The "Baseball In The City Of Lancaster: How Come I Never Knew That?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Re-reading an article that was published in The Daily New Era dated Saturday, August 15, 1914.  The title of the article was "THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL IN LANCASTER".  I have been interested in the sport of baseball since my birth.  I have played the sport, coached the sport, and watched the sport for over 75 years and still enjoy a good game of ball whether it be Little League, High School, College or professional baseball.  I have written about it many times in the close to 4,000 stories I have published since I began this blog Wednesday, September 2, 2009.  But...I never tire of baseball, much to the chagrin of some of my readers and family members.  One day, a few weeks ago, I was searching the archives of the Lancaster Newspaper and came across the story I mentioned above and after printing it, read it and put it aside until I had more time to read it more carefully.  What got my attention when I finally re-read it was the small sub-title that read: "Dating Back To Time Of The Old Ironsides."  Found out the baseball grounds in Lancaster at that time were on the grounds between the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad round house.  The land was known as the Ironsides grounds and a number of teams played their games there.  In 1880 a number of gentlemen thought it was time to begin professional baseball in Lancaster so they somehow obtained a plot of ground at the corner of Charlotte Street and Harrisburg Pike.  A baseball club known as Old Ironsides played ball there against visiting clubs for four years until it became too costly to continue.  

The teams that played there were the Phillies, Metropolitans of New York, the famous St. Louis Browns, which was managed by Charles Comiskey, and the Ironsides from Lancaster.  How come I never knew about this until I was 75 years old?  Then along came another team called "Lancaster" in 1884 or '85 and Lancaster found it couldn't support two professional teams so the Old Ironsides disbanded.  Lancaster played their games at McGrann's Park which was close to where Carol and I raised our three children in Grandview Heights.  How come I never heard of the park until I was 75 years old?  Well, after a year I suppose someone ran out of money and the team disbanded.  There were a few memorable players who played on those two Lancaster teams during those years.  Guy by the name of John Hofford was the first man to demonstrate the curve ball in Lancaster.  

John Hofford

He went to the Kansas City team in the American Association.  And then there was Harry Pyle who was considered one of the best "twirlers" in the minor leagues and went to the Chicago Club.  But he ran into trouble when they made a rule that you were obliged to keep both feet on the ground when you delivered the ball to the plate and that put a crimp into Pyle's effectiveness and he was useless after that.  Another great Lancaster player, "Billy" Higgins, one of the best second basemen who ever played in this city, and perhaps in the big leagues, went to the Boston Nationals.  The story went on to name a few others who managed to "move up the ladder" before coming back to Lancater where they died.  

Connie Mack

What an ending for those couple of guys!   Then in the early 1890s Asa Bentley brought his Altonna team here to play in the State League which led to a team in the Atlantic League.  Several names were listed and they were said to have "played their last game here before dying."  One player, Joe Yeager, was purchased by Brooklyn of the National League from Lancaster in the nineties, but when the American League expanded he jumped to Detroit where he gave up pithing for the infield.  Another from that team went with Connie Mack for a number of years.  A fellow by the name of Jimmy Sheckard became the manager of the Cleveland American Association club.  

Jimmy Sheckard

He was a twirler on the local team.  Then in 1899 professional baseball in Lancaster stopped once again.  Five years later a fellow by the name of Thomas Feeley brought a semi-pro team to the Rossmere grounds, but that only lasted several months.  One of those players, Bris Lord,  ended up signing with Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics where he went from being a twirler to the outfield.  The 1914 article went on to tell of quite a few players who made their way through Lancaster and went on to play at the major league level for various teams, some that are no longer in existence.  In 1905 Lancaster entered the Tri-State League and names of many of the players were mentioned in the story, but being that the story I read was posted in the August 15, 1914 Daily New Era, the history of professional baseball in Lancaster ended at that time for me.  I attempted to locate other later stories, but haven't been successful as of this time.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.