Burlington Wins an Improbable Pennant
by Mike Comfort
Incidents between players and umpires continued into the second half of the season. Marshalltown’s Robert Corkill struck Umpire Anderson and kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious for 5 minutes. Corkill “held an intense hatred for Anderson since the first game Anderson umpired here.” Corkill claimed that successive pitches hit him, but Anderson disputed and called them balls. He was fined $50 and arrested, but shockingly not suspended. Corkill pled guilty to assault and battery and paid $4.58 in court costs. The mayor did not fine Corkill because of the $50 fine given by the Iowa State League. Frank Schaub of Ottumwa was fined $5 and ejected for assaulting umpire Anderson over a disputed decision. A September game between Burlington and Fort Dodge game was “marred by two assaults on upon Umpire Anderson, one by a Burlington player and a second by a Fort Dodge man.” Maybe Anderson needed to find a different career path.
Other oddities included strange forfeits. Ottumwa forfeited a game to Oskaloosa after a disputed call. Their catcher threw a ball and hit the umpire. Clinton forfeited to Ottumwa when the game was tied after 9 so they could catch the train. Keokuk and Marshalltown postponed a game because Marshalltown hadn’t arrived yet. The crowd in an Oskaloosa/Marshalltown game left early because “they became disgusted with the horseplay”. Lastly, Oskaloosa won a game 11-3 in one of their last games of the season. The boy running the scoreboard was running ahead by an inning the whole game. The game ended when the crowd left after the 8th (thinking it was the 9th) and the players left too. The league also received a lawsuit when a fan sued the league for being injured in the eye during a game involving Ottumwa. She was seeking $2,000. No word on how the lawsuit panned out.
Financial problems continued to plague the league. Fort Dodge almost gave up their franchise as they were $400 per week below in revenue compared to what they needed to stay solvent. During one game, they only took in $17 which couldn’t even cover the $30 guarantee. Marshalltown refused to play a game against Clinton because of disputes on the gate and then did not play a game against Keokuk because they hadn’t received their money from a game against Ottumwa. President Peckham later met with the stockholders of Ottumwa to ensure financial stability for the association. Peckham also had to deal with a similar situation in Waterloo as their manager called him up and said they wouldn’t play as their salaries were a month behind. In response, the league withheld the Labor Day proceeeds from them. Marshalltown wasn’t immune from their own financial problems. By the end of the season, they had $808 in liabilitlies against $737 in assets after they had sunk $9000 into the season. A major reason for their debt was that attendance was only half of what it was in 1904. Only two players had been fully paid at the end of the season, and it took another week before every player got their due. To ensure he got paid, their Manager Brown left immediately after the season and paid himself $24 without the approval of the association.
Burlington would claim an improbable pennant with an 83-39 record, winning by 9 games after finishing with a 38-84 record the year before. Ottumwa, the two time defending pennant winner, finished in last place. Oskaloosa would clinch 2nd place after winning their last 10 games and 18 of their last 20. Fort Dodge combated a 7 game losing streak by winning 8 of 9 and finished in 3rd place. Marshalltown, Keokuk, and Clinton followed suit in the standings. Waterloo plummeted to 7th after a horrific 1-22 stretch. Eight players hit over .300 including Bill Davidson who led the league with a .344 average in 96 games. He outpaced Cecil Neighbors by 24 points. Five pitchers won 20 games led by Demon Shaw’s 29 against 14 losses. Frank Dick of Marshalltown had the best win/loss record at 18-3.
Immediately after the season, Burlington, the Three I Champions Cedar Rapids (Class B), and the Western League Champions Des Moines (Class A) played in a postseason series for the championship of Iowa. Cedar Rapids and Burlington were matched up first in a best of seven series, with the winner playing Des Moines. Cedar Rapids won the first game 4-2 behind the pitching of Fred Bridges, who had pitched for Oskaloosa in 1904. Burlington followed that up with three straight wins: 20-10, 5-2, and 3-1. Game two was attended by just 350 people, but game three drew 5000 in attendance. Game five was postponed due to rain, and seemingly not made up. Cedar Rapids and Burlington then played a double header to finish the series. Cedar Rapids won game six 2-1, but Burlington won game seven 1-0 to clinch the series. Cedar Rapids had eight players on their roster who played in the major leagues. One of them, Russ Ford, pitched both games on the same day and struck out 17 total. He’d go on and play for the NYG from 1909-1913 and Buffalo of the Federal League in 1914 and 1915. He won 26 games in 1910, but led the NY in losses with 21 in 1912. He finished his major league career with a record of 100-71. Burlington moved on to face Des Moines. Des Moines would win games 4-2 and 5-4 (12 innings), sandwiched around a postponement. In the final two games of the series, a double header, Burlington won 5-3, then Des Moines won 9-4 to clinch the Iowa Championship. The Des Moines club had 12 major leaguers and is considered one of the greatest minor league teams of all time
As in previous seasons, many Iowa State League players would reach the majors. Wally Mattick of the Quakers would play for the White Sox in 1912 and 1913 and the Cardinals in 1918. He would finish with 115 hits. He hit .282 for Oskaloosa in 1906. Burlington had two players reach the majors – Tom Daley who accumulated 113 hits in four years and Cecil Neighbors who appeared in 1 game for the Pirates in 1908, with no official stats. Alva Williams of Keokuk played for 7 years with the Red Sox, Senators, and Indians. Marshalltown’s Roy Radebaugh pitched 10 innings for St. Louis in 1911 while his teammate Cy Slapnicka was 1-6 in two seasons with the Cubs and Pirates. Bottom dweller Ottumwa saw Fred Curtis play 2 games for the Yankees in 1905, while Ed Gagnier played in the major league Federal League in 1914 and 1915. Waterloo had three players. Bill Kelsey played 2 games for Pittsburgh in 1907 while Ward Miller played for 8 years with 4 teams, accumulating 623 hits. The big fish from Waterloo and the Iowa State League was Rube Marquard who would reach the majors in 1908. Marquard would embark on an 18 year HOF career where he would finish with a record of 201-177 and a 3.08 ERA. He would led the NL in wins in 1912 and pitch in 5 World Series, although his teams would lose each one.
Sources
Quad City Times, Oskaloosa Herald, Ottumwa Courier, Sioux City Journal, Waterloo Courier, Davenport Times, Marshalltown Times, CR Gazette, SABR, 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.
