{"id":94,"date":"2010-04-10T10:41:48","date_gmt":"2010-04-10T15:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=94"},"modified":"2010-04-10T10:41:48","modified_gmt":"2010-04-10T15:41:48","slug":"joplins-first-organized-baseball-team-the-colts-who-became-the-miners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"Joplin’s First Organized Baseball Team – The Colts Who Became the Miners"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the turn of the century, baseball had an established presence in Joplin in the form of amateur teams, both black and white.\u00a0 However, what Joplin did not have was a professional team and the Joplin Base Ball Association was created to change this fact and to \u201cpromote the great national game in this city.\u201d\u00a0 The lead men behind the club was Arthur C. Cox, treasurer, Don W. Stuart, secretary and a manager of the Club Theater, and John A. Campbell, president.\u00a0 Joplin was to play in a six team league called the Missouri Valley League, the other teams involved were from Jefferson City, Springfield, Sedalia, Coffeyville, and Iola.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Joplin Miners of 1902<\/p><\/div>\n

The Colts, as they were initially named, had their first home at Cox Park and were watched by cheering fans in a brand new grandstand that seated 1,500.\u00a0 The grandstand featured special boxes for the scorekeeper and the press, plus 12 private boxes for those willing to pay for the privilege of a good seat.\u00a0 A good seat was needed as apparently for the first time in Joplin baseball history, only the players and umpires were allowed on the field.\u00a0 Under the grandstand, locker rooms complete with showers awaited the teams before and after the games.<\/p>\n

The team was managed by Claud A. Marcum, considered locally as a seasoned baseball veteran who oversaw a \u201cgalaxy of stars.\u201d\u00a0 Outfitted in uniforms ordered from Rawlings Sporting Goods of St. Louis, the team won their season opener against Springfield at Springfield, 11 to 6.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Colts promptly loss their home opener against Springfield a few days later.\u00a0 By the end of the season, two notable events had happened.\u00a0 Joplin had failed to win the league pennant or even place in the upper half of the league and the Colts had changed their name to the Miners.\u00a0 From the end of 1902 and for many decades to come, the Miners provided Joplin with a team to cheer for and a pastime to enjoy.<\/p>\n

Featured left to right in the photograph above are: Top Row \u2014 Wright Wickizer, catcher; an unnamed pitcher; Bert Dunn, pitcher; Claud Marcum, manager; Arthur \u201cRip\u201d Reagan, pitcher; Peck Harrington, catcher and outfielder; and Lefty Greer, pitcher.\u00a0 Middle Row \u2014 Earl Taylor, pitcher, Don Stewart, secretary of the club; Arthur “Art” Cox, treasurer of the club; and William \u201cDolly\u201d Gray, first baseman.\u00a0 Bottom Row \u2014 Bert \u201cMonk\u201d Senter, shortstop; Jimmie Underwood, outfielder; Fred Tullar, third base; and Dick Bayless, outfielder.<\/p>\n

Sources: The Joplin Globe, “Angling in the Archives” by Charles Gibbons.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the turn of the century, baseball had an established presence in Joplin in the form of amateur teams, both black and white.\u00a0 However, what Joplin did not have was a professional team and the Joplin Base Ball Association was created to change this fact and to \u201cpromote the great national game in this city.\u201d\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,273,35],"tags":[368,49,2908,369,323,367,32,52,366,31,351,352,370,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}