Heart And Purse: The Story of Early Base Ball in Wichita, Kansas 1870-1879 Kindle Edition

Heart and Purse - The Story of Early Base Ball in Wichita, Kansas 1870 – 1879 and its development after the American Civil War. The book starts in Leavenworth and the Frontier Base Ball Club created by Colonel Moonlight along with George Hyde. The story then goes into the connections with the building of Wichita with the traders like Greiffenstein, Meade and others. The Baseball connections were already there with the Vidette Newspaper with Fred Sowers, also from Leavenworth, and the reporting of the first organized team of the Wichita Maveric’s. Baseball became the social, financial, and in some cases, the heart and purse of Wichita, Kansas in its drive to challenge for a State Championship with the likes of the Frontiers, Kaws and others. By 1872 with the move of Mr. A.M. Clark and his clerk A.A. Hyde, son of George Hyde to Wichita they built the Wichita Savings Bank with Sol Kohn of the New York Store, the largest in the State of Kansas, baseball took on a bigger aspect along with the railroads.. The Leavenworth connections to baseball and the trained player A. A. Hyde, the future owner of Mentholatum, resulted in more involvement through the 1870’s for baseball in Wichita. The book explores the players, the financiers, the supporters, and also the integrated play and yes, even the gambling that became so common in early baseball. Learn the unexplored history that baseball shares with the city and its drive to become a factor in sports, that ultimately would lead to the creation of the National Baseball Congress. Read more