By STEVE KRAH
A significant happening in baseball history was commemorated exactly 146 years to the date after it happened on Indiana soil.
The first professional league game was contested between the Fort Wayne Kekiongas and Cleveland Forest Citys Thursday, May 4, 1871 and a two-sided marker was dedicated to celebrate the occasion on Thursday, May 4, 2017 at the site of the game, which is now Camp Allen Park.
As Society for American Baseball Research Kekionga chapter president Bill Griggs points out, that’s 5-4-71 to 5-4-17.
Because of heavy rains, it was very brief and a more formal ceremony is expected at a later date so more people can attend.
Archie Monuments of Watertown, Wis., constructed the marker, which is part of David Stalker’s Memorial Baseball Series. The Lou Criger monument, placed in Elkhart by Stalker and this writer in 2012, is part of the series.
Chapter founder Bob Gregory, a Fort Wayne resident and expert on early baseball, wanted to see the important time in baseball and American annals recognized, and pushed for Kekionga to be attached when he founded the Fort Wayne SABR chapter.
Gregory died of cancer in 2016. Working with current chapter president, Bob’s widow Mindy helped gather several of Bob’s books to be auctioned off to help pay for the monument, which now stands at the corner of Center and Huron near the St. Mary’s River as a reminder of the Summit City’s important place in the game’s history.
The list of others who helped is long. Some of those include local politician Geoff Paddock, local baseball historians Bob Parker (Fort Wayne Oldtimers Baseball Association), Don Graham, (Northeast Indiana Baseball Association), fundraiser Tim Tassler, Fort Wayne TinCaps executive Mike Nutter, the Fort Wayne park board and Fort Wayne News-Sentinel sports writer Blake Sebring.
More about the monument is sure to be learned by any attending a Kekionga SABR meeting at noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 6 on the west end of the second floor at the downtown Allen County Library.
The first professional league game was contested between the Fort Wayne Kekiongas and Cleveland Forest Citys Thursday, May 4, 1871 and a two-sided marker was dedicated to celebrate the occasion on Thursday, May 4, 2017 at the site of the game, which is now Camp Allen Park. (Bill Griggs Photos)
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