STRONG PERFORMANCES IN THE SUMMER
by Mike Comfort
As the league headed into the summer months, attendance was up from the previous year, despite Keokuk, Ottumwa, and Ft Dodge not being able to meet the $30 guarantee consistently. Fans of the league would be treated to a new star in pitcher Fred Steele of Oskaloosa who was acquired from Class A Des Moines. Steele had been desired by other teams but the Quakers were able to secure a deal to get his services first. He promptly threw a 3-0 shutout in an hour and 15 minutes of game time in his first game for the Quakers. It wasn’t long before numerous papers hailed Steele. The Marshalltown Times declared “all honor to Fred Steele”, while the Oskaloosa Herald called him the “premier pitcher” of the Iowa League after a 2-1 victory over Ottumwa. In another game, he beat Marshalltown after giving up just 4 ‘dinky’ hits then tied the game with his bat, and later scored the winning run. Steele would win 9 straight at one point and finish with an 18-3 record for Oskaloosa. His performance caught the attention of the Class A St. Paul of the American Association, who bought him from the Quakers. Steele would play with the Quakers for the remainder of the season and then revert back to Osky if he didn’t make it with St. Paul. Steele was joined by another new pitcher for Oskaloosa, Frank “Demon” Shaw, who once during the season pitched both ends of a double header, losing game one 7-6 while striking out 7, and winning game two 3-0. Shaw and Steele were major reasons why Oskaloosa had improved from 11-30 to 21-26 from June 1904 to June 1905.
George Disch of Marshalltown was 15-7 in 1904 and despite dropping to 8-9 in 1905 still drew attention from the Detroit Tigers. After taking a tour of the Iowa League, Tigers manager Bill Armour acquired Disch, and pitchers John Eubank (Ft Dodge), Mel Blexrud (Keokuk), Red Fisher (Boone) and John Bassey (Boone). Eubank would go 8-13 over 3 years for Detroit, including 3 wins for the 1907 AL Champs. Disch and Fisher had short cups of coffee. Disch was 0-2 for Detroit in 1905, while Fisher would accumulate 9 hits in 23 games during the 1910 season for the St. Louis Browns. The Blexrud sale would fall through and he would be sent to Oakland of the PCL.
In one of the more unusual incidents in the Iowa League, Hugh Lally of Boone was given a 30 day jail sentence in Oskaloosa for throwing “a dish of butter at (the proprietor of the hotel) and used profane and obscene language to a waitress.” He was also fined $25 and suspended for the rest of the season. He wasn’t released though because his wife had secured a divorce and garnishment proceedings began, which tied up Lally’s salary for alimony. Other players that caused issues and were disciplined by their teams were Quakers P McKenna, who was released, and C Hess, who was suspended. According to the Oskaloosa Herald, they ‘persisted in doing things out of school’ or doing things not liked by the people of Oskaloosa.
The pennant race was an exciting one as four teams traded the top spot over a one month span: Marshalltown (June 17), Waterloo (June 29), Ft Dodge (July 13), and Ottumwa (July 19). Ottumwa would go 32-13 over June and July, including a 13 game win streak, to move from 4th to 1st. In one game, Ottumwa defeated Waterloo 11-0 (19 hits to 3) with “no plays worthy of mention, outside of the number of grounders O’Leary let go between his legs.” Ft Dodge was in second after an even two months which included a 7 game win streak and a 5 game losing streak. Waterloo was in 3rd after a strong June (16-10), then were all over the place in July: lost 5 of 6, won 6 of 7, lost 5 in a row, then won 7 of 8. The Waterloo Courier took this moment to push for their team to be renamed the Manufacturers, since Waterloo is the “Factory City of Iowa”. They had been known as the Lulus, Microbes, and Cyclones. Keokuk was 4th, but wasted a strong June (17-10) by going 5-10 to finish July. Oskaloosa won 10 of 13 in July to be in 5th. Boone was in 6th after winning streaks of 5 and 4 (2x), plus losing streaks of 6 and 5. Marshalltown dropped to 7th after going on a 17-30 stretch, while Burlington brought up the rear. After a terrible 10-17 June, Burlington took their ineptitude to a new level by going 2-24 in July, placing them 17 games behind 7th place.
Sources
Marshalltown Times, Waterloo Courier, Oskaloosa Herald, Quad City Times, Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Sioux City Journal, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Baseball Reference
This article is copyright Mike Comfort and used with his permission. You can read more at his Substack by clicking HERE.
Mike Comfort is an Oskaloosa native as well as a baseball and history buff. He resides in Oskaloosa and is an educator and coach.
