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Interviews with news makers and discussion of topics important to Southwest Michigan. Subscribe to the podcast through Apple itunes and Google. Segments of interview are heard in WestSouthwest Brief during Morning Edition and All Things Considered

WSW: An Evolving History of Baseball in Kalamazoo

Nenyedi, Wikimedia Commons

Kalamazoo Public Library Web Coordinator Keith Howard says baseball was probably first played in Kalamazoo in the 1850's. He says a man named John McCord came back to Kalamazoo from upstate New York, and persuaded his friends to try the new game.

Howard has chronicled the history of baseball in Kalamazoo through a series of articles on the Library's webpage. Beginning with the period before 1890. Howard says the game was often played on vacant land, but the first actual real baseball field was on Wheaton near Westnedge Avenue. He says horse-drawn street carriages would take people to Wheaton where they would walk a few blocks to the stadium, which included a grandstand and concessions. Howard says other fields came and went over the years in different parts of the city.

People would pay admission, usually a quarter to get into the games. Up until 1886 baseball was all amateur in Kalamazoo. But Howard says the formation of a state league led to professional baseball players. Howard says there is no evidence of any written rule that prohibited African-Americans from playing on those early Kalamazoo teams. But he says there were several black baseball teams which played in Kalamazoo and traveled to other cities

keithhoward060515-web.mp3
Interview with Keith Howard - web version

Howard relied mostly on newspaper accounts to write his history. That includes the Kalamazoo Gazette and the Kalamazoo Telegraph (no longer in existence). He says the story of baseball in Kalamazoo is not complete. Howard says family diaries and other sources may tell more of the story. He says sometimes people find pieces of history that fill in more of those details. 

Photo from Wikimedia commons

Gordon Evans became WMUK's Content Director in 2019 after more than 20 years as an anchor, host and reporter. A 1990 graduate of Michigan State, he began work at WMUK in 1996.
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