Birmingham Barons Then and Now

The Birmingham Barons have been a professional baseball presence in the city since 1885, with only three brief gaps of years they did not play. Since 1910 three stadiums have been home to the team: Rickwood Field, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the current Regions Field downtown near Railroad Park. Numerous Major League and Negro League stars played on those fields, especially Rickwood, the first concrete and steel stadium in the minor leagues. Today the Barons are a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. 

On Tuesday night, August 20, son Amos and I attended a game and watched the Barons defeat the Biloxi Shuckers in a comeback win 6-5. Some photos are below. This experience brought to mind some items of Barons' memorabilia that have been in the family since the mid-1990s. More on that and other goodies are also below.

I've previously written a blog piece on the Barons discussing a 1917 photo of the team. 

You can find almost 600 digitized items related to the Barons' history at the Alabama Mosaic site. 

Further Reading

Allen Barra, Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark. 2010

William J. Plott, Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1919-1962. 2019

Watkins, Clarence. Baseball in Birmingham. 2010

This board with its removable discs appeared in 1995 or 1996 during a craze for "pogs", a modern version of the milk cap games that dated from before World War II.

These Barons players appear on the "pog" board. I have included the states where they were born and the years they played in Birmingham. Since two of the players appeared on a Barons roster only in 1995, I'm assuming that's the year of this item. Several of these players had some time in the majors as well as other minor league teams. Search for them at the Baseball Reference site for more details. 

Jimmy Hurst [Alabama, 1995-6]
Mike Cameron [Georgia, 1995-1996]
Jeff Abbott [Georgia, 1995]
Eddie Pearson [Alabama, 1995-7]
Greg Norton [California, 1995-1996]
Troy Fryman [Florida, 1994-6]
Glenn Disarcina [Massachusetts, 1993-6]
Scott Vollmer (California, 1995-6]
Scott Christman [Arizona, 1995]

Two of these players are Alabama natives. Jimmy Hurst was born in Tuscaloosa in 1972 and was a star high school player. He had a long career on various minor league teams and played briefly for the Detroit Tigers in 1997. Unfortunately, Hurst died of a brain bleed on July 6, 2024, age 52. You can see some of his baseball cards here.

Eddie Pearson, born in Mobile in 1974, also had an extensive minor league career. He played at Bishop State Community College in Mobile. You can see his Barons baseball card here.

This board was sponsored by radio station Magic96.FM and Galleria Fun Country, which was located near the Riverchase Galleria. We spent some time there with the kids in the mid-1990s. The place appealed to children in a way similar to Chucky Cheese and was a good venue for birthday parties. Originally known as Riverchase Golf and Games, the place apparently created fond memories in others, too. Earlier this year someone on Redditt was asking for photos and the responses were interesting. 

As the game progressed and darkness fell, the moon rose over Children's Hospital. 

A view of the field early in the game

Along the stadium concourse are large photographs of baseball stars who played for the Barons, including Reggie Jackson in 1967. 

Piper Davis, Birmingham Black Barons, 1942-1948

Frank Thomas, 1990

Michael Jordan, 1994

A photo taken before the game started 

Naturally before the game we made a stop at the Good People Brewing Company just across the street from Regions Field.

A few ticket stubs from games we attended back in the day....

That Time John Dodge Died in Mobile

Recently one of my Google Alerts coughed up an interesting article. The piece was a brief notice about the unmarked grave of John Lewis Dodge [1893-1916], who has an unfortunate connection with Mobile. Because he was a professional baseball player in 1912 and 1913, the Society for American Baseball Research had paid for a marker at the plot in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, which was installed early in December 2021. 

Some sources say Dodge was born in Tennessee in 1889, but the 1900 U.S. Census has him as seven years old and living with his family in Bolivar, Mississippi. His father, born in Louisville, was a physician who moved to Bolivar to set up his practice and met his mother Fannie. The census also lists a two year-old sister, Mary. 

Fannie developed tuberculosis, and despite the family's move to Arizona she died in 1902. John's father died two years later, back in Mississippi, apparently from an overdose of chloroform he was using to self-medicate his headaches. What happened to John Jr. and Mary in the following few years is unknown, but by 1909 John was playing professional baseball in a minor league in Arkansas. 

Over the next four seasons with various teams he batted well and played even better on defense at third and second bases and shortstop. Late in the 1912 season he was called up by the Philadelphia Phillies and made his major league debut on August 29. Even though he played in only 30 games, he managed to demonstrate his defensive skills in a number of  plays noted by newspaper accounts.

Dodge was traded to the Cincinnati Reds on June 3, 1913, three games into the season and played his final game for them on October 5. His offense improved in the 94 games, but his defensive skills deteriorated--he made 27 errors at third base. During his major league career Dodge had a .215 batting average, made 90 hits, had four homers and 48 runs batted in, and scored 38 runs. 

New management of the Reds sold Dodge's contract to a Louisville Class AA team, at the time the highest level of minor league play. Perhaps the Reds wanted a more consistent player. His defense and hitting improved, but apparently not enough; he was traded down to the Nashville Class A team on July 27 of the 1914 season.

Among Dodge's teammates was pitcher Tom Rogers; the two would have a fateful reunion of sorts in 1916. In the 1915 season Dodge started off hitting well, but soon tapered off as pitchers figured him out. He was released by the Nashville team and then played winter ball in New Orleans.

For the 1916 season Dodge signed with the Mobile Sea Gulls, where he probably felt he had a final chance to move back upward toward the majors. He was hitting well after 39 games, but then came a home contest against his former team, the Nashville Volunteers, on June 18. 

In the seventh inning Dodge was hit with a fastball above his left eye. The Nashville pitcher was his friend and former teammate, Tom Rogers. At first the injury was not considered serious, but as a precaution Dodge was carried off the field and taken to the Inge-Bondurant Sanitarium, a private Mobile hospital. His condition worsened overnight and by the next morning Dodge was comatose. He died early that evening of internal hemorrhaging in the brain. 

His only survivors were his sister Mary Elizabeth and a grandmother in Memphis. On August 15 Mobile and the Chattanooga Lookouts played an exhibition game that raised $1500 for Mary. The sister later married, had two daughters and died in Connecticut in 1975. 

Dodge has been described as the first professional baseball player killed by a game pitch. In 1920 a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, Ray Chapman became the first major league player to die in this way. These two men are certainly the best documented cases, although there may have been others in the early days of the game.  

I am indebted to the article on Dodge written by Chris Betsch at the Society for American Baseball Research site and the entry on Dodge at BaseballReference.com You can find much more information there. 

A general history that covers 1877-1973 is Robert Obojski's 1975 book, Bush League: A History of Minor League Baseball. 

Dodge playing for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1913

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Baseball Reference

Dodge's new marker in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY

Source: WDRB.com 

The private Mobile hospital where Dodge was taken after his injury. 

Movies with Alabama Connections: Balboa

As I continue my wanderings through the twists and turns of state history on this blog, I'm always alert for mentions of Alabama in the movies or television shows. I came across another one recently in an obscure 1983 film called Balboa. I've never seen it, or even remember seeing it listed for viewing anywhere while channel surfing. But lo and behold there's a character named "Alabama Dern" in this thing, and he's played by none other than Chuck Connors of The Rifleman fame. 

Also staring are Tony Curtis and Carol Lynley. The film's other cast includes Cassandra Peterson, better known to her fans as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark; Sonny Bono and veteran character actor Henry Jones. The film was written and directed by James Polakof.

This movie presents a few conundrums. The IMDB entry is under "Balboa" but one of the DVD covers shown here says "Rich and Powerful." I can find no such film under that name. The plot summary there is simply "Millionaire gets involved in a real estate scam." This version runs 91 minutes, but the entry claims it was originally a mini-series, and nude scenes were added to the video release. It's listed as an independent film released in the U.S on July 19, 1983 The website of the Tony Curtis Estate includes the film as "Balboa" but gives the year as 1986.

I suspect the film is one of many made in recent decades without major studio backing that may have gotten some sort of tape and/or DVD release but even so have essentially disappeared. Not everything is on Netflix, or Amazon Prime, or Hulu, or....

A bit more information follows below. And there's also another interesting connection Chuck Connors has with Alabama...

IMDB image

Image from the Amazon listing, which has this description:

"Welcome to Newport Beach where the exotic sun-drenched waterfront is the setting for intrigue, loyalty, betrayal and million dollar business deals. Wealth and power foster either the best of friends or the worst of enemies -- and some will do anything to get what they want."

I'm going to have to seek out this movie just to find out how a character named "Alabama" fits into it.

Not sure what this image is, perhaps a poster?

Source

Connors played first base for the Mobile Bears in 1947, hitting .255 with 15 home runs. At that time the team played at Hartwell Field. 

"The 1947 Southern Association Baseball League champions the Mobile Bears. Chuck Connors, of Rifleman fame, played on the team. Top row from left: Cliff Dapper, Frank Luga, Chuck Connors, Paul Minner, "Doe" Kelly, Jack Maupin, George "Shotgun" Shuba, and Pershing Mandarf. Left to right in the middle row are Joe Powers, Stan Wasiak, Homer Matney, "Red" Rollins, manager Al Todd, Hal Younghans, and Pat McGlathen. On the bottom row from the left are Johnny Sosh, John Hall, Cal Abrams, batboy Donnie Wagner, Ray Boles, Roy Whitaker, and Bill Hart."

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Guy Morton, the "Alabama Blossom"

I recently did a post on the town of Joppa, the hometown of major league baseball pitcher Jack Lively. He played for the Detroit Tigers in the 1911 season. His son Buddy played for the Cincinnati Reds for several years during the late 1940's.

In researching Lively, I came across another father-son pair of major league players, Guy Morton, the "Alabama Blossom", and his son Guy, Jr. The state has produced numerous professional baseball players over the years, and I plan to return to this topic in the future.

The elder Morton was born in Vernon on June 1, 1893. I found the family in Vernon in the 1900 U.S. Census via Ancestry.com indexed as "Mortin". No father was listed, so he was either deceased or otherwise absent. Mother Mary and 12 others made up the household. Ten of these individuals are Mary's sons and daughters. Two are grandchildren--the sons of daughter Eliza Guin. At 7, Guy is the youngest child. 

A lengthy biography of Morton has been written by Chris Rainey for the Society for American Baseball Research. He notes that Morton's father was Dr. Martin W. Morton, son of a doctor, who died a few days before Guy's birth. According to Rainey, Guy was playing baseball for the Columbus team in the Cotton States League in 1913. He ended that season with a 5-5 pitching record, and a scout recommended him to the major league Cleveland Naps (later Indians) team. 

In the spring of 1914 he played in the Eastern Association, but was soon called up to Cleveland and pitched his first game on June 20, 1914. His final game in the majors came ten years later, on June 6, 1924. At the time of the 1920 U.S. Census, Guy and his wife Edna were living in Vernon. Guy's occupation was listed as "baseball player." Guy and Edna had married the previous year in Birmingham.

Morton ended his major league career with a 98-88 record and 830 strikeouts. Rainey's biography gives many career highlights, including pitching against Babe Ruth in 1917. He won ten games in four of his seasons pitching. The Indians sold his contract in 1924, and he played seven more seasons in the minor leagues, including five in the Southern Association for teams in Memphis, Mobile and Birmingham. 

Morton and his wife moved to Sheffield where he went to work on the Wilson Lake Dam in the TVA system. He pitched several years on semi-pro teams in Florence and on the TVA team until his death by heart attack on October 18, 1934. He is buried in Sheffield; his gravestone notes his 2002 induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and declares that he was "Alabama's First Great Major League Pitcher." In 2001 he was named to the greatest 100 Cleveland Indians list. 

Many major league baseball players have had nicknames over the years. Rainey does not give the source of Morton's "Alabama Blossom" nickname; perhaps Morton was a rare player from Alabama at the time. 

The couple had one child, Guy Morton, Jr., who was born in Tuscaloosa on November 4, 1930. More about "Moose" Morton is below. 

Guy Morton

Source: Baseball Reference

Guy Morton

Source: Wikipedia

Guy "Moose" Morton, Jr.

Source: Baseball Reference  

After his father died, the Guy, Jr.'s mother moved to Tuscaloosa to work in a University of Alabama museum, and he was sent to live with grandparents in Mississippi. His mother married Vaughn Shirley when Guy, Jr., was 11; his stepfather owned a grocery story in Mobile. The young Morton played for Murphy High School for two years, but graduated from Tuscaloosa High School in 1948 after his stepfather bought a grocery store in that city.

Moose started college at the University of Alabama on a scholarship, but tryouts led him eventually to a contract with the Boston Red Sox after his freshman year. He played a number of years in the minors as a catcher. He was called up by the Red Sox for one game, on September 17, 1954; he had one at bat and no hits.

After his baseball career ended, Moose coached youth teams in Alabama and Ohio where he eventually moved. He became a Baptist minister and served for many years; he died on May 11, 2014. Bill Nowlin has written an extensive biography for the Society for American Baseball Research. "Moose" is included in Richard Tellis' 1998 book, Once Around the Bases: Bittersweet Memories of Only One Game in the Majors (pp. 166-176). See the Nowlin link and the obituary link for more about his many achievements on and off the baseball diamond.

Birmingham Photo of the Day (56): The Barons in 1917

The 1917 season was the seventh that the Barons played at Rickwood Field. This period was the "dead ball era" in professional baseball in which strategy, base hits and speed at stealing bases were most important. Home runs were not emphasized by players or fans, and teams hit very few. 

At this time the Barons played in the Southern Association League. By 1917 the Barons had won four league titles in 1888, 1906, 1912 and 1914. For those last two championships the team was managed by Carlton Molesworth. He came to the Barons as an outfielder in 1906 and managed the team from 1908 until 1922.

The Barons did not win a championship in 1917; they finished third with a record of 87-66. They did draw the fans, though; over 9000 attended on opening day and more than 115,000 over the season.

Four no-hitters were pitched at Rickwood that season. Barons pitchers Ralph Comstock, Carmen Hill and Ray Milligan had one each. A pitcher for the Little Rock Travelers also threw a no-hitter at the park. Hill's final record of 26-12 set a Barons record for wins in a season. Further information on Comstock and Hill is below; Milligan apparently did not play in the major leagues. 

The Birmingham Black Barons shared Rickwood Field with the white team, but did not begin play until 1920. 

Allen Barra's history of the stadium is Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark published in 2010.

Birmingham Barons, Rickwood Field, spring 1917. Taken by O.V. Hunt. I wonder what position the dog played. See Comstock's photo below; is that him holding the dog? Not sure which one might be Hill.


  Source: Birmingham Public Library 

Right-handed pitcher Comstock was born November 24, 1890, in Sylvania, Ohio. He played three non-consecutive seasons in the major leagues, finishing with an 11-14 record as a pitcher. 

Source: Baseball Reference

Right hander Carmen Hill was born October 1, 1895, in Royalton, Minnesota. He pitched 10 years for several teams in the National League with a final record of 49-33. His last season was 1930.

Source: Baseball Reference