders.

We did things here that no one ever thought was possible.

I know that.

And we packed houses here for years when we're still trying to build more seats all the time.

It was a hot ticket to get to see a Wichita State game.

Stephensons home basement walls tell the Shockers story from his first team to his last.

In between are the images of that championship year and all the honors and accolades that followed.

Too many to list here.

Stephenson coached WSU for 36 years, minus the few hours he accepted the Oklahoma coaching job, only to immediately return to WSU.

Nothing can take the place of both the hardships and the joys that we endured over those 36 years.

A lot of good, a lot of bad at different times.

But working with those young men every day, it's a joy that I can't even describe.

He acknowledges there were times of discouragement when he didn't think things were going well.

but he found those bluesy feelings went away as he approached Eck Stadium from the East.

He would catch a glimpse of the stadium expanse and remember the way it was in the beginning without even their own practice field.

It was and is a sight, he says, that makes him want to shout with joy.

I've let out a yell in my car, kind of like “WOOO-HOOO!

” And it would be like, man, I am so lucky to be a coach.

And so I'm so lucky to have the opportunity all those years to work like we did and enjoy the fruits of our labors like we did.

It was a stellar career.

His final WSU record 1837 wins and 675 losses for a 731 winning percentage.

He was the first NCAA Division one head coach to win 1800 games.

28 NCAA postseason appearances.

But in 2013, after a winning season and a tournament appearance later vacated by the NCAA, Stevenson was fired.

It wasn't the way he saw his storied career ending.

We came, we saw, we believed, and we worked together to build what I think is the greatest story in the history in the history of college baseball.

Todd Butler was hired to replace Stephenson, but in six years he wound up with a sub 500 record.

Butler was fired after the 2019 season and former soccer great Eric Wedge was hired.

Wedge has Major League managerial experience.

He was selected MLB Manager of the Year in 2007 with the Cleveland Indians.

He also managed the Seattle Mariners.

Now he hopes to restore winning ways to the program.

So I think when you look at the history of Wichita State and you think about athletics, you think about Wichita State baseball.

You look at the storied history.

And obviously, Gene led the way with that, as well as so many other coaches and so many other players.

It's just an attitude, you know, it's a presence.

We want to get back to that level.

Talking about baseball history in general or Kansas baseball in particular wouldn't be complete without talking about segregation in baseball.

Baseball has always had a certain element of segregation.

Phil Dixon has written nine books and spoken extensively about the sad legacy of racism and segregation in baseball.

Dixon says it really didn't make much difference what part of the country you were in.

Segregation was the culture.

He calls that culture of racism in the national pastime, “Baseball's twisted sister ”.

But for the most part, baseball was segregated.

And with few rare exceptions.

Dixon says Kansas baseball history can lay claim to the first black professional team.

And no, it wasn't the Kansas City Monarchs, which were based in Missouri.

Kansas City, Kansas, end up having the first ever black professional team, which was the Kansas City Kansas Giants that were organized in 1907, which were an offshoot of the Topeka Giants.

They had been organized a few years before.

As segregation was in the cities, so was it in smaller Kansas communities.

Segregated baseball was basically the way it was from the beginning.

In Kansas in particular.

That despite Kansas entering the union as a free antislavery state, Hispanic players also dealt with segregation.

Yet at times, Mexican-American players, Cubans and players from other Latin American countries were allowed to play on otherwise white teams.

Sometimes it sadly came down to how dark or light their skin tone was.

Several Hispanic players reached the majors earlier than Jackie Robinson.

But at the same time, there were also pockets of integration.

The first team to consist of both black and white players was in Wichita in 1874.

Now it was common for Kansas communities to invite barnstorming black teams to come play their town team.

Big promotions would result in large paid attendance.

Moneywise, it was a win win for the teams and towns.

But then the same black team invited to play couldn't stay in a local hotel, eat in a local restaurant, or maybe even be in town after dark.

The further you got out in the state, if there wasn't enough, black people would have it like a boarding house or rooming house.

Sometimes you'd have to play and head right back to where you came from because you just couldn't go into town and just get a hotel.

Those things, you know, you, you know, you kind of take all these things for granted.

You just couldn't go into a restaurant.

So you actually had to know where you could eat, where you can sleep, and some places even where you could get, you know, gasoline and take care of things like that.

Some Kansas town teams and Kansas minor leagues integrated at least for a time.

That integration of town teams and minor league teams in Kansas kind of peaked in about the mid 1890s.

And then it started to drop off again.

It became common for teams and leagues to organize along racial lines.

With segregation being the culture of the time.

In Wichita, there was a black team called the Black Wonders.

News clippings report the team played at the Monrovia Park.

Other old news clippings talk about the Monrovia amusement park under construction at 12th and Moseley in north Wichita.

That was about a century ago.

Now, a lot has changed in Wichita over the past 100 years.

This neighborhood is occupied with the milling industry and small businesses.

We're not certain on which corner of 12th and Mosley, the Monrovia Amusement Park, used to be.

There are no signs left of what once was here so long ago, but the amusement park included a ballpark with stands to host games and entertain fans.

The Monrovia Amusement Park purchased the Black Wonders and promptly changed their name to the Wichita Monrovians to help promote the park.

The Monrovians were getting a winning reputation from playing Barnstorming games in Kansas and beyond.

But it was a highly publicized game on June 21st, 1925, that got national attention and is still talked about today.

So Monrovians has had quite a reputation.

And of course, at that time the Ku Klux Klan was developing their own reputation in the state of Kansas.

The Ku Klux Klan team number six challenged the Monrovians to a baseball game.

The Wichita Beacon News editor seemed to enjoy writing headlines for this game.

“Strangleholds, razors, horse whips and other violent implements of argument will barred at the baseball game at Island Park this afternoon.

” There was sort of an effort at being whimsical about these things that were terribly segregationist.

That game was kind of an unusual one.

It was.

It was done for promotional purposes.

And they the Klan was trying to soften its image and it didn't help.

The historic game was played on Wichita's Ackerman Island.

Both teams had a lot of supporters filling the grandstands.

The Monrovians beat the Klan 10 to 8.

It's been talked about a lot because it just seems, you know, so, you know, so different for a black team to be playing a game against the Ku Klux Klan and then actually beat the Ku Klux Klan.

What did that symbolize.

And in that game, as in others, spectators also were segregated in stadium seating.

Dixon says the newspapers of that day contributed to the culture of racism.

Because one thing they used to try to report is that black people caused a lot of fights in the stands.

They Would do that.

And so that's the reason that they needed to be in their own section.

Earlier, we talked about Wichita's NBC tournament being integrated from the beginning.

For the NBC.

In the fact that they integrated was it was amazing.

But in their integration, because they knew these black teams and they would play for the state championship and they would win.

The first champion team, the Bismarck Churchills was integrated, led by Satchel Paige.

You got to see some pretty good baseball.

But they weren't afraid to bring in black teams.

And so Wichita has a very unique place in history for how they integrated their tournament.

Humboldt, Kansas, has the distinction of being the birthplace of two great ballplayers.

One white.

One black.

Walter Johnson.

George Sweatt.

George Sweatt is another interesting person from Kansas.

George Sweatt was born in Humboldt, Kansas.

Humboldt is also where the great Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson was born.

Johnson, known as the Big Train, has second most wins in the majors.

Sweatt is the first black player to have played in all four of the first Negro Leagues World Series.

1924 through 1927, he played for the Kansas City Monarchs and then the American Giants.

He's kind of like a legendary player today.

Even if you go back to Humboldt when you pull into town, there's a big sign saying the hometown of George Sweatt.

Integrated teams were the exception, not the rule.

Overall, segregation was the unwritten rule in baseball until 1947, when Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in the majors.

Wichita's League 42 unveils a statue of Jackie Robinson, the club's namesake at the Emerson Macadams Park.

Former longtime Wichita Eagle sports columnist Bob Lutz founded League 42, which is named Robinson's Jersey number 42.

League 42 was founded in 2013.

It's an idea that had percolated in my mind for many years before then because it bothered me that kids in urban settings were being kept out of baseball because of costs and geography.

It's an expensive sport getting more expensive every year, which is not good for the overall game.

League 42 places games at Wichita's McAdams Park.

He says they had 200 youth the first year.

They've had close to 600 youth, ages 5 to 14 in the years since then.

We want our kids to learn the story of Jackie Robinson, to be inspired by it, to understand that there are no barriers there in your way except those barriers that you allow to be in your way.

You know, you've got to persevere.

You've got to believe in yourself.

That's also what Robinson taught others from the hard lessons he learned breaking the segregation barrier in the Major Leagues.

But I think the truth needs to be told.

And I like to say, you know, America was baseball's national pastime.

But racism is America's other national pastime.

And if you don't tell these two stories side by side, people will never understand what really happened in America related to baseball history.

In any state that you will ever talk about.

The minor leagues, there were a lot of them in Kansas.

They would kind of come in spurts.

Now, you might be surprised by how many minor league teams there used to be in Kansas.

Kansas has had probably about as many towns in minor league baseball as any state in the country.

Those teams weren't typically affiliated with and part of a major league team farm system, as the current arrangement is.

Wichitas first professional team in 1887, was called the Braves.

The Braves was the name of the Wichita team in 1956.

The 1907 Wichita Jobbers are listed as one of the top 100 all-time minor league teams.

It was a time when baseball was so wildly popular that even smaller cities could support teams with their attendance.

But baseball has always been limited by daylight.

Barnstorming teams like the Kansas City Monarchs purchased portable lights to take to games.

The reasoning was simple.

More people could attend at night, which meant more money.

The major leagues were stuck in tradition and were slow to adopt lighting.

But Independence, Kansas stands out in baseball history for holding the first scheduled professional night game with-- Now, here's the key-- with permanent lights, not portable.

Independence really just did it.

They weren't trying to set a record or anything else.

They wanted lives.

They needed the lights.

The game was April 28th, 1930, with the Independence Producers hosting the Muskogee Chiefs before 1200 fans.

What ended up happening was Independence is actually the first one to have played that game because they were at home and Des Moines wasn't able to play.

I mean, it was just a matter of scheduling.

Then four days later, the Des Moines, Iowa team held home opener at night under the lights before 12,000 fans.

So Independence, Kansas was first because their home opener was before Des Moines team.

Night Baseball is credited with saving the minor leagues during the Depression years.

Nowadays, we can't even imagine games without lights.

It took a few more years.

1935, before the first Major League night game.

Wichitan Bill Moorehouse has made it a point to collect local minor league memorabilia.

He's got game programs, shirts, ball caps, team photos, coffee mugs and more.

He's even made it a point to have both the road and home jerseys.

That's the kind of following teams need.

Jane Rhoads remembers her youth when the whole family went to Lawrence Stadium to see minor league and NBC tournament games.

We went to the baseball games.

We didn't have television.

We didn't have air conditioning.

Now, some people did, but we didn't.

They always hoped for a gentle summer breeze to keep them cool at the ballpark.

But my father was at Cessna and the Cessna Employees Club furnished free baseball tickets.

So we spent a lot of very pleasant evenings sitting out watching baseball.

It was while attending one of the NBC games that she had her best baseball experience.

It was at one of those games that my father caught this ball.

It was the fly ball.

We were on the right.

The first base side and I was so proud of him.

I was just it was the most wonderful thing you ever did was to catch this ball.

Now, baseball makes lasting memories.

Fans remember teams they followed.

After the Braves left in 1958, Wichitans waited until 1970 for the Aeros to land.

Then the Aeros moved to Buffalo in 1984.

Then the Pilots came in 1987 and were later called the Wranglers.

From 2008 through the 2018 season, the Wingnuts played at Lawrence Dumont.

So now new memories are being made with the new team, the Wichita Wind Surge at a new stadium.

Riverfront.

For Riverfront to be a continuing success, though, fans will have to buy into the $75 million park investment and the team.

I think this is very good for Wichita.

I'm very excited about it.

And hopefully the town will buy in and everybody else will be too.

Now, as we've learned, teams come and go, but this stadium and park setting was built to last generations.

And judging from the fans comments, Riverfront is already making great impressions.

I mean, everything about it is perfect.

It's a great little stadium for what have here in Wichita.

Fans are raving about the spaces and fan amenities here.

All the bathrooms, I mean, the concessions, everything's great tons of room.

It's awesome.

Those who design the stadium say one of the keys was having extra room for an open feeling and to encourage fans to socialize.

What we're finding in the sports world is that people want those social areas.

They don't want to be sedentary.

They don't want they don't want just to see.

The fans have places to go in the park.

There are numerous concession stands for food and drink in all sections of the park.

There are also team stores selling, team swag to wear and to display.

And when we especially as we get into summer with warmer weather, people are going to be loving it.

Kids are going to love it.

Families will be out here.

No where you get tickets, you're going to have a great view and a good time.

And if you don't even like baseball, it's more like a social event as much as a baseball game.

And it's it's really good.

The berm and being able to sit on the lawn is amazing.

You can bring a family out here and have that whole entire experience.

I think it's absolutely great.

Riverfront Stadium and the Wichita Wind surge are part of the present and future of Kansas baseball.

And what about that future?

Will our youth continue playing the game and dreaming of growing up to be big leaguers?

You look at the number of kids playing baseball in this city and this area.

It is huge.

It is a really huge.

I'm still involved in youth baseball.

The WSU professor says those young players grow up to be baseball fans, making him optimistic about the future.

He also reminds us not to forget about the popularity of baseball's cousin softball.

You look at the number of girls that are playing softball, it's a tremendous number.

Those players are a fan base of support, he says.

The dimensions may be different, but it's still the same game.

And he also points out the growing number of baseball and softball fields in Kansas suitable to attract tournaments.

I think we've got three of the nicest facilities in the nation between Riverfront Stadium, Eck Stadium and Genesis Sports Complex.

We have a great base of baseball fans, not critical fans, but sometimes like at Wichita State, they can be front runners if they're playing well, they pack the park, if they're not, they're not there.

The history of Kansas baseball we've shared is in part, there are simply too many stories to tell than there's time to tell them.

As we've also pointed out in this documentary.

There was a time in Kansas when baseball was the only game in town.

It was about the only entertainment to be had.

But we've also pointed out over the past century how much more competition baseball has for our attention.

So there are a lot more distractions, they're increasing, not decreasing.

But at the same time, I'm not that worried about baseball.

I mean, its model is changing perhaps somewhat in how they generate revenues and those sorts of things.

But I don't think it's going to go away in the near future.

No, it's got a history still to be played out.

So with all the distractions, all the competition that there is for our time, begs the question: Will baseball continue as America's pastime?

Will it even survive another century?

And baseball has changed a lot over the past 175 years.

And that's it.

Baseball has evolved, even though it's the same sport, and I believe it will continue to evolve to meet whatever challenges arise.

And from Kansas Sandlots to Riverfront Stadium here, there will still be Kansas ballplayers swinging for the fences.

I'm your producer and host, Chris Frank for PBS Kansas.

Thanks for watching.

This program is brought to you by the following: Humanities Kansas.

We believe that stories carry our culture and ideas change the world.

Fidelity Bank.

Our next move will shape the future of Wichita.

Let's lean into the challenges and believe in the promise that progress holds.

Also brought to you by locally owned by Meineke of Wichita Hutchinson and Derby.

Arms busted.

Only option is to replace it.

Just scratched.

Unnecessary repairs don't fly outside a repair shop.

They shouldn't fly inside one Meineke.

Doing car care.

Right.

And by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission, the commission serves as the administrator of the NBC World Series.

We are excited to be a sponsor of this PBS Kansas documentary and are extremely proud of the impact that the NBC World Series had upon the history of Kansas baseball.

Additional support was provided by the Wichita Wind Surge at the state of the art Riverfront Stadium.

More information at milb.com/Wichita.