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2006 Season

Berthoud

Nunn

Walker Ranch

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Benteens in the 7th Cavalry

Seems to be a slow Winter for base ball news, so here's an oldie but goodie. Pat "Deacon" Massengill probably wrote this in 1994 and it's been through the newsletters a couple of times, but the last was probably 7-8 years ago, so most members won't have seen it (and the older ones have probably forgotten it). Anyway, it is about the "Benteens", a base ball club in the 7th U.S. Cavalry in the years before the Little Big Horn.

For Benteens story click here.

Hall of Fame player John "Bid" McPhee

At age 17, he began his pro career in Davenport, Iowa, and after two seasons there, took a stable, good-paying job in Denver as a clerk in a dry-goods store in 1880, where he dabbled in baseball but did not play professionally that season. His first use of a fielder's glove in April 1896, 10 years after gloves were introduced. His fielding record as a second baseman in 1896 would last 29 years.

'Crank or Krank' by Pat "Deacon" Massengill

Crank is korrect. There wasn't anything German about it. It comes from Kricket. Since that was a 360 sport, spectators had to position themselves very far from the action. In order to get themselves heard by the ballists, they used a wooden "crank" -- a child's toy that makes a klackity-klak sound. Thus, spectators were "cranks". Since many early base ballists migrated over from Kricket, their "cranks" kame with them.

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