Lawrence County

Posted by on Nov 28, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lawrence County Bart Richards, the unofficial historian of Lawrence County, indicates that little of historical significance has occurred in the county. He points out that it has had no wars, Indian uprisings, or great discoveries to its credit. Very few of its citizens have qualified for the pages of Who’s Who. Therefore, this history is the story of average, ordinary people striving to make a better...
read more

Philadelphia’s Mr. Baseball and His Amazing Athletics

Posted by on Nov 27, 2013 in | Comments Off on Philadelphia’s Mr. Baseball and His Amazing Athletics Connie Mack always seemed to be dressed in black. His three­-piece business suit, complete with necktie, detach­able collar and derby, gave him the appearance of a Philadel­phia funeral director rather than baseball manager. But for the ten years he had guided the hometown Athletics, Mack took his job very seriously. To be sure, on this sunny Sep­tember morning in 1911, the game of baseball had...
read more

Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Connie Mack’s ’29 Triumph: The Rise and Fall of the Philadelphia Athletics Dynasty by William C. Kashatus McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999 (216 pages, cloth, $28.50) To baseball historians, Connie Mack (1862-1956) is a star among managers. His professionalism, penetrating knowledge of the game, and ability to handle his players helped him claim nine pennants, win five World...
read more

Eddie Plank

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Eddie Plank Gettysburg conjures up images of the greatest battle of the American Civil War. Shortly after guns were silenced, the same rural community played an important role in producing one of baseball’s greatest pitchers. Edward Stewart “Eddie ” Plank, born August 31, 1875, played baseball for Gettysburg College, while attending Gettysburg Academy from 1900 to 1901. He went directly...
read more

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Carlisle Indian Industrial School Over the course of nearly thirty years, from 1879 to 1918, more than ten thousand Native American children attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Cumberland County. The brainchild of Richard Henry Pratt (1846-1924), the school’s purpose was to immerse Indian children in mainstream culture. Pratt, a former 10th Cavalry officer – ­who commanded a unit of African...
read more

Barney Dreyfuss

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Barney Dreyfuss One of the most influential figures in Pennsylvania sports history was a German Jew who came to the United States in the early 1880s. Barney Dreyfuss (1865-1932) went to work as a bookkeeper in a distillery in Paducah, Kentucky, where he began his association with baseball by organizing a semi-professional baseball club. After moving to Louisville with his company, he bought into the Louisville...
read more