Does this baseball uniform give any clues about the baseball team?

Question

I'm trying to find out more about the semi-professional baseball team or league that my great-grandfather, Ben Mounts, apparently played for.

My grandfather, his son, wrote about his dad in his memoirs:

"He has modestly said (which was rare -- Daddy wasn’t the most modest of persons!) that he really wasn’t a very good baseball player (he could hit a fastball over the fence anytime, he told me once, but always had trouble with the curve!), but he did play semi-pro ball for a while. Somewhere we have a picture of him and a friend in their Wichita baseball uniforms."

 Ben was born in 1888, and I'd guess he's in his early twenties when this photo was taken. He lived in Kansas City, which is 200 miles away from Wichita, so I don't know why he'd be in a Wichita baseball uniform.

I also don't know what the BD on their uniforms stands for.

This is a long-shot, but maybe a sport history enthusiast might have some clues?
 

Click here for the image details page or here for the full-sized version (1272 x 1600).

Comments

My first guess would be Brooklyn Dodgers.

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Try sending to the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. They may have more information. also, there's a Baseball Encyclopedia that updates yearly with new record breaking information, and has every player and every team. The encyclopedia may be able to help you identify the people's names once cooperstown ids the uniform.

Answer 1

I did some research and found a team called Beloit that played in the Central Kansas League. They were in the "D" classification. Not saying for sure, but it seems to fit. The record only goes back to 1909, but here's the site I found:

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=842f71ff

 

Hope it help.

Comments

Good find! Beloit is still about 200 miles from Kansas City, so it would still be a mystery as to why he'd be playing with that team. But it's better than anything I've been able to dig up.

Answer 2

Yes, and no but in most cases yes.

Answer 3

He looks late teens early twenties which puts him in Kansas City. The odds are very slim he played semi-pro or professionally, especially if he had a job to report to daily. Most likely this is his high school uniform or that of a vocational / recreational league team in Kansas City.

Comments

Hmmm. Interesting. I hadn't considered the possibility that my grandfather had got it wrong, and the story about him playing semi-pro wasn't true. But I also know my great-grandfather was known to stretch to truth to tell a good story, so it's entirely possible.

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Strike that. I got caught up in the profile and hunting around totally forgot your grandfather's testimony. No reason to doubt him.

I was just looking at it from random person in baseball uniform what are the odds they played in the minor leagues. Beloit was in the Central Kansas League for 1909 and part of the 1910 season. I could not find their 'mascot' name. You might get lucky with the newspapers in the LOC collection. If not Beloit papers, one of the other teams in the league might have a write up when they came to town.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

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Thank you! I haven't been able to dig up anything helpful yet, but that's a great resource.

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bad news, found rosters for Beloit and there is no Mounts mentioned.

1909: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=842f71ff

1910: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=ea8d53bc

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I saw that too. I guess it's still a mystery.

Answer 4

https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-baseball-in-kansas-1867-1940/12826    this has a history of baseball i Kansas

It says:  The advent of Class A minor league baseball marks Kansas' golden age in the professional game. In 1910 twenty-five cities and towns were sponsoring teams in organized baseball. Wichita and Topeka were well established in the Western League. The Kansas State League, revived as a Class D organization, included McPherson, Hutchinson, Lyons, Arkansas City, Great Bend, Newton, Wellington and the Twin Cities club, sponsored jointly by Strong City and Cottonwood Falls. The Central Kansas League, also of Class D rating, included Salina, Ellsworth, Abilene, Manhattan, Junction City, Clay Center, Beloit and Concordia. Larned later assumed the Twin Cities franchise in the State League.

Comments

Thank you!