By STEVE KRAH
Kevin Wirthwein wrote about nearly a century of diamond activity in Evansville, Ind., in his first book, “Baseball in Evansville: Booms, Busts and One Global Disaster (The History Press/Arcadia Publishing, 2020).”
While coming up with facts about the game in the Pocket City, Wirthwein focused mostly on Organized Baseball.
Doing that research showed that there was plenty of activity in the sport for those playing in the shadows.
Wirthwein knew that Evansville was represented in the Negro Southern League in the 1920’s and in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
“There’s got to be more,” says Wirthwein, an Evansville native who grew up attending games at Bosse Field and graduated from Harrison High School in 1972. “How did this all happen?
“Where did these players all come from? What are the roots of black baseball in Evansville?”
That curiosity and plenty more digging led to “Black Ball In Evansville: Diamonds In The Shadows 1900 To 1960’s.”
“I scoured newspapers, periodicals and anywhere I could find anything,” says Wirthwein. “There were a handful of really good black-owned newspapers in the period 1900 to 1960 that would cover things on a national basis.”
Researchers know that it is easy to get distracted when combing over old newspapers etc.
“The best thing about doing this research is literally everything I found was new to me,” says Wirthwein. “The rabbit holes bore fruit more often than not.
“Until this book, I don’t think anybody wrote it down.”
With some current events sprinkled in, the book features stories of teams and players — amateurs, semipros and professionals — from who hailed from the southwestern Indiana town on the Ohio River.
It is being produced by Evansville’s M.T. Publishing Company, Inc., is in Pre-Ordering through March 31 and is expected to come out in the summer.
In “Black Ball In Evansville,” Wirthwein’s lays out the teams that played in town then he went through painstaking research on players who were born or reared in Evansville that played in the Negro Leagues.
Among his online resources were SeamHeads.com and Baseball-Reference.com.
While making treks from his home in central Indiana to his hometown to see long-time friends, Wirthwein would do research Willard Public Library and Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library.
In 2020, Major League Baseball status was bestowed upon seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948.
That meant about 3,400 players and their statistics became a part of Major League history.
With the adoption, the MLB record for most victories by a 17-year-old is now credited to Evansville-born William “Steel Arm” Tyler, who won nine game with the 1925 Memphis Red Sox of the Negro National League.
The previous record for a 17-year-old was held by Hall of Famer Bob Feller with five wins for the 1936 Cleveland Indians.
Wirthwein traced the players who the Color Barrier in Evansville and in other minor leagues.
Felix Mantilla and Horace Garner played for the 1952 Evansville Braves of the Class B Three-I League.
Ike Brown played his final professional season with the Evansville Triplets. He was the last Negro Leaguer to make it to the majors.
Purchased from the Kansas City Monarchs in 1961, Brown debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1969 and made his last MLB appearance in 1974 and was with Evansville as a player-coach that same season.
Retired from CNO Financial Group (formerly Conseco) since June 2019, Butler University graduate Wirthwein (1976 undergraduate Journalism degree and 1991 Master of Business Administration) has several ideas about what he could write about next — not necessarily baseball.
“The writing is the hardest part,” says Wirthwein. “The research is fun.”
Wirthwein’s latest “Baseball In Evansville: Stories from the Cutting Room Floor” blog post was published March 7, 2024.
www.IndianaRBI.com 