During the early twentieth century, Buster Brown was a comic strip character and mascot associated with boys’ clothing and shoes. William “Buster” Brown, the baseball player, was anything but cute. He was a minor-league power hitter of the early 1920s — “the Babe Ruth of Sunland” — when home runs first changed the game. “Buster Brown is among the few ball players that still uses the methods and scrappiness of the old timers,” wrote one contemporary sportswriter. “He is in there battling all the time, and is willing to swap punches with the hardest for the merest reason.” Despite his popularity ..read more

Ivan Kuester played baseball at Reitz High School in Evansville, Indiana, and graduated in 1938. He attended a tryout camp held at Bosse Field, home of the Evansville Bees. Manager Bob Coleman signed the 19-year-old outfielder to a professional contract with the Boston Bees organization and sent him to their Class D club at Bradford, Pennsylvania, in the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League. He signed for about $125 a month. In 75 games, he batted .291 with 20 doubles and 38 RBIs. In 1941, the Boston organization sent Kuester to the Owensboro Oilers in the Kitty League, beginning a six ..read more

When 24-year-old “Mickey” Stubblefield took the mound for the Mayfield Clothiers on the night of June 26, 1952, against the Paducah Chiefs, he became the first African-American player in the history of the Kitty League. Born Wilker Harrison Thelbert Stubblefield in Mayfield, Kentucky, on February 26, 1926, he was the son of Harrison Shelby Stubblefield and Mary Elizabeth (Wilker) Stubblefield. He played baseball at an early age. A group of local white children who styled themselves the “South Seventh Street Sluggers” added him to their sandlot team. They played on a vacant lot at the corner of ..read more

Even though his professional baseball career was brief, Max Terhune found greater success and stardom as a ventriloquist, entertainer, and actor in motion picture Westerns of the 1930s through the 1950s. Robert Max Terhune was born in a log cabin in Johnson County, Indiana, on February 12, 1891. He was the youngest of five children born to Asa Garrett Terhune and Nancy Jane (Williams) Terhune. Max was a right-handed pitcher for the Franklin Blues, a local team in the semi-pro Indiana Baseball Association, in 1910 and 1911. His pitching drew interest from the Indianapolis Indians, who signed hi ..read more

Lori Graham contacted me through the Kitty League Baseball Facebook page and asked for information about her great-grandfather, Orville Tipton. She knew he had played for Hopkinsville, Kentucky, though he lived in Indiana and Illinois. Orville Glen Tipton played two seasons in the Kitty League, 1913-1914. Born in Yale, Illinois, on 21 May 1891, he was the son of Henry and Margaret (Lennox) Tipton. Orville was 19 years old when he was captain and second baseman for the semi-pro Miller High Life club of Terre Haute, Indiana, in the spring of 1910. In April, he began his professional baseball car ..read more

Occasionally, I receive requests on the Kitty League Baseball Facebook page from family members asking for information about a relative who may have played in the Kitty League. If I know a specific time period when they played, I can thumb through my copies of the Spalding and Reach Baseball Guides and try finding their names. Sometimes, it turns out that he played for a local semi-pro team rather than the local Kitty League club. But when I find a player, I ask for any biographical information their descendant may have. The most useful are dates of birth (and death) and places. Sometimes they ..read more