Fifty years ago — Aug. 30, 1965 — the DNT reports that, “barring a complete letdown” in eight remaining games, Duluth-Superior Dukes third baseman Chris Barkulis “should have the Northern League batting title wrapped up and should also be a shoo-in for the league’s most valuable player award.”
“The Duluth Huskies would like to announce that Greg Culver will be the new General Manager, effective immediately. Congratulations Greg!”
George August “Hooks” Dauss pitched in the Major Leagues for the Detroit Tigers for 15 seasons following his stint with the Duluth White Sox. There are numerous images of him on the Internet in a Tigers uniform, but Duluth images are seemingly nonexistent. The baseball card above is a bit of a deception, because the “D” on the cap is for “Detroit.” The card is a “Corona Centennial reprint,” although the word “reprint” implies there was an original card like this 100 years ago, which wouldn’t seem to be the case. Anyway, as shown below, the image on the card is of Dauss as a Tiger.
On display at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Duluth through Aug. 31 is a stunning array of baseball history. At left: A 1866 baseball card featuring “The Old Man,” Dave Birdsall — considered to be the very first baseball card. At right: Babe Ruth’s 1922 contract with the New York Yankees.
Western Duluth Little League is registering players ages 5-15 for the 2015 season. Registration can be conducted in person at Wheeler Fieldhouse this Saturday, March 14, from noon to 2 p.m., or anytime online at westernduluthlittleleague.org.
How this could possibly be relevant to the Perfect Duluth Day website will be explained at the end, but up top we present the 30 best names of the 1981 Major League Baseball season, as preserved for history in 1982 Topps cards.
Aug. 5, 1987: Paul Guggenheimer mans the KBJR-TV sports desk to deliver the news that Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Niekro has been suspended for possession of an emery board and sandpaper. Plus, highlights of a Twins/Angels game; the downside is the Twins lose, the upside is they went on to win the World Series that year.
Brian Bécotte of Edgartown, Mass., shared this 1937 photo with PDD on Facebook. His father, John Bécotte is standing, second from the left.
If anyone knows additional names of players on the team or anything about the team in general, well, that’s what blog comments are for.
“Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer in 1908. These images were shot the same year to help sell the song to the public.
The singer in the video is Edward Meeker, one of Thomas Edison’s technicians. This is how they sold music (sheet music, specifically) back in the day — kind of an early form of music video. These were called illustrated songs. An “illustrator” would stand on stage and sing the song while glass slide images portraying the song’s storyline were projected on a screen. Anywhere from 12 to 16 slides were produced for a song. The last slide was usually the chorus text so audience members could sing along. In this version, I’ve enhanced the chorus with slides from other baseball songs. Illustrated songs were often part of vaudeville and early movie theater programs. Notice the giant wad of Cracker Jacks Katie Casey is enjoying. That’s how it was sold back then.
I guess this one is right up there with “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” and “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.”
Duluth Huskies sweep the Mankato Moondogs and are one game out of first place. Meanwhile, the Twins changed their background to a Dove Men ad.
