Batter Up, Biloxi!

PHOTO — Here is a 1934 photo of the Washington Senators in front of the Biloxi Hotel, present-day Chateau Le Grand. The year before, the luckless franchise knocked off the Yankees (yes, with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig) to win the American League pennant. The Senators trained in Biloxi from 1930 to 1935. Owner Clark Griffith had moved spring training from Tampa to Biloxi after Biloxi civic leader Tony Ragusin doggedly pursued teams, an idea pitched by Mayor John Kennedy years earlier. Photo courtesy of David and Karen Staehling.

This article was originally written by Jane Shambra with the title "Batter up, Biloxi. Baseball has long been part of our lives". Paige is a local Biloxi writer, for BNews Monthly, the monthly newsletter of the City of Biloxi. All images courtesy of the Local History and Genealogy Department / Biloxi Public Library / Harrison County Library System.

The Biloxi Shuckers baseball season is just around the corner, but the Double-A Minor League squad’s appearance on the local scene in 2015 is only the latest brush Biloxi has had with professional baseball.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine that the game of baseball wasn’t always played here on the sandy soil of Biloxi. Certainly the early colonial settlers, including Monsieur d’Iberville and the Cassette girls, had no idea about baseball of the future. Kids in those days were content playing with homemade clay marbles. Baseball didn’t really begin in the United States until the mid-1800s. But, by the late 1800s, people all over the country were playing this game that eventually became our national pastime.

One amazing benefit that evolved from the sport is baseball card collecting. Youngsters would go to the H.G. Hill store on downtown Howard Avenue, or maybe one of the other drug stores here, such as Grants, Eddie’s or Kimbrough and Quint to give up their saved pennies for packs of these cards. Some packs even had a slab of pink, stiff bubble gum as an added treat, a lagniappe.

Collecting, studying and trading. That’s what youngsters did back in the day. Indeed, they became amateur statisticians, memorizing and reciting facts for each player. Baseball collecting trained youngsters to be businessmen by learning the spirit of enterprise. Another baseball card pastime was “motorizing” bicycle wheels by attaching these very same cards, via grandma’s clothespins, to spokes, resulting in the amazing sound-alike of a mini motorbike.

Baseballs, bats and mitts, all sorts of sports equipment for any baseball game could be purchased at the Auto Lec store on Howard Avenue where ample parking was always available.

Did you know that the present-day Keesler Air Force Base once housed a major baseball field? Back before the air base was built, when that land was still known as the Naval Reserve Park, folks could enjoy amazing games of baseball in the comforting breezes of Back Bay.

PHOTO — This 1940s-era map shows the location of the old Biloxi stadium where the Washington Senators practiced. The stadium was torn down so the War Department could construct Keesler Army Air Corps Base. In August 1941, the Army Air Corps Station became “Keesler Army Airfield.” Longtime Biloxians still refer to it as Keesler Field.

In fact, the Washington Senators utilized the Biloxi field for practice for six seasons from 1930 to 1935, during off-season, bringing fame and tourism dollars to the Coast. By 1940, the War Department, using land donated by the city, began building what we know today as Keesler Air Force Base, and the old stadium was torn down during that time.

Baseball has evolved into the heart and soul of Biloxi culture. That game that was once a simple summer pastime has evolved into a modern venue at our MGM Park, where official Minor League games are played.

Themed with the historic seafood industry in mind, the MGM baseball stadium is the well-known home base for the Biloxi Shuckers Minor League baseball team. June 2015 was an inaugural moment in Biloxi when they played their first home game. Biloxi is so lucky to continue this amazing tribute to American culture in our own downtown, on our famed Howard Avenue.

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