Robert D. Sampson
@ilbaseballbook.bsky.social
Historian and author of "John L. O'Sullivan and His Times," Kent State University Press, 2003, and "Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois," University of Illinois Press, 2023; editor, Journal of the IL State His. Society.
Bloomington, IL's first professional player--not Old Hoss Radbourne or Clark Griffith. Next time you visit Evergreen Cemetery, say "hi" to Patrick J. Keenan, an Irish immigrant who was lured to Chicago in 1867 by a cushy, low-labor job to pitch for the local Excelsiors.
February 6, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Bloomington, IL's first professional player--not Old Hoss Radbourne or Clark Griffith. Next time you visit Evergreen Cemetery, say "hi" to Patrick J. Keenan, an Irish immigrant who was lured to Chicago in 1867 by a cushy, low-labor job to pitch for the local Excelsiors.
want to trod upon the same ground as the Centralia Egyptians played upon in the mid-1860s? It is easy to find though the presence of the city's library at its center makes a game of baseball with any rules problematic.
February 6, 2025 at 3:34 PM
want to trod upon the same ground as the Centralia Egyptians played upon in the mid-1860s? It is easy to find though the presence of the city's library at its center makes a game of baseball with any rules problematic.
