Carthage Baseball Photograph Collection Overview

(Gift of Mercantile Bank/former Home Savings & Loan but part of larger collection known by its earlier historical name: Jasper County Savings & Loan Association Collection)

NEW — Online Exhibit of these photographs

Among the materials taken from the Home Savings & Loan building was a collection of 74 black and white photographs of Carthage baseball players. The Jasper County Savings & Loan Association was a sponsor of the leagues in the 1930s and 1940s and it is assumed these photos were used in some type of promotional display in the S&L facility as the majority have thumbtack holes in their corners.

Carthage has had a long line of adult baseball teams of amateur, semi-pro and professional players. The earliest documented team is the Tornado Base Ball Club of 1870. An African-American team is documented in the 1890s and a women's team has been documented in 1910 but by no means has there been an exhaustive study of baseball in Carthage and all these teams could be replaced by others as "first" upon further research.

Baseball fields are known to have been developed at Carter Park, Lakeside Park outside of Carthage, Hawthorne School Field and Municipal Park. It is believed the last professional baseball game played at Municipal Park was a game featuring the Indianapolis Clowns and the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in 1952. Of all the former ballfields listed, the Municipal Park Stadium built by the Works Progress Administration still stands today off Oak Street (the former route of Highway 66).

In the twentieth century, Carthage fielded white-male baseball teams in the Trolley League (1900-10s), Southwestern League (1891), Ozark League (1920s), Western Association (1941), Arkansas-Missouri League (1938), and Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League (1946-1951), also known as the KOM League.

The photographs processed during the MHRAB grant represent players from the Carthage Browns, Pirates and Cardinal teams (also known as Cards and later Carthage Cubs), c. 1938-1951. These are the only images we have in this collection; other team players are not included in our collections if not listed here.

Carthage Browns
Gus Albright
Raymond Baird
Jim Bilbrey
Bob David
Chuck Evans
Ralph Germano
Frank Krupka
Frank Mancuso
Mike Mandjack
Charlie McDonald
D C Miller
Roy Myer
Mike Rollins
Cliff Stebe
Joe Szuch
Jimmey VanWey
Glenn Willard

Carthage Pirates
Bob Barton
Harvey Beaster
Glenn Blessing
Everett Bowman
Bill Davis
John Dearie
Roman Deller
Frank DeLuga
Laverne Goyings
Grant Harris
Eddie Karas
Charles Knoblauch
Irvin Knoblauch
Bob Jansen
Tom Lally
Lavern Meyer
Slyvester Miller
Joe Narieka
Roland Parker
John Pavlich
Leon Skidgel
Howard Wagenhurst

Carthage Cardinals
George Alves
Buzz Arlitt
Duane Ballou
Frank Borghi
William Buck
Ray Cross
Sam Dixon
LaVerne Etting
Robert Gott
Glen Koepke
Raymond Kolafa
Bill May
John Oberkirsch
Bill Rogers
Oscar Walterman  

Additional general subjects for these holdings:
Baseball
Municipal Park Stadium
Carthage Businesses; Advertising
Carthage Photographers; unknown identity
Richard McMurtry
Steward's Studio

For further information on Carthage Baseball, see Carthage Vertical Files for all teams and the KOM League, John Hall's Majoring in the Minors, 1996 (available at the Carthage Public Library and Powers Museum Reference Library) and Peter Filichia's Professional Baseball Franchises from the Abbeville Athletics to the Zanesville Indians, 1993 (available at the Powers Museum Reference Library). Added to the museum's reference library after this collection was processed, is the book The KOM League Rembered by John G. Hall published by Arcadia Publishing in 2004.