It's time for Positively Kansas coming up.

He was one of the best Kansas athletes you've probably never heard of.

It's a cautionary tale of dashed dreams and talent, unrealized.

Kris Frank has the story.

On the flip side, you'll meet this talented singer whose star continues to rise.

He's a country music sensation who's the toast of Nashville.

But he lives his life in small town Kansas and will visit another star.

This one is popular for his work at the local post office.

In our wildest segment, we focus on Mother Nature's transition as cooler weather sets in, and we'll learn about some fascinating research into the time that Harry Houdini lived in Kansas.

I0 Scott.

Those stories and more coming up on this edition of Positively Kansas.

Positively Kansas is brought to you in part by.

Before investing your hard earned money, make sure your financial advisor understands your objectives.

Mark Douglass CFP Serving our community for over 20 years, providing customized financial solutions that focus on the individual.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas serves more than 930,000 Kansans in various programs.

Independent member of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, an independent licensee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, supports Cp's.

Program support provided.

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Bringing you the Kansas Wild Edge segments on Positively Kansas.

The game of baseball has a storied past in Kansas from the very beginnings of the game up through Wichita State's national championship and now a state of the art stadium and winning professional team.

Some of the game's biggest stars have played here at one time or another.

And then there's the case of Fireball Jackson and what might have been.

Chris Frank has the story.

Isaiah, Fireball Jackson is one of the more interesting Kansas baseball stories.

Jackson is on the NBC tournament's Hall of Fame list for his pitching exploits.

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 it 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 Lancing 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 so 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 is 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 Knights of 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 Jackson's were sent to Lancing 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 Lancing 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-A team.

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.

This is Chris Frank for Positively Kansas.

Jackson turned to painting while in Missouri's prison system, but he evidently didn't brag about his baseball pitching while there.

Neither the Missouri Guards nor other inmates knew about his baseball exploits, and those in Kansas didn't even know what an artist he was.

Logan Mize is a musical artist whose secret is out.

Jim Gray shows us how this rising star in the country music world stays grounded in his small Kansas hometown in Clearwater.

You'll not only find the fixin's for tonight's dinner, but you may also run into this country music star.

Ashanti, right on the edge of town and the population keeps going down and there's for sale signs on just about everything.

Don't let the humble surroundings fool you.

When Logan Mize isn't writing music and practicing in this studio above the family grocery store, it started out.

Instead of hanging in the backyard and working on the truck.

He's recording in Nashville and performing for huge crowds around the world.

Creatively, writing a song that I love is still the biggest thrill of it all.

Secondly, I think, is taking that song to a stage somewhere, somewhere else.

But people don't know you and playing it for them and having them smile or seeing them feel something.

You'll hear his songs on the radio and see his videos on TV and online.

I just can't get away from a good.

As a kid, Mize listened to a lot of rock, grunge and pop music.

But he says growing up in Clearwater, there was something he particularly liked about country.

That was probably nine or ten years old, and I'm riding around and had the radio on and heard like Alan Jackson sing and I can't even remember what maybe Chattahoochee or something.

And I was like, This sounds like my life.

You know, I loved the music I was listening to before that.

But country music really drew me in because lyrically it was saying something that was familiar to me.

You know, it's familiar with my surroundings, you know, going to town, 2000 people hand fishing in the river out here, you know, farmers everywhere.

It's just it was more of a lifestyle thing for me.

So that's when I really dove into country music.

Rallying, jammin around in my food truck, waving at the pretty girls.

Logan says he was drawn to singing and playing music, even though other influences were working against him.

Now, I took piano lessons outside of school because I really wanted to learn how to play the piano, and I wanted to know.

Music took a lot of grief from it, from my friends, you know, we're outside in the yard trying to play football and mom comes out with piano books and time to do the piano lessons, you know?

And they're like, Oh, I taught myself to sing.

Mostly listening to a lot of country radio songs and Elton John just trying to do all the little licks Elton John did.

I was always trying to learn those.

And then certain country singers, I was always trying to figure out How do they do this little thing?

And once I kind of figured it out, I wasn't good at it at first.

I was never I didn't start out as a good singer, and I still wouldn't consider myself a great singer, but I figured out my style and once I kind of honed in on that, then it was like, okay, let's chip away at this.

Mize moved to Nashville after high school and he landed a recording contract in 2010.

Since then he's had songs that have climbed the charts and he's been popular on national radio.

Mines has also become a popular stage performer.

His calendar is booked with concerts across the U.S. and Europe.

But at other times you just might find him back in Kansas working on the family farm.

By the time that I was at the point where we have a major label pushing a single off the charts and a manager and an agent and all these things like, you know what, Nashville's just exploded.

The thing about living in Nashville is, you know, everybody's wearing cowboy boots and singing country music, but you're living in, you know, suburban neighborhoods and you got you know, it's it's it's hard to sing about that kind of life.

It started the Kansas way of life, you know, starts to disappear when you're living in Nashville.

And it's like, what am I going to sing about?

And moving back here has been so great cause I'm helping on the farm, and my kids are, you know, running around barefooted, you know, digging in mud and doing things you're supposed to do as a kid.

So it's it's really actually help my creativity and and write the kind of music that that got me out of here in the first place.

You might say Logan Mize lives in the best of both worlds and he seems to appreciate every bit of it.

I got to think a small.

Town preacher making me a ham singer on the Sundays Mama made me go.

I got to thank a high school.

Teacher for believing in the dreamer and Steven.

Me down the road.

It's just pretty cool.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Mize just released a brand new album called Welcome Approval features original songs inspired by his hometown of Clearwater.

Going to the post office probably is on most people's favorite thing to do list, but that's not the case in Maze, where many folks actually go out of their way to visit the post office.

And it's for one reason the amazing service provided by a clerk named James.

Mayes is one of those small Kansas towns where you still find amazing customer service.

And nowhere is that more on display than the town's post office, especially when a gentleman named James is behind the counter.

How are you today?

Wonderful.

I'm well, thank you.

Meet James Krall, a native New Yorker who ended up in the Wichita area through the military.

After retiring from the service.

I just.

Was looking for a job and it seemed like a good fit.

And so began Chapter two, a career with the Postal Service in south central Kansas.

James knew he had the one thing you can't teach that would make him successful.

I just really have big, big into customer service, and I want to get people, you know, a good experience.

And I always want to see people come back.

And what we have is repeat customers.

They come back.

Repeat customers, we're told, that drive as much as half an hour out of their way.

How are you doing today?

You got a bunch of stuff on.

Because James makes the trip so enjoyable.

It's just it's customer service at its finest.

Rock star is the word.

Maine's postmaster Susie Hoffman says she often sees on surveys when people are describing James.

In fact, rock star is the word I used on a survey.

After getting such great service from James, an experience that left me saying he is just perfect for a positively Kansas story.

Everybody loves him.

They walk in the door.

They have a smile on their face.

It's the James.

Show every single day.

Good morning.

What can we do?

Just drop it.

Off.

I need a receipt.

Great attitude.

Like I say.

Second to none.

As far as the customer experience.

He was genuine and he's very sincere and we really appreciate his efforts.

As much as James appreciates those kind words from his coworkers, it's his customers words that really make his day.

If anybody waits in a long line, they can start feeling negative.

But James kind of makes it light, tells everybody, I'll be with you shortly.

He picks it up.

He'll even address some personal.

You know, when he gets to know people.

I'm a reseller, so I have a lot of packages.

Usually this is odd for me just to have one.

And he's very on top of making sure I don't have to wait.

And he's like, here, just drop, dump the packages.

And and he's just always greeting.

By now you can probably see that James enjoys some celebrity status in and around Meigs, something he confirmed to us.

I got friends here.

Yeah, and they know me all around town.

I can't go to the gym.

I can't go to the grocery store.

I can't go to Taco Bell without answering questions.

Of course, the job isn't always easy.

There are plenty of tough customers to deal with, too.

But James lives for that challenge.

We're just here to help them and guide them.

So we take the tension from them and put it on us.

And then we we guide them through.

And when they leave with a smile on their face, James smiles too.

So whether you are having a good day or a bad one, James Cromwell can make any type of day so much better.

If you need some stamps or anything else, stop by and see him.

Like me, you'll be glad you did.

It makes for positively Kansas.

I'm Anthony Powell.

While most people think about retiring one day, James says he can't imagine not working.

And he says, why stop doing something that brings you so much joy?

Many of us find joy in the change of seasons.

In this week's Kansas Wild Edge Report, Mike Blair brings us the beautiful sights and sounds of autumn.

As a fresh north, wind starts to blow in.

I often get asked who I would like to meet from the past and believe it or not.

Harry Houdini is one of the people I would love to meet.

And I have with me Don Creekmore, who's done a lot of research, probably knows more about Harry Houdini than his family did, honestly.

And you're working on a book right now.

So talk about why Harry Houdini, why were you interested?

Well, as a kid, of course, a lot of kids find them interesting.

And, you know, I read a biography when I was little about them and then shortly after.

Well, me and my wife, we got married at the Orpheum Theater here in Wichita.

And shortly afterwards, on the Internet, I found a little flier about Houdini being at the Orpheum Theater here in Wichita in 1923.

And that intrigued me a lot.

Like, how many times did he come to Wichita and what was the history behind that?

But really, no biographies, no books talked about his time in Kansas.

And so I kind of decided to delve into that.

Wow.

That's I think that's going be so interesting and I can't wait.

Again, the book isn't finished yet.

And that's one of the things finding it, because I know I've tried to do research before, finding information, especially when you go into some of these historical museums and stuff, is not always easy.

Right.

How have you managed to find things and do you still need more?

Well, of course, the Internet's a big, big help.

You know, being able to go through old newspapers that are online now is just a huge help for somebody that's, you know, maybe trying to work from home, especially during COVID, but actually going to the various small towns, the Kansas Historical Society, things like that, just digging through.

And it's just a lot of time and effort to find those little tidbits of information that maybe aren't quite relevant to anybody else, but just finding those little pieces of information.

But that's really rewarding when you do that, you know?

Absolutely.

Now, you've been working on this for about two years now.

COVID, of course, slowed you down a bit because you can't go to a museum when they're not open.

So that makes it a little bit tougher.

If somebody knows of information or has some, how do they get it to you?

Well, so I've got a website.

It's Houdini, Kansas dot com, and it has updates as far as you know what's going on on occasion, things like that, that there's my phone number and email on there.

As far as if anybody has any any little information, the photos, anything about his time in Kansas, that would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

And of course, they'd be credited in the book, too.

Absolutely.

I love this idea because I again, I'm fascinated by Harry Houdini anyway.

And the fact that he was in Kansas even makes it more relevant without giving too much away, because I know you're trying to write a book.

Are there things that you've stumbled across that you go, Wow, that's interesting, or that I didn't expect to learn that a.

Lot of it, you know, him in Wichita in 1923 was interesting.

And that kind of got me on to the quest.

But what really got me going was finding out that in the late 1890s, him and his wife came to Kansas.

They were flat broke, they were hungry, there were no bodies.

And they had a tour with a medicine show, which was the bottom rung of the entertainment ladder was a medicine show.

And they went to small towns in southeast Kansas and were selling snake oil during the day and at night in opera houses, doing their their magic.

And, you know, they were just barely scraping by.

Just trying, I'm sure his wife, she was 21 years old at that time, was probably like, hey, this needs to pick it up a little.

We need to eat.

Right.

And so they did that until the company there with went bankrupt and then they hopped around the United States a little bit more.

And so at that time in Kansas, that four months where they were struggling and small Kansas towns and performing, that's what really intrigued me.

And nobody's written about that at all.

So that's kind of that's my goal is to find out every day what they were doing and where they're in.

You brought a couple of things with you.

Yeah.

What do you have?

So, you know, towards the during this year, 1898, when this their medicine show there with went bankrupt.

I'm sure they were you know they're on the bottom.

No food, nothing.

So Houdini actually that same year made a little booklet and this booklet is from 1898.

And he was offering to sell all his tricks, everything he knew he would sell them his handcuffed tricks, his the metamorphosis trick, which is what made him famous.

Yeah.

He'd sell them and all in here for $1 to $20.

Oh, my gosh.

Nobody, Barnum.

Nobody cared.

And so these little booklets that I was able to discover during my research, they're incredibly rare.

This one's falling apart.

It's in rough shape.

But just to have one is special.

So that was kind of a, you know, just an interesting part that they were that low, that he was going to sell everything.

And it was only one year later he was discovered and then the rest is history.

So can you do one of the tricks now?

Nope.

I don't.

I don't know any of the tricks.

I found in my research on occasion.

Some some books.

We'll talk about how he did some of his illusions.

And I wish I didn't know, because at that point, they're not magic anymore.

Yeah.

I got to disappoint you.

Doesn't.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

I can't wait to book on out.

Yes, for sure.

And that's a wrap for this week.

Positive.

The Kansas at Cape Story is our email address.

Send us your story ideas I0 Scott.

Thanks for watching.

See you again next time.

Positively Kansas is brought to you in part by program support provided by the F price Kosman Memorial Trust and Trust Bank Trustee bringing you the Kansas Wild Ed segments on Positively Kansas.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas serves more than 930,000 Kansans in various programs.

Independent member owned Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, an independent licensee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, supports KPS.

Before investing your hard earned money, make sure your financial advisor understands your objectives.

Mark Douglass CFP Serving our community for over 20 years, providing customized financial solutions that focus on the individual.