Nov 18, 2019 3 min read

Washington Redbirds Signed Baseballs

There is a long history of baseball in this region, dating back to the 1880s when the “Washington Nine” were part of the Interstate Baseball League that included teams from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. This league only lasted a few years, but was resurrected in the early 1900s and once again Washington fielded a team. It was not until the 1930s that a true professional team would come to Washington. This team, called the Washington Generals, was a minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees. In 1934 and 1935 members of the Yankees, including Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, traveled to Washington to play an exhibition game against the Generals. The Generals’ home field was Washington High School’s football field. It was an odd setup, as home plate was in the corner of the end zone. The first base line went down the width of the field and the third base line down the length of the field. Eugene Lucas, who attended games there, said, “left-handed batters, if they could pull the ball, barely had to hit a pop-up to get a home run. The right fielder could almost play first base. And there was no fence in the left field, so if a batter could get it over the left fielder’s head, they could run all day.”

The Yankees would move their minor league affiliation after the 1935 season, but professional baseball would return to Washington in 1939 with the Redbirds, a St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliate. The Redbirds, playing as part of the Pennsylvania State Association, once again played their games at the Washington High School football field. Although only in existence for four years, as the team and league disbanded in 1942, due to the pressures of World War II, the Redbirds had a number of notable players that would go on to big league careers. Those include Dick Sisler, Bob Scheffing, and Hal Gregg. The most famous of all the members of the team would have to be Albert “Red” Schoendienst. Red played for the Redbirds in their final year in 1942. He would go on to an 18-year career as a player, and another 30 years as a coach. He was part of five World Series teams, two as a player and three as a coach. In 1989 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The baseballs pictured here are from the 1939 Redbirds season. One of the baseballs was signed by the team on June 11, 1939. It was on that day, during a game, that manager Raymond Dever’s wife gave birth to a son, Robert. The teams signed the ball and gave it to their manager’s wife. These baseballs, as well as a few other items relating to the team, were donated to the Washington County Historical Society by Robert Dever, in memory of his father and Redbirds manager, Raymond Dever.

Clay Kilgore is executive director of the Washington County Historical Society.