Semipro Baseball's Golden Era (1935-1941): A Tale of Two Cities

In the post–Civil War era, the future sites of the cities of Duncan and Enid in western Oklahoma were supply points 137 miles apart on the famous Chisholm Cattle Trail, now paralleled by U.S. Highway 81. This great artery of the northern cattle drive was named for a Cherokee trader and rancher, Jesse Chisholm. From a beginning in south Texas to the northern objective of Dodge City, Kansas, about six million cattle between 1866 and 1885 were driven north to the railroad lines.¹

As Oklahoma did not obtain statehood until 1907, the first baseball teams formed by white merchants in Duncan and Enid in the early 1890s were within Oklahoma Territory, the domain of various Plains Indian tribes.²

The first account of diamond doings in Duncan date to 1894 when druggist Coke Williams helped establish the city's first baseball team.³ The first professional baseball player to develop on Duncan's sandlots was Ned Pettigrew, one of at least twelve pre-1941 Duncan semipros who also played in the Major Leagues.⁴ In his half century in baseball, Pettigrew pitched for the Boston Bloomers as "Miss Maude Nelson" in 1902; had a cup-of-coffee appearance for the 1914 Buffalo Blues of the Federal League; was Carl Hubbell's first professional manager during 1923–1924 at Cushing, Oklahoma in the Oklahoma State League; and was a baseball scout until his death in Duncan in 1952 at age seventy.⁵

Up north in Enid, the six Frantz brothers were the backbone of the Enid teams that claimed the Oklahoma Territorial baseball championship in 1895. Frank Frantz, appointed territorial governor by his former Rough Rider Colonel Teddy Roosevelt, was the last territorial executive before statehood. His brother, Walter "Homerun" Frantz, was the leading hitter on Harvard University's Ivy League champions in 1901.⁶

Before their golden years of semipro baseball, both Duncan and Enid fielded lower division Minor League teams. Most of the leagues they joined were short-lived. However, the Enid Harvesters of the 1922 Class C Western Association arguably had the best win-loss percentage of any long season Minor League team in professional baseball history with 104 wins and 27 losses, .794.⁷

By 1927 Minor League baseball was on a steep decline in Oklahoma. From a peak of twenty-one teams in 1923, only four cities fielded teams in 1927. However, Oklahoma was a very active baseball state with hundreds of adult sandlot teams. John Holland Sr., president of Oklahoma City's Western League club, agreed to loan his ballpark to entice the state's top sandlot teams for a season-ending tournament. The local newspapers, the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times, were the initial sponsors. It became an annual tournament that ran until 1948. A similar arrangement had worked well in Denver, where the Denver Post had sponsored an annual tournament since 1915. It ended in 1947.⁸

The most significant sporting event in the history of Oklahoma unfolded September 12–18, 1927, the first state championship baseball tournament. The twenty-four invited teams included those from Duncan and Enid. Neither team placed in the money. Pitching for Duncan's Halliburton Cementers, who were sponsored by the company that is now the world's largest oil well servicing company, was twenty-two-year-old Roy "Peaches" Davis. He earned a 6–1 decision over the Fletcher team. Oklahoma City's Cook Lumber eliminated Duncan before Peaches could pitch again. But Peaches had taken a giant step toward being a professional baseball player. In the Minor Leagues in 1930, he would room with another southern Oklahoman—cottonpickin' farmboy "Dizzy" Dean of Spaulding, Oklahoma. In 1937 the two Oklahoma buddies faced off in a ten-inning, opening-day pitching duel. Peaches pitched for the Cincinnati Reds and lost, 2–0, to Dizzy and...