JULY 1904: PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS, UMPIRE LOWLIGHTS

by Mike Comfort

As the season hit the midpoint, the Iowa League suggested a new scheduling mechanism to keep interest in the pennant race throughout the rest of the year. President Norton mentioned a plan to end the season on July 4th and start a new season to give teams the chance to win again. The two winners would then face off for the pennant in a six game post season series. He cited that Oskaloosa, Burlington, and Boone had turned things around after poor management and he wanted to give interest in the season back to teams where it was ‘waning.” Norton was essentially describing a common format currently in the lower levels of minor league baseball called split season where a season is split into two halves with a first half and second half winner. The winners then play each other in a championship series at the end of the year. The main drive behind this in the current minors is due to teams sending players on to the next level, which completely changes the makeup of each team in the league. This wasn’t occurring in the Iowa State League as the farm system wasn’t a concept yet, but its present purpose is the same as Norton was suggesting – to keep interest in the league for the entire season. While this seems like a slam dunk decision with hindsight, the league decided not to adopt the new format. The Marshalltown manager Warner helped kill the split season idea as he said the Iowa League would be a “standing joke” if they allowed it to happen. The season would march on.

Fred Bridges of Oskaloosa was turning into one of the best pitchers in the league being described as ‘invincible’ and that he had ‘many admirers.” In August he pitched what was described as the “game of his life” as he threw a 1-0 victory over Fort Dodge. Although it wasn’t called it, Bridges threw a 12 strikeout no hitter with just 2 walks. Two weeks later he had another 12 strikeouts in a non league game against the Buxton Wonders. It was only Buxton’s 2nd loss. Buxton was a company mine town in Iowa that no longer exists. It was known for its multi-ethnicity and progressive for its time attitudes toward African Americans. The Wonders was an all African American team dubbed the “best (Black) team in Iowa”. Buxton would play multiple towns throughout Iowa. In 1909 they had a record of 76-17 and followed that up with a 37-6 record in 1910. Oskaloosa would later lose to Buxton later in September by a score of 8-7 on a walk off hit. Bridges’ talent caught the eye of the Pittsburgh Pirates who made an offer for him which Oskaloosa accepted. However, just when he was going to report, he developed a sickness and had to go home to Randolph, Iowa to recuperate. He would have to settle for a tryout in the spring. Bridges would finish with an 18-15 record.

Buxton Wonders description (DM Bystander 11/4/1910)

Burlington 1B George Stovall was one of the top hitters in the league with a .300 batting average. He was sold to Cleveland of the American League for a price of $700 to $1000 dollars and joined the team on July 4th. Amazingly, he made the jump from Class D to the majors pretty easily as he hit .298 in 52 games. On October 7th, he hit his first homerun off his brother, the first time a hitter homered off his brother. He would play for Cleveland from 1904-11, and then the St. Louis Browns from 1912-13. He jumped to the upstart Federal League, a short lived third major league, from 1914-15 with the Kansas City Packers. He would finish his major league career with 1382 hits, 142 stolen bases, and a .265 batting average.

The great performances of the Iowa League players and teams could not obscure that the league’s umpiring problem didn’t resolve itself after the removal of Swigert from the umpiring crew. A new scapegoat emerged in Umpire Mike Flynn, who seemed to draw the ire of everyone that stepped on his field. Jim Myers of Waterloo sent a telegram to President Norton declaring that Flynn was no good. By mid-August, seven of the eight Iowa League teams had made strong objections to Flynn and three had absolutely refused to play with him. Everything culminated in July during a game between Burlington and Marshalltown when Burlington’s manager Black refused to play under Flynn and they forfeited the game to Marshalltown 9-0. The teams reimbursed the fans and played an exhibition without Flynn afterwards, which Marshalltown won 3-1. Why did Burlington forfeit? Well, Flynn called a Burlington runner out at home, but Black said that the runner was on the plate so he should be safe. Black escalated the situation by saying Flynn should be ashamed of himself, which caused the players to get on Flynn as well. Black was fined $5, ejected, and Burlington then refused to come out to the next game.

This was not the only forfeit in protest of Flynn’s calls. In another July game involving Marshalltown, Flynn called a Marshalltown runner safe, which tied the game in the 9th. The pitcher for Boone argued and he was ejected by Flynn. Instead of finishing the game, the team walked off and forfeited. To make matters worse, Flynn stopped showing up to games. He was a no show at a Boone/Marshalltown and Oskaloosa/Marshalltown game. In the second instance, he claimed he was ill and the players umpired in his place. Despite these issues, in late July President Norton said he would keep Flynn and the “incident between Flynn and some Iowa League managers has been settled.” However, just one week later, Flynn turned in his resignation because he was tired of ‘continual protests’. He charged the Ottumwa manager with trying to run him off so he could get an umpire where he could ‘exert his influence’. He was replaced by Robert Classen.

One possible other reason for Flynn’s absence or resignation was that he was actually under contract with another league. According to the July 7, 1904 Oskaloosa Herald, Flynn last umpired an Iowa League game on July 4th because he was under contract with the Missouri Valley League, although he had in the meantime jumped to the Iowa League. Once his ‘whereabouts’ were discovered, the MVL demanded he return and he supposedly did. However, other papers note that Flynn umpired in the Iowa League through the month of July as that is when the controversial forfeits occurred. In fact the Marshalltown Times reported on July 21 that Flynn sprained his wrist trying to field a ball while umpiring the game and then didn’t finish the game due to his injury. It’s possible that Flynn was asked to return to the MVL. Maybe he wasn’t sick when he skipped the Marshalltown games and he simply went back to the MVL, but he did eventually return and umpire games after the July 4th date as described by the Herald. The Herald’s information could be correct, but the timeline is not. With that said, Flynn was out of the Iowa League by early August. However, the umpiring controversy in the league wouldn’t die with the absence of Flynn.

By July the standings had separated nicely into a top half (Ottumwa, Marshalltown, Fort Dodge, and Waterloo) and a lower half (Keokuk, Boone, Burlington, and Oskaloosa). Marshalltown had the best record in July as they went 17-11, including a stretch where they were 14-5. Keokuk, Boone, Ottumwa, Fort Dodge, and Waterloo were all just a little over .500 for the month. Waterloo started out 4-9 and then went on a 17-2 run to salvage July. Everyone beat up on Burlington and Oskaloosa who were the only teams to have a below .500 July at 7-19 and 8-19 respectively. Burlington suffered through a 4-18 mark over a few weeks, while Oskaloosa was an abysmal 2-12 to end the month. The Quakers continued to be the laughing stock of the league, losing two games in July with 11 and 9 errors respectively. Their local paper, the Oskaloosa Herald, blasted them saying, “Oskaloosa continues to lose with a persistence that can not be otherwise than discouraging to the town and its people” and the “Club has represented the town shamefully”. It charged that the “Players had laid down (another assertion the team had thrown games), games have been given away, and attempts made to wreck the team more than once.” Trying to pile on top of the misfortune, The Waterloo Courier offered a $1.85 bet to the Oskaloosa Herald that Waterloo would win a series against the Quakers. Waterloo was promptly swept. With these allegations and poor play, it would have been quite justified to disband or sell the team. Instead, stock was doubled and $500 was given to the team to turn things around. In response, the Herald praised Oskaloosa and claimed they were the most supportive town of any team in the league. The Ottumwa Courier added “Holding down the bottom rung with unrelenting persistence, the Oskaloosa club has not been without the heartiest support of the fans.” This was evident by the 1500 fans that showed up to watch a July 4th game that saw Oskaloosa win in 12 innings 3-2.

Attendance Averages (Marshalltown Times 9/13/1904)

Leading the Iowa league in batting average at this point was 2B Jimmy Archer of Boone with a .364 BA. Taking advantage of his good play, Boone sold him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $500. Archer would make his debut later in 1904 on Labor Day, but would unfortunately break his collarbone when he crashed into a post while chasing a pop fly. He would play in the majors through 1918, playing for Detroit, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, and Cincinnati and finish with 660 total hits in his career. Ten other players were hitting above .300 at this point in the year. Just behind Archer was Hackett of Keokuk (.362), Donohue of Oskaloosa (.346) and Kennedy of Ottumwa (.344). Ottumwa and Boone were tops in team batting average at .260 and .250 respectively, while Oskaloosa was dead last with a team average of .199! Boone led the league in fielding percentage at .964. As for the pitchers, Waterloo pitcher Bugs Raymond won 17 straight games at one point and 24 of 28 starts. One of the oddest moments of the season happened to James Metcalf of Marshalltown. While staying in a hotel he claimed that he had been bitten by a dog and after noticing this, he realized that his room number was 13. Instead of staying in the unlucky room, he went and slept on the curb. The story seems absurd, but was mentioned in the August 15 edition of the Marshalltown Times.

As was common in the minor leagues, players would move teams and leagues during the season. Davenport of the Three I league inquired with Oskaloosa how much it would take to get Bradshaw. The Quakers demanded $1000 and it seems that was too steep of a price. Marshalltown’s SS Mackey was sent to Sioux City, but he returned because Sioux City was losing too much. Interleague trades occurred too. The most unusual one might have been when Waterloo sent 2B Bobby Alberts to Burlington. Alberts made three errors in a game and his manager felt he was trying to throw games so he fined, suspended, then traded him.

Marshalltown and Boone led the league in attendance at the midpoint of the year as each averaged over 500 fans a game. Oskaloosa was in last with 296 fans a game. Burlington and Ottumwa averaged just 347 and 246 fans during day games, but on Sunday games their attendance skyrocketed, with Burlington averaging 2000 fans and Ottumwa 1514. No other team averaged more than 1000 for Sunday games. Even though Oskaloosa was the worst team in the league, the Oskaloosa Herald chided the readers for not coming to a game in August that was described as ‘not been equalled anywhere else in the league this season’. Oskaloosa and Boone played a double header where each team had a pitcher throw all 18 innings. The Quakers would sweep the double headers by a score of 2-1 and 3-1. The only Boone run in the first game was due to a HR dropped over the fence by a Quaker player.

As the season headed into its last month, the championship was up for grabs between Ottumwa (44-28), Fort Dodge (44-29), Marshalltown (43-29), and Waterloo (42-33). On the other end, Burlington (25-47) and Oskaloosa (21-54) were fighting to stay out of the basement.

August 1st Standings (Marshalltown Times 8/1/1904)

Sources
Oskaloosa Herald, Des Moines Bystander, Marshalltown Times, Waterloo Courier, Sioux City Journal, Muscatine Times, Muscatine Journal, Ottumwa Courier, Davenport Times, Baseball Reference, SABR

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.