Glory Days

 

“His line drive came right at me. When I reached for it the tip of my glove deflected it enough to rise and sail over the fence. Good thing I didn’t lay a hand on that ball or it would’ve torn my

hand off.” So said an acquaintance of mine who was playing first base for the Blue Ribbon Allstars when Enderlin Indies player John Foss came to bat. I’d seen how hard Foss could hit and

knew my friend was not exaggerating.

Baseball memories! For some people they’re the best. One can dive into the game’s rich history or attend games for enjoyable entertainment. Now it’s spring and my thoughts have naturally

turned to baseball. Like many others I search for diversion from the sad state of political and social affairs encountered in our daily news feed.

I claim a flimsy relationship to Hendrickson Field in Enderlin because, after all, Dr. Hendrickson delivered me at the Opheim house one cold February morning in 1942. What better reason to talk

about the Indies and other teams in the area?

Organized baseball experienced difficulties early in statehood. For the most part farmers worked long hours six days each week. Sundays offered their only day for recreational activities, but the

farm boys found a roadblock. North Dakota’s constitution banned sports that day, terming it “sabbath breaking.” Even earlier, the move to ban it gained traction.

 Here is what the editor of the Sheldon Progress wrote in 1885: “Some of our young gents, not having the fear of their creator before their eyes. indulged in a match game of baseball last Sunday. Don’t do so any more, boys.”

Sixteen years later, a later editor of the same paper, wrote this admonition: “Some of the Sheldon young gentlemen who think more of worldly affairs than they do of spiritual things so far forgot

themselves as to mix-up with the hobo crowd Sunday in a ball game. Playing ball on Sunday is shameful, sinful, and unnecessary and should not be allowed.”

He went on to say he was “reading his Bible but afterwards learned the score stood 5 for Wiper and 4 for Bill Sorenson.” He must have felt obliged to criticize this Sunday game, (but wink, wink) reported the score for interested readers. Finally, in 1917, the yoke was eased when legislation removed the Sunday ban.

A player from this area named Cy Pieh, “Cy” because his pitch seemed to come out of a cyclone, earned some national prominence. One noteworthy event came in his career while playing for the Yankees in 1915. Babe Ruth, the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, hadn’t established himself as a hitter yet, but this day he hit the first of his career 714 homeruns on a pitch Jack Warhop threw in

the third inning. Cy Pieh, a spitballer, came in as a reliever in the ninth inning, pitched five scoreless innings, and received credit for the victory. Pitching spitballs wasn’t outlawed until1920. For reasons unknown here, seventeen pitchers were grandfathered in and permitted to continue using “the wet one” throughout the rest of their pitching days.

Lynn Nelson was born at Sheldon in 1905 and played major league baseball for all or part of seven seasons with the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Athletics, and the Detroit Tigers, from 1930 to 1940. A pitcher, his win-loss record was 33-42 with 255 strikeouts and an earned run average of 5.25. Nelson’s nickname, “Line Drive,” seems to have come from either of two reasons: he batted well, but he gave up lots of homeruns. 

Before concentrating on baseball, he exhibited some prowess as a middleweight boxer and took pointers from his friend Charley Retzlaff, the Leonard, ND, heavyweight who had fought Joe Louis.

The Society for American Baseball Research wrote about the time Nelson was asked about the origin of his nickname. He said, “I would like to say it is because I hit so many line drives, but

the fact of it is that they tacked that name on me several years ago when I was a member of the Chicago Cubs. The opposing batters had a habit, most annoying to me, of hitting liners past my ears, and one of the baseball writers decided I should have a nickname along those lines.” 

As a pitcher he was a good hitter with an overall batting average of .281. Terry Bohn’s work of collecting and publishing facts and anecdotes about amateur baseball in the state gives as good a picture of the sport that I know of. In one book, “Lots More Fun That Way,”

he alluded to a feature article in the Jamestown Sun that tried to explain the continued success of the Indies. The number one reason given, “A core group of very good players stayed together for many years.” Several of those team members have been named to the North Dakota Amateur Baseball of Fame. 

A second reason given was the installation of lights in 1948. Several pages of baseball history written by Carole Tosseth were included in the Enderlin centennial book. The story includes a picture showing the installation of those lights which brings back a memory. My dad liked watching games and took me along. The caption lists the year of 1948 when the towers were raised. Then in August, 1949, a big dedication ceremony was held, and if memory serves, I was there.

It’s necessary to draw heavily from other people’s experiences and collections of memories for baseball writing. Various centennial books, Terry Bohn’s books, the Sheldon Progress, internet sources, and first hand accounts like the one in the first paragraph all add to this writer’s meager store of information. Do you have any to share? I would be willing to collect them and share them with the audience that reads this paper. Email me at lynn.bueling@gmail.com. 

Anecdotes make for interesting reading. Stories from any or all teams and communities are welcome and contributors’ names won’t be used without permission. We know other towns in the surrounding area fielded teams, too. Through the years, Sheldon made a strong showing with some great players. McLeod wrote with pride of their baseball history in their centennial book in 1986. Alice included pictures of teams in their 1975 jubileebook. In fact, the makeup of the area Blue Ribbon League from 1950-1968 includes the nearby

towns of Alice, Sheldon, Buffalo, Chaffee, Fingal, Nome, Oriska, Tower City, and more.