Thursday, June 15, 2023

Montana leagues

 Montana


Butte City League
    1911
  
Butte City League 
    1938 McQueen Addition 7-26 standings
    1939 McQueen Addition 7-31 standings
    1941 7-10 standings
    1942 7-16 .300+
    1943 7-05 standings only three teams final batting
   

    1940-8-12 Playoff series begins tonight. Free baseball was provided all summer to over 100K fans; in play-offs, admission will be 20 cents for adults, 10 for children. (100K figure seems doubtful to me)
  

    1939-8-19 McQueen Addition team pic. Has Joe Pajnich, not Fish. Will play Butte Copper Sox for city title. 

    1943-8-30 McQueen lost 17-2 in opening round of playoffs. Miners Union was regular schedule winner.

Butte Copper League
    1948 7-15 standings
    1961
    finis

     Pajnich, Frank-"Fish" 1944 McQueen .385 1944-7-28 won first game of adult career
      1945 McQueen .465 (see 1946) 1946 McQueen .377 1947 McQueen .259 in 9g

      1944-5-29 Memories of Butte City League in 1918.
        "The McQueen infield is the veteran infield of the circuit insofar as having played together is concerned. Pajnich, Dunstan and Kristic have been cooperating with each other since grade school days."    
    "Sunday marked the first time in league history, according to veterans of play, that a game has been played at Clark Park in which all balls hit out of the park have been returned. In the first game four balls were used and all were available at the end of the contest."
    Eddie Gerry has been involved in Butte baseball for 36 years now. 
    1945-8-29 McQueen Addition will advance to championship series
    1946-9-08 66,890 paid attendance for 70 games - almost double 1945's attendance. Top attendance was 2,736; the four-game championship series drew gates of 2,200, 2,423, 2,684, 2,694. 
    1947-8-09 There will be a benefit game for Fish Pajnich. Appeared headed for big leagues when a knee injury cut short his pro career. Has had to wear an iron brace on that knee since.
        Injured in game of 6-18 and had to have surgery. 
    1947-8-14 Paid attendance of 2,993 at double cost for Fish Pajnich. 
        McQueens will receive a few players from the Missoula Pirates, who dominated in the State League race.
    1948-5-15 League taking a breath for the dive into the season.
        League record attendance is 5,331, set in the final game of the championship series last year.
        League players who have been playing longest are Pee Wee Mihelich and Mahlon (Lefty) Nettleton.
    1948-5-24 Billy Paige, who's been living 50 years in Butte, may be the Copper League's biggest fan. This will be a lonely season for him, sadly - his wife, also a fan of the league, died six months ago. 
    Fish Pajnich is McQueen coach.
    Pic of Navy officer watching game with binoculars from top of fifty-foot tall chimney. 

    1945-9-13 Deciding game of five-game championship series. McQueens 8, Silver Bow Parks 7. Paid admission of 1386, highest in league's two-year history. 

    1946-8-28 McQueen AC takes third place. North Side and Silver Bow Park are tied in championship series.

    1947-8-08 Paid attendance of 2815 sets new record.
    1948-7-14 Attendance of 2,211. 


Butte Independent League
    1922 final batting - I think has one of NLB Spearmans

Butte Mines League
    start
    1920 A.C.M.
    1921 final incomplete free weekday games averaged 5K ATT - paid Sunday, 1.2K
    1922 Anodes final batting final standings final
    1923 Clarks final stats/standings & misc. indiv. pics
    1924  Black-Pitts 2.4K ATT final stats/standings very complete
    1926 Anodes 9-4 standings final stats very complete
    finish

    Bloodgood, Al 1924 Black-Pitts
    Bonner, Al veteran pitcher 1927 Montana Power
    Chekaluk, Steve 1927 ACM (nvg that year - 23bb 18.33 in)
    Chorlton, James 1922 Clarks 1923 Clarks 1924 Clarks 1926 Clarks 1927 Clarks
    Clynes, Jack pro 1904-1914* 1923 Colo-Pitts
    Ferguson, Lester p 1927 Anodes
    Fitterer, Leo 22W 1937 WINT 1927 A.C.M.
    Eley, Orville 1924 Black-Pitts
    Juney, Frank 1923
    Rathjen, Ed 1923 Clarks 1927 Clarks
     Reynolds, Roland "Rollie" 1926 A.C.M.
    Robertson, Francis p 1927 Clarks
     Schinski, John 1926 A.C.M. b - interesting commentary on game - VG box    
    Schwartz, Earl 1927 Clarks
    Tucker, Earl .429 avg in 63 at-bats milb career 1923 Colo-Pitts

    Averill, Earl 1925 Anaconda
    Collard, Hap 1923
    Crosetti, Frank 1927 Montana Powers
    Rhodes, Gordon p NYY 1927 A.C.M.
    
    1922-9-09 baseball is blooming as it has not since 20 years ago in the days of McCloskey
    1922-9-13 banquet for champion Anodes
    1922-9-17 picked team will face Colored Giants of Independent League
    1923-9-12 Clark players disperse
    1925-10-12 stats of Mines League players in PCL
    1926-7-03 rosters with full names
    1926-12-12 many former Mines league players starring in UTID
    1928-12-29 the stars of the league in former years - quite impressive

    1924 Black-Pitts team pic & Al Bloodgood & James Chorlton

Montana State League
    1899
    1900 BR
    
    1937-10-31 About Joe McCarthy, a colorful character from 1900. Articles about him reprinted.

Montana State League
    1938 dnp
    1939 dnp
    1941 7-10 standings

    Pajnich, Frank-"Fish" 1936 Butte - league batting leader w/ .475 - 2g with 1934 Portland. In 1937, umpired the first half of the year then won the batting title in the second with .448 average. 
        1940 Butte


    Carr, Wayne Butte Colored Giants

    Championship - 
    between 1st and second half winners
    1935-9-01 alt next day Freebourn 7, Colored Giants 6. 
    1935-9-03 Freebourn 10, Colored Giants 1. identical next day

    1936-8-27 East Helena 8, Butte 1. 1st game
    1936-8-29 East Helena 11, Butte 4. 3rd game - second was 10-10 tie
    1936-9-01 East Helena 5, Butte 3. East Helena won four games to one. 

    1937-8-27 Semi-final about to be decided
    
    1937-8-29 Silver Bow Parks, Missoula 9. Biggest crowd in years. 
    1937-8-30 Missoula 4, Silver Bow Park 2. 

    1935-9-06 Montana State Leaguers have been nominated for All-American amateur team that will sail for Japan October 3. 
    1936-9-04 Lew Olsen of East Helena is trying to get a Red Sox try-out. 
    1936-9-05 William T. "Bill" Cullen appointed play and activity program director for grade schools in district No. 1
    former Butte Mines League player, current Montana State League player. 
    1936-12-27 East Helena, league champs, had a half-dozen Missoulans in line-up. 
    1937-9-11 League's attendance much higher per game than in previous years. 
    1938-12-31 The State League having folded, Butte's baseball needs were served by the City Amateur League.

Inter-Mountain League (Class D)


    1909-6-04 Salary limit is $1500/month for 13 players Tamp Osborne traded to Butte
            car service to parks is nvg
    1909-7-11 league blew up 7-4 - team losses listed account of when John J. McCloskey managed PNWL champ team - $3K salary/month for team

   Thomas 1909

Tremblay, Amedee 1912 UA 1912 Butte lost 16-2

Butte city championship

1939-8-19 preview. 

1939-8-20 Copper Sox 6, McQueen 1. 
1939-8-22 Copper Sox 8, McQueen 8.
1939-8-24 Copper Sox 13, McQueen 4. Boxes have batter BB and SO.

1941-8-29 Boosters 6, Walkerville 5. 

Butte Parks
1938-7-10 Organized very recently. Are a combination of the Butte and Silver Bow Parks teams of last year's Montana State League. Will play Butte Colored Giants. Have Fish Pajnich.

1938-8-01 Coeur d' Alene 15, Butte Parks 8.
1938-9-04 Butte Parks 15, Coeur d' Alene 2. Rubber match of five-game series. Fish hit two homers.
1938-9-05 Coeur d'Alene Miners 11, Butte Parks 1. 

Butte Copper Sox
1939-7-30 Today the Copper Sox will face an integrated team: the International All-Stars of Conrad, MT, a baseball force with the former battery for the Butte Colored Giants and a lineup sprinkled with former Coast Leaguers. The town the team represents, Conrad, "takes its baseball as seriously as it does its cash crop of beet sugar."

1939-7-19 Beat University Store of Missoula 12-8
1939-8-18 Beat old-timer's team of former City, Mines, and State leaguers 10-3. 
1940-10-06 Lose to Earl Mack's Touring All-Stars 22-7; Rollie Hemsley is a cut-up

Dell, Wheezer Weiser in 1911 
Lavan, Doc 1912 Dillon playing under assumed name - St. Louis Browns were hiding him in Montana to keep other teams from getting him. See SABR bio. box Dillon beat Butte 16-2. 
Mohler, Kid 1915 Leggatt of Butte roster listed - full names did not appear in boxes
Williams, Rees "Steamboat" 1911 Cascade lost 15-3 w/box - won 12-8  5 for 6. Eleven innings

    "In 1910 the Woodworth/Williams family was farming near the Soldier Creek Schoolhouse. Around this time, 18-year-old Rees began playing baseball for a team made up of the neighboring ranches against the Cascade town team. Williams would next pitch for Cascade, making the 16-mile horseback ride twice a day for 35 cents pay, which barely fed his horse.7 One of the most ardent supporters of the Cascade ball team was Montana legend “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, the first African American woman to carry the U.S. Mail. “For each game she prepared buttonhole bouquets of flowers for each player from her own garden, with larger bouquets reserved for home-run hitters. Any man speaking ill of the local team in her presence could expect a bouquet of knuckles in his face.”8 In the only known photographs of the Cascade ball team around this time, Fields appears in both, while Williams is absent."

1911-4-16 Pic of five Hamilton players, including the towering Weiser Dell.

Fish Pajnich
1959-5-24 Pic - is still bowling
1965-10-07 still bowling

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Western League

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