Lafayette County WI Archives History - Books .....Baseball 1976
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 28, 2008, 11:05 pm

Book Title: A History Of Blanchardville, Gem Of The Pecatonica

Baseball

    When you mention baseball in Blanchardville, the name of Rube Noble would
come to the mind of almost everyone. The only man Rube Noble couldn't strike out
was John Barleycorn. This would be the consensus of many, but he was the best
baseball player ever to come out of these parts. His career as a pitcher spanned
about thirty years and his reputation spawned as many legends as there were
baseball fans. The spitball was Rube's favorite pitch and he used it to strike
out most of the best batters in: the area; yet, he never made it to the majors.
Rube, born in Gratiot, played for Blanchardville for about ten years starting in
about 1919. Catching a spitballer wasn't easy, but Freddie Knorr, Ray Long, Ken
Kundert, Stiney Garvey and Joe Graham were some of the catchers who did. Rube
chewed slippery elm, a long thin plug of dried root, to moisten the ball. He
didn't chew when he was in the dugout, but deposited it on the step of the
dugout to let the sun work on it. When his side was retired he put the slippery
elm back in his mouth and strutted back to the mound.

  Some of Rube's teammates were Frank Mason, Jr., who once went to Dubuque to
try out for the majors; Fred Knorr, Myron Rice, Joe Graham, Alvin Blanchard,
Selmer Syftestad, John Winzenreid, Victor Rogers, Herbert Dobson, Harry Smith,
Harry Rice and Harry Mason. The only games this group of players lost in two
years were to the Gilkerson Union Giants, a black team from Chicago, and to a
team from Hollandale 3-2 with Jimmy Dodge pitching for them.

    In these early days, baseball games were played in Blanchard's Park now
known as Baker's bottom. Among the names that come to mind when a person
mentions baseball would be Korupp, Masters, Bainbridge, Buckingham, Taylor,
Arnes, U'Ren, Ryan, Syse, Vickers, Erickson, Vick, Hanson, Hardyman, Vinje,
Lageson, Skaife, Baker, Schuler, Schober, Sherman, Aim, Carter, White,
Hendrickson, Hutton, Zimmerman, Kammerude, Johnson and Unterholzner.


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Extracted from

A History of Blanchardville, Gem of the Pecatonica


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