Gary Roenicke
“Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian do an excellent job of portraying some of the early frontier days in Wyoming including their favorite sport – baseball.” Gary Roenicke – Outfielder for Baltimore Orioles & the New York Yankees
George Brett
The Death Row All Stars at Play
Leavenworth, Kas., Oct. 28, 1910 – The federal prison baseball league closed a successful season with Saturday’s game, when the Booker T.’s won their fifteenth game to the Brown Sox’s fourteen. Until the last inning of the final game was played the result was in doubt, as each team had won and lost an equal number. In the final inning when the Booker T.’s scored two runs against the Brown Sox the score on the prison league grounds rivaled that at Boston, when the victors in the world’s series scored their final run defeating -the New York Giants. Although, financially. The league was not a success it fully equaled the expectation of its promoters, which was to aid the prison discipline and furnish the prisoners innocent amusement at a nominal expense.
1910 – Rickwood Field, the first concrete-and-steel ballpark in the minor leagues, opens in Birmingham with the hometown Barons scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth in their exciting 3-2 walk-off victory over Montgomery. The Alabamian landmark, which will become the oldest surviving professional baseball park in the country, is well attended by the citizens of the booming iron-and-steel town, often drawing standing-room-only crowds in excess of 10,000 fans in the first decade of it existence.
Death Row All Stars Second Baseman, Frank Fitzsgerald
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. May 12, 1915 — In the opening game of the San Quentin prison baseball season one of the best men on the team playing second base became incensed over what he considered poor judgment of the umpire. “Ah’ll knock your head off when I get outa here,” he yelled. “You’ll have to go some to catch me,” grimly answered the umpire. “I’ll beat you through the gate by three and a half.”
To learn more about prisoners who played baseball read The Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball Corruption and Murder.
On March 15, 1915, Warden Tom J. Tynann of the Colorado penitentiary, described as “the man who put ‘mun’ in humanity in prison reform,” announces that he is organizing a baseball team among the convicts. Tynann was the first penitentiary warden to install moving pictures and the first to try the system of rewards for good conduct by sending the best behaved convicts to build and improve the roads of the state. He proposes to have a baseball team to compete with teams of the state league and other teams from the surrounding towns and cities. Tynann is s baseball “fan” himself. “I’ve got some crackerjack material down here,”‘ says Tynann, “and I’m going to utilize it. Got a housebreaker that can outrun Ty Cobb. Join the Feds? No chance. No bush leagues for us. We’ll be in the AA class or none at all.” The convict team will go into training as soon as a wall Is built around four acres of ground which the warden has laid out for the purpose.
To learn more about prisoners who played baseball read The Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball Corruption and Murder.
James Powell, catcher for the Death Row All Stars
The July 22, 1913 edition of the Jefferson Daily Reflector in Jefferson, Indiana was one of the first newspapers to announce that the Atlanta Pirates won the Prison League Pennant. “For the first time in the history of the Atlanta federal prison,” the article read “the Pirates are winners of the spring season championship. They defeated the Nevada federal prison team known as the Tigers 13 to 2, Interest in the Prison leaguepennant race has been intense among the prisoners. Since early spring eight clubs have fought valiantly for the title, each were supported and cheered by partisans as enthusiastic as thosewho throng the grandstands and bleachers of the “big league” parks.”
To learn more about prisoners who played baseball read The Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball Corruption and Murder.
1912 – Shoeless Joe Jackson completes the stolen base cycle when he swipes home in the seventh inning of the Indians’ 8-3 victory over New York at Cleveland’s League Park. The 25 year-old outfielder had made his way around the bases by stealing second and third base before his thievery of the plate to complete the deed.
Joseph Guzzardo, Death Row All Stars Shortstop
In 1914, he manager of a prison baseball team outside of Reno, Nevada was bidding farewell to his star shortstop, who had just finished serving his sentence of five years. “The team’s going to be crippled without you.” “Maybe so,” answered the great ball player, who was also a modest man. “But I don’t see how I can stay any longer. The authorities, you know—” “Of course, not now. But after you’ve seen all your friends on the outside and had your fling, why not break into a bank or something and come back to us?”
To learn more about prisoners who played baseball read The Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball Corruption and Murder.
In August 1893, the Federal Prison Baseball League at Leavenworth signed willing recruits in preparation for a game against the Eagle team of the City League. The game was organized as an attraction for the residents who enjoyed watching inmates play ball. Members of the St. Louis Federal club spent several hours practicing with the convicts under the guidance of the club’s physician who was a prisoners at Leavenworth some years back. “Give us a team that was sentenced just two days ago and we’ll transform them into the best on the field here or anywhere,” the St. Louis coach told a reporter for the Kansas City Times. “You’ll have an appreciative bleacher crowd,” the coach added about the residents expected to come to the game. “Some of these players are better than any big leaguer ever seen.” The Leavenworth prison team beat the Eagles seven runs to three.
To learn more about prisoners who played baseball read The Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball Corruption and Murder.
