Predicting the Skitz 2020, The Montgomery Pretzels

new year = new vintage header!

Always a tough task, getting started a little later this year due to a high volume of research. Plus, the team makes us wait to get their info like coaching assignments and promotional skeds (I'm hopin for a throwback game with 1920 Montgomery Black Sox uniforms!) so I figured to play along and wait it out too!

There are so many nooks and crannies in the interwebs, it can be tough to find what is really pertinent. But then when it happens, well, when it rains it pours, some of which is included in todays special b/w newsprint style post!



Also, if you have are one of the folks who have asked me to check into a player, it might not be much longer. If you are curious about a player in Montgomery history, be it a family member or whatever, now might be a good time to let me know.

FROM THE RESEARCH ROOM
There is much to report on the research front, as stated, how should I start?

RUBE THE FIREMAN
Confirmed the report of Rube Waddell putting out a fire in Montgomery, from the Bham News of March 21, 1906...

Waddell was adored by the locals for his efforts as a fireman after the event. Among his fans was the cartoonist for the local rag, who gives us this fine interpretation of the lefty strikeout king pitching in Montgomery.

Uncovered reports of early parks and teams - the Montgomery Pretzels? Absolutely! 

THE MONTGOMERY PRETZELS
 Team names weren't always the choice of the club itself, as fans and newspapers often dubbed them differently than the teams themselves had picked. That's how the Dodgers got their name and it worked out pretty well.

If you asked an average person on a Montgomery street in 1905 how the Senators were doing, they were likely to think you wanted to talk politics. If you asked how the Pretzels were doing, you were likely to get a reply about baseball!

From  the early part of the 1900s, starting in 1904, the Montgomery team was listed officially as the Senators but in the press and among fans they were known as the Pretzels due to the popularity of a name brand that matched the managers last name, Stickney. The Pretzels name stuck around for at least three seasons, well after Stickney himself had moved on.

So that kind of makes the Montgomery Biscuits name a little nod to the past - how bout that!

Your 1904 Montgomery Pretzels

EX-EXCELSIOR UPDATE
We learned more about A. T. Pearsall, blog fave and bringer of the game to Montgomery. In one story the good doctor is on the run from the law.

Indeed the rarely documented event happened at divorce proceedings during his time here  - he was ordered by a Montgomery judge to appear yet chose instead to board an eastbound train. Telegraphing ahead, officials had a marshal waiting at the next station, apprehending the ex-Excelsior and former Confederate doctor. Pearsall jumped from the train as it left the platform and was a wanted man for a day or so. Eventually turning up in Montgomery, his divorce case proceeded without further incident.


FIRST BIG LEAGUE EXHIBITION GAME
How about our first known big league exhibition game in Montgomery? The fall fair of November 1870 saw a visit from the New York Mutuals, fresh from their championship defeat of the Chicago White Sox. The Mutuals were oft competitors of Pearsall's Brooklyn Excelsiors at Hoboken's legendary Elysian Fields.

Much has been revealed about Pearsall and his ties to early Montgomery baseball clubs, as well as their close connection with baseball in nearby Alabama cities, large and small.

Baseball was working as an important social network of its time, the rosters are filled with notable names from politics, business and high society. Montgomery box scores from the 1860's read like a street map of Montgomery - Sayre, Lanier, Holt and others. Connecting local teams with the touring champion would have advantages beyond baseball for the businessmen involved.

BROOKLYN ROYAL GIANTS VISIT EARLY
One of the great early teams on the Negro circuit, the Royal Giants barnstormed the country and in 1911 visited Montgomery for a rare exhibition game between a local black team and an opponent that is essentially a big-league club. Negro teams often played in Montgomery, but its special to see a team of that level playing here pre-WW1.


GET UP EARLY
Speaking of early games in Montgomery history, in 1867 the games were literally early - five a.m. first pitch! One contest was a five hour long marathon that kept the players from getting to work until after ten o'clock. Newspaper reports were scant of the early morning games beyond reporting scores, for obvious reasons.

LOST BALLPARK NOT LOST
What was that in the Brooklyn Royals article - West Side Park? That's tough to find now, unless you stop on the interstate just south of the 65-85 exchange. The field now has about ten lanes of traffic that flow over it every day.

Another spot that gets overlooked is Highland Park, on Highland Avenue where the school now sits. The Montgomery team is known to have played at multiple parks around town until Cramton Bowl was built in the 1920's. The grounds at Capitol Heights are often cited as the home park for the era, but games were held at Highland Park with regularity as early as 1903.

Local teams would occupy the park when the pros were on the road, but there was a controversy when park owners put a $100 fee on the use of the field for each team per season. This spurred others to build parks to attract teams and drove teams to find other fields, helping spread the game across the area but creating occasional confusion for fans as to where the game was being played.

from 1942

The files being greatly expanded, I am excited to have new info and images to share. While stats tell a story of old teams and players, the visual offers a powerful connection with the past.

A few years ago I was asked by the Biscuits if I had any high quality images of old Rebels players in action and had to reply that they either didn't exist or hadn't been found yet. While many of the existing images aren't of a high quality, having a grainy view of the past beats having no view at all.

Your 1948 Montgomery Rebels

'54
  Finding images of the 1954 season has been especially difficult. It's hard not to suspect they were swept away quietly when the team went back to segregated ball after that one year. Getting a look at the players in action from that club is a real treat.

from April 1954, Johnny Davis gets a handshake after a home run for the first integrated pro team in Montgomery

Not all the new images are low quality - even some of the newspaper snips have good clarity.

Lineup for the '65 edition of the Johnny Rebs

I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT...

 No, that was the worst idea ever - the ballpark was insane by the third inning. More Montgomery fans were never more drunk at one ballgame than this mid-70's promotion. Reports of fans at Paterson for the game are pretty much what you would expect. Women and children were sent out as lineup cards were exchanged and it went downhill in the stands quickly from there. As a result of the promotion, the Monty Reb character was dropped, in spite of the fact that it was the third highest attended game of the year.

PSYCHIC BASEBALL
Whadda we see? Its a crapshoot, a good spring camp can send a guy otherwise ticketed for Biscuitville to Durham. An injury to any pitcher above can shift the Skitz from having a well rounded club to being a little short at a position. Who can say?

I can. And shall!!

PREDICTING THE SKITZ 2020

C Ronaldo Hernandez
C Joey Roach
C Pinto
1B Haley
2B-SS Brujan
SS-2B Walls
SS Wander Franco - son of Wander Franco, brother of Wander Franco and Wander Franco. Seriously.

3B Gray
OF Chester
OF Garrett Whitley
OF Michael Smith

UT Palacios
UT Jake Palomaki
INF Kaleo Johnson

SP O'Brien
SP McClanahan
SP Ryan
SP  Romero
SP Michael Plassmeyer - lefty

RP Angel German - recently signed from Pirates org
RP  Raiden
RP Salinas
RP Simon Rosenblum-Larson - smart enough for Harvard
RP Charpie - ready to play fortnite
RP Jack Labosky - Jack brings the tiny bus to the gump
RP Pelaez
RP Trey Cumbie - lefty
RP Mike York

JANUARY 31 1943 

Rebels owner Ben Goltsman buys Meridian team to round out the Rebels roster. Meridian finished last in league previous season. Rebels finished first. Fans appreciate the reinforcement efforts but by July the Rebels would make a mid-season move to Chattanooga due to low attendance and wartime player shortages.