Spring Has Arrived

For many Spring means gentle rains, the flush of tulips and daffodils, sharp April breezes, small green buds peeping out from the ends of lilacs and trees and more warm sunshine; especially after the long gray and chill winter. Spring is a hopeful season. Hope that the rains come for better crops, hope for warmer temps, time for vacations, long summer nights and better roads!

There are those who have waited for this time of year since the last fallen leaf. They have sat and eagerly counted the days, warmed up the stiff arms, reaffirmed their faith in the future and blotted out the disappointments of last year. They wait for the hot dogs, Cracker Jacks, and the first ‘Play Ball’!

Montanans love baseball. They play it on the playground, sandlots, streets, 4th of July, as little leaguers and family picnics. Baseball players have long been heroes. Their cards collected and traded, stats quoted and memorized. To quote Pat Williams, “Baseball has marked the time. It’s part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good and can be again.”

Montana has maintained a deep connection to the national pastime. Montana leagues weren’t very big, but they contained hall of famers along with the brawlers and players who weren’t the best athletes, but loved the game. Games were played in all kinds of weather and all kinds of ‘atmosphere’. Games were called and decided by forfeit because of the amount of fisticuffs that would end up ruling the field.

No one knows for sure when they heard the first ‘Play Ball’ in the first organized baseball game in Montana. The ‘Montana Post’ of Virginia city reported on May 26 in 1866 the locals organized a team. A week later, they reported “with players tough as hickory and ardent as a burning glass, the nine players captained by F.G. Heldt won 121-88.”

Teams began to pop up all over the state. Virginia City, Helena, Bozeman, Diamond City, Barker, Sun River, Fort Shaw just to name a few. According to the ‘Sun River Sun’, Glendive was the ‘proud possessor of a female baseball club’ as of June 1884.

The ‘Mineral Argus’ reported June 26, 1884 that the game between Cottonwood and Lewistown featured “one broken bat, one broken finger and more than one broken beer bottle”.

Fights, booze, cheating and gambling fueled the state's official state foundational professional league in 1892. Cheating was rampant, fights were common and sportsmanship was a little unknown entity if known at all. They were professionals, they just weren’t very well-behaved professionals. Six teams started the season, two dropped out and Butte won the championship only after Helena forfeited over complaints about money and umpiring.

And as we all know weather plays a pretty large part in all our activities. In Montana it was alive and well In October of 1924, “The Brooklyn Dodgers played in Cascade County and there was snow on the field during the game, but they played anyway. The Dodgers won by one run over Cascade. So, who, exactly, was on the Cascade Country team that the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated by one whole point? “It was a collection of all-stars from the area - local town guys”.

The first Montanan to reach the majors made a large impact on baseball. He did so in a different role many do not recognize or think of. Frank James Burke or more often known as ‘Brownie’ from Marysville stood 4’7” and served as a mascot. He was known as hardworking, loyal and was respected by all who knew him. Three different presidents (Teddy Roosevelt, Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson) considered him a friend.

Burke was the first Montanan to reach the majors, but Cascade’s Rees “Steamboat” Williams was the first to debut on the playing field. Steamboat Williams (Rees Gephardt Williams) was a talented young Cascade baseball player. Born in Cascade, he batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was 5 ft. 11 in. and weighed 170 pounds. Drafted from the Great Falls Electrics, Rees became a Major League baseball player in 1914 and 1916 for the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher. He went on to appear in 41 career games over two seasons.

Future Hall of Famer 21-year-old Clark Griffith from the folded Pacific Northwest League headed east in 1892. He landed in Missoula and pitched so well fans showered him with five-dollar gold coins after the game. “He joked he made more money that one game than during his entire stint in Tacoma.” He insists he invented the screwball. Griffith went on to a rewarding career pitching in Chicago and New York. He enjoyed his time in Montana so much that he bought a ranch north of Helena and lived there during the off-season. Griffith went on to manage numerous teams. An opportunity opened for him to become part-owner of the Washington Senators, so he mortgaged his Montana ranch for a small percentage of the team. Later he mortgaged his ranch again to obtain 80 percent. Griffith’s name became synonymous with baseball and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in1946.

The ‘Pretty Boy’ arrived in Great Falls as an unproven 19-year-old infielder. Sold from Denver to the Great Falls Indians in 1900 and then to Helena, Joe Tinker led his team to the state championship. From there he launched a career that would lead to his plaque in the Hall of Fame. His tenure with the Chicago Orphans in 1902 lead to anchoring what’s been regarded as one of the best defenses in baseball history and to what is considered one of baseball’s best double-play combinations (immortalized in the poem, “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” or “Tinker to Evers to Chance”).

Jim Thorpe, who many regard as the ‘The World’s Greatest Athlete’, played baseball for the Shelby Seals in 1926.

“Nick Mariana served as the general manager of the Great Falls Electrics when, on Aug. 15, 1950, he and his secretary, Virginia Raunig, noticed two silver discs hovering in the sky. Mariana ran to his car to fetch a 16mm movie camera and captured the objects in a 15-second reel that went on to garner worldwide attention. UFO aficionados still debate the authenticity of Mariana’s footage and, in 2008, Great Falls officially changed its name to “Voyagers” in honor of the event.”

Widely regarded as the most accomplished and best professional athlete ever from Montana, Dave McNally deserves his list of achievements. The left-handed pitcher from Billings pitched in the majors from 1962 to 1975, spending all except one season with the Baltimore Orioles.

“Baseball historian Bill James called his curveball the best of his era. He won at least 20 games in four consecutive years, was named an All-Star three times, and helped the Orioles win two World Series. Even when his career ended, McNally influenced the game. His petition against the league in 1975, filed after he retired midseason amid a contract dispute with the Montreal Expos, directly led to the start of baseball’s free agent era.”

One accomplishment keeps McNally at the top of the record books. “During Baltimore’s second championship run, in 1970, he became the first—and still only—pitcher to hit a World Series grand slam. As if that shot wasn’t enough, he also earned the win after pitching a complete game.”

Perhaps the most famous person to ever play ball in Montana never made it the majors. Charley Pride, best known as a country singer, had two brief stints in the Pioneer League and played for the semi-pro East Helena Smelterites.

Montana baseball stories don’t always end up on the pages of ‘Sports Illustrated’, “but like the state itself they tend to reveal overlooked or underappreciated treasures.” The stories help “create the fabric of the game and provide a window into not only the history of baseball but the state of Montana itself.” Montana is far from the center of major league of talent as its ball fields are generally under feet of snow when spring training opens, but it has sent 22 to the Big Leagues over the last 143 years.

And we’re still sending ‘em. With the start of the 2022 Major League Baseball season, Chicago Cubs pitcher Codi Heuer is on an active roster. Codi Heuer is from Missoula and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 6th round of the 2018 draft and quickly rose through the minor league system. “2021 was Codi's first season in the majors and became a reliable reliever for the White Sox. Then halfway through the year, he was traded across town to the Chicago Cubs. “

We still hear the crack of the bat, pop of the mitt, and strrriiiike you’re out!