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Max Kepler, being a German, seemed like quite an exception in baseball history, so I had to do some research. Bleacher Reports was so fascinated by his story that they published http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2568511-max-kepler-the-german-baseball-player-who-spurned-soccer-for-mlb-dreams. The article included this Max Kepler quote – "Soccer is the No. 1 sport in Germany," Kepler said. "Baseball was barely poking its head out the window at the time. Being one of the best [soccer players] in my school, people frowned about it and they were just surprised that I would take baseball which is kind of a long jump." What I found out follows - https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/History_of_baseball_in_Germany Baseball Reference says that in a 1796 book by a German, Johann Guts Muths, rules for a game called "English base-ball" appeared and as you might imagine it was a little different than what we play today. Then in 1936 Germany hosted an exhibition of baseball in the Olympics. Baseball was played by American prisoners of war in the notorious Nazi prison camps. http://mopupduty.com/baseball-in-germany-091412/ Following WWII the GIs that were occupying Germany introduced the sport again on their bases. The military men followed their American examples and set up a league that included - Frankfurter Black Knights, Mannheimer Tornados, Münchner Broncos, and Stuttgarter Hawks. The Tornados – an all-black team was the best and the most popular. These teams had many Negro League and Major League players, but as service representation diminished Germany set up its own league – “In 1951, the first season of Baseball-Bundesliga was played, the first German championship.” Eventually they became part of a European baseball association that helped spread the sport through the Continent. Now Max Kepler came out of this history, but he was not the first German player in the majors. Baseball Reference has this to say about the history of German’s in the American League and interestingly it is not Max Kepler who is the noted Minnesota Twins German: “The first Major League players from Germany were David Lenz and Marty Swandell who both debuted from May 7, 1872 for Brooklyn Eckfords. Swandell had played for the club since 1863, while Lenz was a 21-year old catcher who played the opening four games of the season with the club before being replaced by William Bestick. Over the next twenty years another eight players played in the majors, but only two played more than forty in their career - the most successful of which was pitcher Charlie Getzein who won 145 games. From 1893 through 1897, there were no Germans in the majors, but then until the American entry into World War I another twelve players played in the majors. Of course, Germans were part of American history since the beginning so many players in the early years were still recognized by their home country and there have been 41 players who were born in Germany, including Max and Gardy - http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/birthplace.php?loc=Germany Check out the list. Only three Germans played in the Majors between the two World Wars, a single player (Heinz Becker) played in the World War II-era, and during the 1950s and 1960s no Germans played in the majors. Thirteen players have debuted from 1972 onward, most of whom were the children of American service members stationed in the country. When Ron Gardenhire became the manager of the Minnesota Twins in 2002, he was the first German skipper since Chris von der Ahe in 1897.” Germany’s domestic league – the fifteen team Bundesliga – reformed in 1982 and continues to play to this day. Baseball in German website says that from this league baseball started to sign players like Mitch Franke in 2000, and then Rodney Gressman, Donald Lutz, Max Kepler, Tim Henkenjohann, Simon Guhring, Kai Gronauer, Ludwig Glaser and Jennel Hudson with Max leading the way into the majors. In the book – Beer, Brats, and Baseball – the author Jim Merkel writes about the 1860’s when many Germans, including some of distant uncles – settled in St Louis where the brewed beer and started a local baseball club – not the Cardinals – while joining the Union and helping preserve Missouri as a free state. This coincides with the official advent of Baseball in the US. Baseball history is also filled with “Dutch” nicknames like Hubert Benjamin "Dutch" Leonard, (April 16, 1892 – July 11, 1952) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who had an 11-year career from 1913 to 1921, and 1924 to 1925. He still holds the record for the lowest ERA ever – 0.96 in 1914. But he was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Lots of nicknames were based on the players ethnic backgrounds. Should you want to see how German born players did in baseball careers – Baseball Reference provides this summary of statistics https://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/Germany_born.shtml You will be happy to know that Gardy is the greatest German born manager in history! Glenn Hubard is the best career hitter, and Edwin Jackson is the greatest German born pitcher. And Max – three years, two full years in the majors – his line is 239 – 310 – 422.

Why haven’t we had a cowboy movie or series about baseball? It did occur in the old and wild west. We know that Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp refereed boxing matches and Bat Masterson went on to NY to be a sports writer. But who talks about baseball in the old west? Baseball spread throughout the Old West around the late 1840s, and in 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings—America’s first professional team—departed westward from St. Louis on a rail tour. In describing their game with the local Eagles the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in terms no modern sports page would use: “It is easy to see why they adopted the Red Stocking style of dress, which shows their calves in all their magnitude and rotundity. Everyone of them has a large and well turned leg and everyone of them knows how to use it. https://truewestmagazine.com/sports-in-the-wild-west/ In 1845 Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. began to accumulate his reputation that would lead to a dubious place in the baseball HOF. He was among the organizers of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, and with some associates published a set of rules and regulations that became the foundation of modern baseball. Cartwright, who had worked as a bank clerk, bookseller and volunteer fireman in New York City, joined the 1849 California Gold Rush and despite rumors did not spread his rules of baseball wherever he went. In Minnesota Territory in 1857 (the year before statehood) Minnesota staked its claim in professional baseball. An organized ball club formed in Nininger City (now a ghost town in Dakota County). During the Civil War, soldiers—mostly Yankees, though some Rebels—played baseball. “The New Orleans boys also carried base balls in their knapsacks,” Will Irwin wrote in a 1909 Collier’s Weekly article. “A few of them found themselves in a Federal prison stockade on the Mississippi. They formed a club.” Union soldier George Putnam recalled that once during a baseball game in Alexandria, La., enemy troops attacked, placing the outfielders in mortal danger. The left fielder and right fielder managed to get back to the dugout, but the Rebels shot and captured the center fielder before the Yankees could repel the attack. At some point in his career famed gambler/lawman Wild Bill Hickok reportedly rooted for the Kansas City Antelopes. Legend has it he even umpired one of their games while wearing a pair of six-shooters. General George Armstrong Custer was a baseball player and fan – his brother was the better player and in the 7th Cavalry was Captain Fredrick Benteen who had played for the St Louis Cyclone club. At that time, for reasons I cannot explain, the game was considered a northerners game, but it really was universal. Not that Benteen’s family could prove it. His father said it was useless and a waste of time and when Benteen went on to a successful union career his father said, “I hope you are killed by the first bullet fired, and that the bullet will be fired by one of your Benteen cousins who will be fighting for our glorious cause!” During the war the game was played both north and south (and by the way was not created by the Union officer Doubleday despite some erroneous rumors. Union Private Alpheris Parker of the 10th Massachusetts wrote “the parade ground has become a busy place with the officers and men playing the baseball game with such ardor that it borders on mania.” Confederate Private Maynard Dial of Virginia wrote “we were playing the bat ball game with such intensity that we didn’t notice the musket fire. All of sudden, the Federals rushed us and we had to jump for our weapons. In so doing we lost the only baseball in camp.” This mania for baseball followed General Custer and his brother Tom Custer who was considered one of the best pitchers in the Union Army. We also know that in 1874 Custer had a baseball team play in SD when he broke the treaty with the Lakota over the Black Hills and came in to the area now known as Custer SD. While in Dakota Territory between 1873 and 1876, the club played other military squads as well as civilian teams. On July 31, 1874, during Lt. Col. George Custer’s Black Hills Expedition, the Fort Lincoln Actives defeated the Fort Rice Athletes, 11–6, at the site of what is now Custer, S.D. “The enlisted men,” according to historian Brian Dippie, “whiled away the long summer day playing a game of baseball—a genuine Black Hills ‘first,’ including a dispute over the umpire’s impartiality.” A fascinating convergence of dates is 1876 where the baseball players of the seventh infantry died at the Little Bighorn in the same year that the National Baseball League was formed. In February of 1876, eight teams left over from the National Association of Professional Baseball Players banded together to form the new league and professional baseball was on its way. To prove the baseball connection, we know that Company H Sargent Joseph McCurry was the Benteen Club’s pitcher and considered the 7th’s best player and was critically wounded and would never play ball again., Private William “Fatty” Williams had signed a contract to play with Pittsburgh at the end of his hitch. http://weeklyview.net/2013/04/18/baseball-and-the-little-bighorn/ Early pro ball could be found in the west in 1884 when the Kansas City Cowboys played in the Union Association. In 1886 a team using the same nickname played a one-year trial in the National League, finishing with just 30 wins and 91 losses (36 of the latter by a single pitcher, Stump Wiedman). The league dumped the Cowboys in favor of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys (today’s Pirates) the next season. “Most baseball played out West in the 19th century remained amateur or semipro, including the barnstorming games of the Nebraska Indians. Founder and promoter Guy W. Green recruited several of his players from the Omaha and Winnebago reservations; nine of the 12 players on his first club in 1897 were Indians. On June 25 of that year the squad traveled to Lincoln and trounced the University of Nebraska team, 18–12, before an enthusiastic crowd. Through 1914 (Green left in 1907) the Nebraska Indians played across the country, often calling to mind the atmosphere of a Wild West show. The team was good, too, reportedly posting a record of 1,237 wins, 336 losses and 11 ties.” http://www.historynet.com/baseball-in-the-west-2.htm “In the coal-mining town of Krebs, Indian Territory, on July 4, 1882, players used sacks of hay and cans for bases as 300 people watched the home team defeat nearby Savanna, 35–4. In 1889 future Hall of Fame pitcher Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity starred for Krebs and helped spread interest in the game to places like Tahlequah, Muskogee, Eufaula, Checotah, Vinita and Wagoner. The land rush that prompted the formation of Oklahoma Territory in 1890 (Indian Territory remained the eastern part of what in 1907 would become the state of Oklahoma) also scattered baseball diamonds in new places, including Guthrie, Stillwater, Kingfisher and Oklahoma City. Clothing merchant Seymour C. Heyman started Oklahoma City’s first professional baseball club in 1902, but it was another two years before the Mets, part of the Southwest League, became the first team there to play a full season of organized baseball. Subsequent minor league teams in Oklahoma’s capital city have included the Indians, Senators, Boosters, 89ers and RedHawks.” In Minnesota we continued our baseball tradition with the North Star Club of St. Paul with another team across the river in Minneapolis. One of the most interesting notes from this era was captered in Homer Croy’s 1949 book Jesse James Was My Neighbor, which told how the Cole-Younger gang “went out to see a baseball game between the St. Paul Red Caps and the Winona Clippers. September 7, the gang made the very unwise choice of robbing the bank in Northfield, Minn., that landed the three Younger brothers—Cole, Bob and Jim—in Stillwater Penitentiary. “In 1875 the all-white Winona Clippers fielded a black pitcher/second baseman named W.W. Fisher. And in 1883 John “Bud” Fowler, a black player who hailed from Cooperstown, N.Y., saw action at various positions for the Northwestern League team in Stillwater (presumably not within sight of the imprisoned Younger brothers’ cells). Minnesota claimed its first major league team in 1884, when St. Paul played nine games in the Union Association (a league that lasted just one season). But the state didn’t host another team in the majors until 1961, when the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis and became the Minnesota Twins.” Around Tombstone in 1882, , a civil engineer from Massachusetts named George S. Rice had baseball on his mind. While Wyatt Earp chased the “cowboys” Rice started a “team called the San Pedro Boys at his Boston and Arizona Mill, following that up with the Tombstone Base Ball Association squad. After much practice, his “tossers” opened their season on May 12 with a loss to a Tucson club.” Chick Gandil and Buck Weaver of the 1919 black sox played for Douglas, AZ in 1925. By the 1870s soldiers were playing ball at Wyoming Territory forts, and towns like Laramie and Cheyenne had organized teams. The latter sported such names as the Black Stockings, Nonpareils, Benedicts, Eclipse, Bachelors and Indians. There are more teams and more stories, but the fact is – baseball was part of the old wild west.

I got a text from a fellow Society for American Baseball Research, SABR, member Anthony Bush. He said that there was a little known museum in downtown Duluth, Minnesota that had a baseball exhibit. I was surprised that an old church of Christian Science is now a little museum and located about a 5 min walk from my rental house. The Karpeles Manuscript Museum is named after a Denfeld High School Graduate who made his fortune in real estate. The Karpeles is a too well kept of secret in Duluth, where approximately 3.5 million people visit a year. There is a special place for local history, here in the Zenith City. In fact, Duluth once had the highest millionaires per capita in the United States thanks to the iron ore, shipping and logging industries in the Northland and around the shores of Lake Superior. The museum director was a woman named Doris and extremely warm and inviting. She was impressed with our baseball knowledge and asked if we were interested in a baseball talk about some the manuscripts at the museum. She said that we could do whatever we wanted. Soon, I found myself in her office scheduling a time for the gallery talk. The next step was researching some of the items at the museum. This gave me an excuse to watch Ken Burns’ Baseball. About 10 years ago, I had rented and watched every episode from the local library. Baseball, is a 20-hour baseball history documentary, has 9 episodes that are called innings, a must for any baseball fan and a great way to pass the time in the winter and non-baseball months. I bought it for 120 dollars as a special Christmas gift to myself. But now, it’s on Netflix or pirated for free on youtube.com, that is if it’s not taken down. In addition to the documentary, I read the 34-ton Bat by Steve Rushin and interviewed him for Twins Daily. Lastly, I researched almost all the 30 plus items in the museum and I met with my partner twice at a local coffee shop. The event even got a little press at the local paper. When the night arrived after a long, high volume day at work, I was little nervous. But I remembered that this was supposed to be a fun experience. In the Museum church it was a little musty and warm in contrast from the cool, dry air off Lake Superior. I met my colleague in Doris’s office while 30 people gathered and waited for the talk to begin around 7pm. Once 7pm rolled around, we walked to the center of the old building that has the acoustics of old an old European church from the 15th century. I was introduced as a graduate student from the University of Michigan, although correctly, I am enrolled at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. After Doris completed the introductions, Anthony read his one thousand-word essay and the history of baseball in Duluth. The locals love their local history and this was no exception. The next 80 minutes went by in a blur as we covered a wide arrange of topics and some of the exhibits manuscripts. We started with the History of Duluth, The birth of Baseball, spread of it in the Civil War, Babe Ruth’s Career, the short rundown of the Black Sox’s scandal, baseball’s worst teams and all the while Anthony made local connections to each national topic. The next thing I knew, the talk was over. The audience thanked me for telling stories that brought some of the old documents to life. Doris couldn't thank us enough. At a local watering hole afterward we meet up with some friends. The beer tasted great and brought out some mellowness from the thrill of public speaking on your passion.