By Russ Walsh
Chocolatier William Klein, Sr. of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania had a problem. The year was 1918. Soldiers were returning from the war in Europe. Klein was looking to expand to a national market for his “Lunch Bar,” a three-cent candy bar that was in direct competition with the chocolate bars produced by Milton Hershey at his factory just ten miles away. The Klein Lunch Bar would be familiar to returning soldiers, because Klein, like Hershey, had wrangled a contract with the armed services to include his Lunch Bars in rations distributed to soldiers overseas.[1] Klein needed to figure out a way to build on this familiarity and make the Lunch Bar a staple of the American home.
Like
most companies of the day, Klein advertised in newspapers, but this advertising
was expensive and did not provide the kind of exposure that could make a
product a household name. He hit on a unique solution to his dilemma. Klein, in
concert with his brother and partner in the business, Frederick, decided that
he would attract copious amounts of free advertising by fielding a highly
competitive independent professional baseball team. He would attract the very
best players he could by offering both a steady job in his chocolate factory
and a chance to play baseball in the summer.[2] In a
time when even major league baseball provided skimpy salaries and no employment
beyond the summer months, the offer would prove attractive to many top-level
ball players.
The
scheme worked. In 1919 the Kleins’ fielded one of the finest independent
professional baseball teams in the country.[3] It was
a team that would win more than 80 percent of its games, and which would compile
a 7-4 record against major league competition. The exploits of the team were
chronicled in newspapers across the country and every time the Klein Chocolate
Company team was mentioned in the press, the brothers garnered plenty of free
publicity for their candy bars.
William
and Frederick Klein were born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to German immigrant
parents. The boys helped to support the family by selling newspapers and, during
holidays, German chocolate eggs made in the family’s kitchen. Local caramel
company owner, Milton Hershey, a man with a lifelong fascination for the milk
chocolate he had tasted at the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago,
hired the Klein boys as apprentices. Hershey brought the boys with him when he
moved his company from Lancaster to Derry Township, Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania. There he built his famous chocolate factory, and there Frederick
and William became his trusted assistants.[4]
While
working for Hershey, William, a huge baseball fan, convinced his boss to
sponsor a company baseball team to provide the chocolate factory workers some
pleasurable recreation after long hours in the factory. William managed the
team. Frederick played in the infield.[5]
By
1912, William and Frederick were ready to strike out on their own. They started
the Klein Chocolate Company in a small shop on Market Street in nearby
Elizabethtown. After about one year, with the support of investors, the Kleins
had begun construction of a larger facility for the manufacture of their
chocolate bars.[6]
Also, of course, they established a company baseball team that competed against
other local teams.[7]
By
1918, wishing to expand the company, William Klein decided what he needed was
not just a baseball team, but a baseball team that could win against the very
best competition.[8]
He noted that all the major league baseball teams passed right through Elizabethtown
(which was roughly midway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), when they
travelled west or east for their games on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line.
If he could field a winning team, perhaps he could convince the major league
teams to stop in Elizabethtown to play an exhibition against the Klein team.
Coverage of games like this in the press would provide an advertising boon to
his fledgling company.
Klein
wrote to every major league team inviting them to stop in Elizabethtown to play
an exhibition game on their way to Major League cities. He promised to put the
team up for the night, buy their dinners, and share the ticket profits with the
visiting teams.[9]
At a time when most major league teams were barely breaking even financially, a
chance to earn a little more money was appealing and several teams agreed to
take Klein up on his deal.
Klein
now needed to assemble a competitive team. His first step was to hire former
major league pitcher John Brackenridge, who lived in nearby Harrisburg, as
manager.[10] Klein
told Brackenridge to hire the best ballplayers he could find for the team. While
Brackenridge combed the area for players, William Klein set out to construct a
first-class ball field on the Poplar Street grounds adjacent to his factory.[11] The
way the ballpark was laid out, a batter could take aim at the factory
smokestacks looming in the distance. There was a large modern grandstand, but
no outfield fence. Conoy Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, formed a
natural outfield barrier.
Among
the first players Brackenridge signed were pitcher, Hank “Big Bill” Ritter,
slugging first baseman Tony Walsh, catcher Irvin “Bugs” Trout,
pitcher/outfielder George Hunter, and outfielders Charles Babbington and Earl
Potteiger.[12]
Ritter had pitched parts of four seasons in the major leagues with the
Philadelphia Phillies and New York Giants and had attended both Juniata and
Albright Colleges in the central Pennsylvania area. Walsh. a veteran of both
the minor leagues and several local semi-pro teams, was noted for his extra
base power. Trout was an experienced backstop who had played several years with
Toronto in the International League. George Hunter was a 10-year veteran of the
New York Pennsylvania State League (NYPSL), who had played one season with the
Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers) in the major leagues. Babbington was another
veteran of the NYPSL. Potteiger, from nearby Pottstown, had spent several years
in the New England League.
Pitcher
Walter Harned, infielders Addie Berger, Russ Wrightstone, and Glenn Killinger[13], along
with outfielders “Babe” Brown and Henry “Hinkey” Haines were soon added to the
squad. Harned was a veteran of five seasons in the NYPSL and would prove to be
a key member of the Kleins' pitching staff. Wrightstone was a local hitting
legend who had played for other industrial teams in the area. Killinger was a
student and star athlete at Penn State. Brown had been a minor leaguer in
Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics organization.[14] Hinkey
Haines was a 19-year-old collegian from Lebanon Valley College, who had
interrupted his schooling to serve in the Army during the war. Other players
with similar profiles would join the team from time to time as the season went
on.
The
Klein Chocolate Company team played their first game against the local Ephrata
team on May 25, 1919, at Ephrata. The starting lineup was Hunter in leftfield,
Killinger at short, Wrightstone at third base, Walsh at first base, Haines in
rightfield, Berger at second base, Brown in centerfield and Trout catching.
Ritter and Harned shared pitching duties. The Kleins won 15-8. Killinger,
Walsh, and Brown each had three hits.[15]
On
Friday, May 30 the Klein Chocolate Company opened its new ballpark in Elizabethtown.
The opponent was the Motive Power team, a company team from Harrisburg
sponsored by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Games were played in the morning and
afternoon. At the afternoon game a flag was raised, and music was provided by
the local Palmyra town band to celebrate the new field.[16] In
these two games the Klein team gave notice that they would be a force to be
reckoned with. They defeated Motive Power (recognized as one of the better
teams in the area) by scores of 15-3 and 13-0. Killinger hit two home runs and
Walsh hit one. Wrightstone, who formerly had played for Motive Power, had five
hits in the doubleheader. William Klein presented Killinger and Walsh with
boxes of Klein Almond Bars as a reward for their home runs. Thus began a
tradition of rewarding home runs with boxes of Klein Chocolate, always
dutifully reported upon in the newspapers.[17]
The
next day, the team from Middletown, just a few miles north of Elizabethtown,
were rocked by the Klein aggregation 12-1. Wrightstone led the way with four
hits, while George Hunter added three more to the Kleins’ total of 19.[18] The
following Saturday, Klein Chocolate visited Hummelstown and crushed the local
team 15-1. “Big Bill” Ritter and Walter Harned shared the pitching duties,
while new recruit, Benny Shirk, a local player from Elizabethtown, banged out
four hits.[19]
Also new to the lineup was 39-year-old shortstop Bill Cranston, who replaced
Glenn Killinger at short. Cranston had a 12-year career in the minor leagues
before signing with Klein Chocolate. He would become a key member of the team.
The
Klein Chocolate team breezed to four more wins against local competition and
then on June 19, left on a four-day road trip to see the Philadelphia A’s play
the Detroit Tigers in Philadelphia and to play games of their own in Newark,
NJ., Philadelphia, and Lancaster, PA. The team returned home undefeated as they
took down the Newark Charms Candy team, a reported professional powerhouse,
3-2,[20] and
scored their most impressive win yet, defeating the highly regarded Strawbridge
and Clothier team in Philadelphia, 5-1 behind Ritter’s pitching and Walsh’s
long three-run home run in the ninth inning. “The Strawbridge and Clothier team
thought we were a bunch of rubes from upstate,” reported manager Brackenridge,
“but when they saw we played big-league ball you never did see such a change in
a mob of fans.”[21]
The Kleins finished the road trip with a win over the Eighth Ward team in
Lancaster.[22]
The
Klein team lost their first game of the season on June 26, falling to the
Parkesburg Iron Works team, 6-5 in 16 innings.[23] Several
more easy victories over local teams followed and then on July 5, William Klein
made a big announcement that received coverage in all the local papers: The
Philadelphia Athletics had been engaged to play an exhibition game against the
Klein team. The game was set for July 23 and would be played at Harrisburg’s
Island Park to accommodate the anticipated large crowd.[24]
Before
that big game, some changes occurred to the Klein roster. First baseman Tony
Walsh signed with Wilkes-Barre of the NYPSL and left the team. Shortstop
Killinger left to return to Penn State. “Babe” Brown also left the team to play
for other local teams. In response to these defections, Brackenridge signed
former St. Louis Browns player Dick Kauffman, a native of nearby Lewistown, to
replace Walsh. Veteran infielder Frank Brannon, a Wilkes-Barre native, jumped
from the Shreveport team in the Texas League to replace Killinger. Bill Kay, a
41-year-old former Washington Senator and long-time minor leaguer, replaced
Brown in the outfield. Brackenridge also signed a new pitcher from the Reading
team of the Allison-Hill League, Clyde Mellinger, who had starred for local
Shippensburg College team for four years.
A
crowd estimated at between 4,000 and 6,000 crammed every corner of the
Harrisburg Athletic Club field on Island Park in Harrisburg at 3:45 on July 23
to see Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics square off against the Klein
Chocolate team.[25]
Mack brought a team of mostly starting players with him. Stars Amos Strunk and
Tillie Walker were in the outfield. Fred Thomas was at third base. Bench
players like Dick Burrus and Terry Turner filled out the lineup. Regular
starting catcher, Cy Perkins, was playing shortstop, while coach Paddy
Livingston did the catching. On the mound for the A’s was Tom Rogers, who was a
semi-regular part of the starting rotation for the A’s.
Walter
Harned pitched for Klein Chocolate. The A’s pushed across single runs in the
second and seventh to lead 2-0 going into the eighth. In the eighth inning, the
Klein’s got to Rogers for four runs on five consecutive hits, including a
George Hunter double. Harned shut the A’s down in the ninth and the victory
went to Klein Chocolate, 4-2. Harned allowed only four hits to the major
leaguers. The Klein hitters managed eight hits off Rogers. Newspapers from as
far away as Pittsburgh and New York City carried reports of the surprising
Klein victory.[26]
William Klein got the publicity he wanted for his candy and Connie Mack and his
A’s got roasted in the newspapers.[27]
Klein
Chocolate finished off the month of July with a 3-1 home victory against
nemesis Parkesburg. The game attracted the largest crowd yet at the
Elizabethtown grounds, including busloads of Parkesburg partisans who made the
forty-mile journey accompanied by their own brass band.[28] August
saw the Klein Chocolate team continue their domination of local clubs and
defeat a travelling contingent, the Baltimore Dry Docks team, 5-4 before a
large enthusiastic crowd at Island Park in Harrisburg.[29] On
August 11, the team split a Sunday doubleheader against Ephrata, falling 2-0
and winning 3-2, to run their season record to 34-6.[30]
Meanwhile the entire region was abuzz with the news that the St. Louis
Cardinals, with stars like Rogers Hornsby and Jack Smith, as well as local boy
Clifton Heathcote, would be coming to town to play the Klein team.[31] The
game was scheduled for Tuesday, August 12.
An
estimated crowd of 5,000 crammed the Island Park field for the game against the
Cardinals.[32]
Cardinal manager Branch Rickey sent out a team of mostly regular players,
including Hornsby, Smith, and Heathcote, to face the Klein team, although he
did start pitcher Frank Woodward in left field. Oscar Tuero was the Cardinals hurler.
Mellinger started the game for the Klein team, but he did not last long. After
an error by Wrightstone at third base, the Cardinals cracked out two doubles
and a single, scoring three runs, and Mellinger was replaced by Harned. The
Cards plated two more runs before Harned could put out the fire. Down 5-0
before they even came to bat, the Klein team responded by steadily eating away
at the Cardinal lead, while Harned tamed the St. Louis bats. The “Chocolate
Boys” scored two runs in the fourth, two in the sixth, and two more in the
seventh to win the game 6-5. They were helped along by six Cardinal errors.
Wrightstone led the Klein team with three hits, while Kauffman drove in two
runs.[33]
On
August 18, the Klein team was back at Island Park to play the barnstorming independent
Negro team the Bacharach Giants from Atlantic City, NJ. The Bacharach Giants
featured some of the finest players in the country including pitcher Dick
“Cannonball” Redding, speedster Spot Poles, slugging first baseman, Ben Taylor,
and shortstop/manager John Henry “Pop” Lloyd. The Kleins could manage only four
hits off Redding, and fell to the visitors from Atlantic City, 2-1.[34] The
Bacharach Giants proved to be the toughest of opponents for the Kleins. Two
weeks after this defeat, Klein Chocolate visited the Bacharach Giants in
Atlantic City for a weekend series and dropped two games by the scores of 1-0
and 3-2.[35] Veteran
star, Frank Wickware pitched the Giants to victory in the second game. It
appeared that the fine Klein Chocolate team had met its match and then some
against the Bacharach Giants.
On
August 29, a throng estimated at 8,000 crammed the stands and rimmed the
outfield at Island Park to see the Klein Chocolate team take on the National
League leading Cincinnati Reds. `The field was so packed with spectators that
special ground rules needed to be instituted for the fans lining the outfield.[36] Cincinnati
manager Pat Moran fielded a team studded with stars, including local favorite
Jake Daubert from Shamokin, PA, future Hall of Famers left fielder Sherry Magee
and center fielder Edd Roush, as well as starting third baseman Heinie Groh and
right fielder Greasy Neale. Lefty Rube Bressler did the pitching. Walter Harned
was on the mound for the Kleins. The Reds reached Harned for single runs in the
first, third, fifth and ninth, in part due to two errors from shortstop, Frank
Brannon. The Kleins were held off the board by Bressler until the ninth when
they scored three runs, thanks in part to doubles by Wrightstone and Brannon,
to make the game close. George Hunter had three hits for the Klein team. The
final was St. Louis 4, Klein Chocolate, 3.[37]
The
Cincinnati loss came just before the trip to Atlantic City that saw the “Lunch
Bars,” as the press had dubbed them, drop those two games to the Bacharach
Giants. These three consecutive losses were followed by a home loss to the
Bethlehem Steel team and their pitcher, former A’s left hander and future
journalist, Stan Baumgartner, who shut the Kleins out on just three hits, 1-0.
Roy Mellinger took the hard luck loss when Bethlehem scored in the ninth
inning.[38] The run
of losses and the teams’ hitting woes were soon ended with a string of four
straight wins over local teams. The Lancaster News Journal noted that
third baseman Russ Wrightstone was emerging as “the best slugger in this neck
of the woods.”[39]
On
September 8, the Klein team held a rematch with Connie Mack’s Athletics, at
Island Field in Harrisburg. Before traveling to Harrisburg for the game, the
Kleins won a morning game at home against the semi-pro Middletown, Pennsylvania
team.[40] Walter
Harned was again chosen to pitch against the A’s for the “Lunch Bars.” Harned
scattered nine hits and two runs in earning the easy 8-2 victory. Wrightstone
contributed an inside-the-park home run. The Lancaster News Journal
called the game, “too one-sided to be very interesting.”[41]
After
the Athletics game, the Lunch Bars went on another run of victories against semi-pro
teams in the region including Williamsport, Bloomsburg, Ephrata, and Nanticoke.
A return match with the strong Parkesburg Iron Works nine ended in controversy.
With the game being played in a steady rain in the late innings, manager
Brackenridge appealed to have the game called off with his team ahead, 3-1. The
Parkesburg manager refused, so Brackenridge grabbed the ball, threw it over the
fence and pulled his team off the field. Two Parkesburg runners, on base at the
time, came around to score. Each team then filed a final score with the
newspapers, the Klein team declaring victory and the Parkesburg team calling it
a draw. The Lancaster News-Journal carried both line scores.[42]
During
the week of September 22, the Klein team would play four games against major
league competition and win three of them. First up were the Brooklyn Robins, as
the Dodgers were called in those days in deference to their revered manager Wilbert
Robinson. The Robins were traveling to Philadelphia by train after defeating
the National League champion Reds in Cincinnati, 3-1 on Sunday, September 21.
On Monday, the 22nd they stepped off the train in Elizabethtown and
walked across the street to the Poplar Grounds ballpark to meet the Klein
aggregation. They got back on the train a few hours later, having been handed a
2-1 defeat at the hands of the Lunch Bars. Recently signed York, Pennsylvania
native Norman Plitt pitched for the Brackenridge nine. Plitt had pitched
briefly for the Brooklyn team in 1918, and he was out to show them what they
were missing, as he gave up seven hits and just one seventh inning run, to a
team that included future Hall of Famer, Zach Wheat, as well as stars like Hy
Myers, Ed Konetchy, and Ivy Olsen. “Bugs” Trout had two hits and drove in the
winning run for the Kleins.[43]
On
September 24, the Klein bunch traveled to nearby Carlisle, Pennsylvania to play
the Washington Senators at Dickenson College. The Senators were on their way to
Boston after dropping four games to the Indians in Cleveland. The crowd of
3,000 that turned out included a contingent of soldiers from the Carlisle
Barracks and wounded troops from World War 1 who were recovering at the base’s
military hospital.[44] Free
Klein Almond Bars were given away to all who attended. The Kleins prevailed
against Clark Griffith’s team, 4-3 behind the pitching of Walter Harned, who scattered
nine hits. Washington’s future Hall of Fame outfielder Sam Rice had two hits
and third baseman, Joe Leonard, had three. Star first baseman, Joe Judge, was
held hitless. Wrightstone had two hits for the Klein team, including a triple,
and made a spectacular diving stop of a smash at third to save a run.[45]
Wrightstone’s play had attracted the attention of major league scouts and
rumors appeared in the papers suggesting he would be with a major league club in
the spring.[46]
One
day later, on September 25, the Klein Chocolate team returned to Island Park in
Harrisburg to play the Boston Red Sox and their budding superstar
pitcher/outfielder, Babe Ruth. Boston manager, Ed Barrow, played a number of
youngsters in his lineup, but Ruth started in left field, along with regulars Stuffy
McInnis at first, Red Shannon at second, and Everett Scott at shortstop. “Big
Bill” Ritter got the starting assignment for the Kleins and shut the big leaguers
out on five hits. Klein Chocolate won the game 4-0. Wrightstone had the big
hit, a two-run triple in the eighth inning. Ruth struck out twice and flew out deep
to right on a ball that was flagged down by Bill Kay. Ruth also pitched the
final two innings and was charged with three earned runs.[47]
The
Red Sox stuck around for a rematch the next day. The second game was played at
Rossmere Field in Lancaster about 30 miles from Harrisburg. Future Hall of
Famer Herb Pennock pitched for the Sox and newly signed right hander Art
Decatur,[48] who signed
with the Klein team after his season ended at Nashville in the Southern League,
took the ball for Brackenridge. Boston prevailed in this one as they scratched
out three single runs in the first, fourth, and fifth innings. The only Klein
run came in the eighth and was driven in by Wrightstone. The Klein team managed
seven hits off Pennock, Wrightstone leading the way with three.[49] Ruth
contributed an RBI single to the Red Sox cause, but his big name and growing
reputation as the greatest of all baseball players earned the Klein brothers
plenty of publicity for their chocolate bars.
After
the second Boston game, manager Brackenridge announced that a return match
against the Washington Senators had been scheduled for Island Park, Harrisburg
and that Senators star pitcher Walter Johnson would pitch.[50] The
game, played on September 29, was designated as a special “Soldiers Day”
celebration, designed “to welcome home thousands of American soldiers returning
from the trenches of Europe.”[51] Game
day started with a parade and speeches by local politicians, including Pennsylvania
Governor William Sproul. The events culminated with the raising of a massive
flag at Island Field.[52] A
throng estimated at 10,000 people showed up for the game. The crowd was so
large that it rimmed the outfield causing easy fly balls to go for ground rule
doubles when they disappeared into the sea of onlookers.
Unfortunately,
the game itself was anti-climactic. The Harrisburg Telegraph accused the
Senators of playing “uninspired” baseball.[53] The
Senators brought only nine players with them and no bats. They used the Klein
team equipment. Johnson pitched only the first three innings and then switched
positions with center fielder Sam Rice who took over the pitching. The Kleins
prevailed 4-3 in twelve innings, behind the pitching of Norman Plitt. The
winning run scored, fittingly in this sloppily played game, on a Rice wild
pitch. The Harrisburg Telegraph reporter said the run “looked like
another Washington gift.”[54]
As
the infamous 1919 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago
“Black Sox” got under way, the Klein Chocolate team was preparing for a busy
three final games of the season, all against major league competition. They had
scheduled two games with the New York Giants sandwiched around a game against a
barnstorming group of American League All-Stars.
The
Giants had finished second in the just completed National League season. The
first game against the Giants was scheduled for Rossmere Field in Lancaster on
October 4. The lineup that manager John McGraw sent out against the Klein team
included 17-game winner Rube Benton, future Hall of Famers Frankie Frisch and
Ross Youngs, and other regulars like George Burns and Larry Doyle. Benton pitched
a two-hit shutout and the Kleins went down to a 7-0 defeat.[55]
The
next day the Klein Chocolate team traveled to Marietta, Pennsylvania to face
off against the American League “All-Stars.” A crowd of 2,500 showed up to see
such major leaguers as Amos Strunk, Whitey Witt, Cy Perkins, George Burns, and
Del Pratt. Dave Keefe of the A’s pitched for the All-Stars. He was opposed by
Art Decatur. The Klein team prevailed 2-0, as Decatur shut down the All Stars
on six hits.[56]
The
rematch with the Giants was held at Island Park, Harrisburg on October 6. This
time the Giants pitcher was 25-game winner, Jesse Barnes. Bill Ritter pitched
for the Kleins. The game was a tight pitchers’ duel for the first eight innings
as the Giants built a slim 3-2 lead. The Giants finally got to Ritter for five
runs in the ninth to make the final score, 8-2. The Lancaster News-Journal
described the crowd as “mediocre.”[57]
On
the evening of October 7, the Klein brothers hosted a banquet for the players
at the Greenwalt House in Elizabethtown. Invited guests included friends of the
players who had supported the team throughout the historic season and members
of the press who had publicized the team’s exploits. An ‘excellent chicken
dinner” was followed by the cutting of a large cake in the shape of the
Elizabethtown baseball grounds.[58] The
occasion, while festive, was bittersweet. The players and management realized
that this group might never play together again and indeed some might never see
each other again. While Frederick Klein, in his remarks, promised another great
team for next year, no one could be certain what the future held.[59] Many
of the players left for home immediately after the banquet, while a few stayed
to work in the Klein Chocolate factory.[60]
The
final statistics for the 1919 Klein Chocolate team were indeed impressive. The Lebanon
Evening Report called it “the most successful [season] ever experienced by
a semi-professional organization.”[61] The
team’s final record was 69-14-2 with one forfeit on that rainy day in
Parkesburg when manager Brackenridge pulled the team off the field. Leading hitters
on the team were Bill Kay at .358, Russ Wrightstone at .338, and Frank Brannon
at .325. Wrightstone led the team in extra base hits. While several pitchers
contributed to the success of the team, none was more important or more
consistently excellent than Walter Harned.
Most
remarkably, the team played 11 games against major league teams going 7-4,
beating the A’s and Senators each twice and scoring victories over the Red Sox,
Dodgers, and Cardinals. Only the major league New York Giants and the Negro
independent team the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants was superior to the Klein
Chocolate team over multiple matchups.
The
team certainly achieved the goal that William Klein had aimed for when he
decided to go all in for baseball. As the Lancaster New Era put it, the team
“put Lancaster County on the baseball map…and incidentally, made the Klein
Chocolate known from coast to coast.”[62]
Any
hopes that the Klein team could repeat its success the following season were
quickly dashed as major league teams and other semi-professional teams came
bidding for Klein team talent. In January, Klein third baseman, Russ
Wrightstone, signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. The 27-year-old Wrightstone
would go on to a productive eight-year major league career with the Phillies
and New York Giants. The Klein team was his training ground. Wrightstone, who
compiled a lifetime .297 average in the major leagues, never spent a day in
minor league baseball.
While
no other Klein players went directly to the major leagues, several signed major
league contracts and a few did eventually make it to the bigs. Art Decatur
signed with Louisville in the American Association and by 1922 he was in the
Major Leagues with Brooklyn. Earl Potteiger became the manager of the Lebanon
team in the semi-pro Bethlehem Steel League, and he signed Norman Plitt to
pitch for him. Plitt played for several local teams before eventually surfacing
in the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1927. Injuries from an auto
accident that year cut short his major league career.[63]
Pottinger
eventually made his name as the head coach of the champion New York (Football) Giants
in the National Football League. While there he coached former Klein player, Hinkey
Haines, who was signed by the New York Yankees, played on the Yankees 1923
World Series championship team, and then switched to football, winning a title as
a key member of the backfield with the 1927 New York (Football) Giants.
Pitcher
“Big Bill” Ritter re-signed with his former team, the New York Giants, but
never returned to the big leagues, eventually pitching for the local Motive
Power team. Catcher Irvin “Bugs” Trout was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals
and was farmed out to Houston in the Texas League. Shortstop Frank Brannon went
to Tulsa to play in the Western League. Dick Kauffman signed with Atlanta in
the Southern Association. Forty-one-year-old outfielder, Bill Kay, caught on
with Greenville in the South Atlantic League. George Hunter signed to play with
a different local team, the Lancaster-Baltimore squad. Charlie Babbington
played several years in the International and New York Penn Leagues.
Only
two players from the 1919 Klein squad returned for the 1920 season. Bill
Cranston stayed with the team, before quitting in a dispute with management in
June. He later became the manager of the local Mount Union team. Walter Harned
pitched for a time with the Klein team in 1920 and then for several other
semi-pro teams in the area, before landing a few years later with the
Harrisburg Senators of the New York Pennsylvania League.
The
Klein brothers rehired manager Brackenridge for the 1920 season and announced
their intention to field a superior team once again, but it was not to be. Brackenridge
again combed the region for the best players he could find, and high salaries
were offered, but the magic was gone. After two months of uninspired play, which
saw the team losing more games than they won, William Klein pulled the plug and
disbanded the team in late June. While informing the players that the team was
being disbanded, Klein handed each player their final check and a box of Klein
chocolate, possibly, as the Lancaster News-Journal speculated “to remind
them of better times.”[64]
From
1921-1932 the Klein Chocolate Company fielded more modest teams, with more
modest ambitions, and much more modest cost. A highlight of this period of
Klein baseball history came in May 1932 when the Klein team hosted a game
against the House of David team featuring the great Grover Cleveland Alexander,
now 45-years-old and far past his prime, but still a major attraction for
baseball fans.[65]
William
Klein’s gamble paid off. His 1919 Klein Chocolate baseball team attracted
nationwide attention for the excellence of their play and for their ability to
defeat Major League competition. That attention put the Klein Chocolate brand
in the headlines of newspapers throughout the country. The exploits of the team
helped Klein Chocolate become a major competitor in the candy field. The
company flourished for many years until the Kleins finally sold the company and
the factory to M & M Mars in 1970. The factory employs 300 people to this
day.[66]
Sources
In
addition to the notes below, the author consulted baseballreference.com and the
following newspapers: The Harrisburg Telegraph, The Evening News
(Harrisburg, PA), The Lancaster News-Journal, The Lancaster New Era,
The Evening Report (Lebanon, PA), and The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader,
for information on individual players and games.
The
author would also like to thank Fran Strouse of Elizabethtown, PA for his
invaluable assistance in researching the story of the Klein Team and Dixie Kaley
of the Elizabethtown Historical Society for making the resources of the Society
available.
Notes
[1] “William
Klein,” Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Accessed on November 12, 2021.
https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/william-klein/.
[2] “William Klein.”
[3] At least one of the
finest white
independent teams. In these segregated times, before the formal organization of
the Negro Leagues, at least one of the Negro teams, the Bacharach Giants, was a
superior team to the Kleins, as their head-to-head competition will
demonstrate.
[4]
“William Klein.”
[5]
Gerald Heusken, “A
Year Probably Never Before Equaled: The Klein Chocolate Company Team and Its
Nine-Game Major League Run of 1919,” File of the Baseball Hall of Fame,
Cooperstown, NY.
[6] “William Klein.”
[7] “William Klein.,”
[8]“William Klein.”
[9]
“William Klein.”
[10] “E-Town to Have Fast Team
in Chocolate Nine,” The (Lancaster) News-Journal,
April 29, 1919: 9.
[11] “Klein Chocolate Erects
Grandstand,” The (Lancaster) News-Journal, May 12, 1919:
8.
[12] “Base Ball Notes,” Lancaster
New Era, May 3, 1919: 3.
[13] Killinger stayed with the
Klein team for only a few months before returning to Penn State where he
starred in football, basketball, and baseball. He was named an All-American in
football and later played professionally in the National Football League with
the Canton Bulldogs. He also played for 10 seasons in minor league baseball. He
later became a noted football and baseball coach at West Chester State Teachers
College (now West Chester University).
[14] “West End Much Stronger;
Will Battle St. Mary’s,” Harrisburg Telegraph, June 7, 1918: 17.
[15] “E-Town’s New Team Starts
with Win,” Lancaster New Era, May 26, 1919: 6.
[16]
Big Day at
Elizabethtown When Klein Company Opens Athletic Field,” Harrisburg Telegraph,
May 31, 1919: 13.
[18] “Wrightstone and Hunter
Pound Out Victory for Klein Chocolate Team,” Harrisburg Telegraph, June
2, 1919: 12.
[19] “Bill Ritter, Once of the
Giants, Wins for Klein Chocolate, Harrisburg Telegraph, June 6, 1919:
25.
[20]
“Klein Chocolate
Team Shows Quaker Fans It Is No Rube, Three Games Won in Tour,” Harrisburg
Telegraph, June 23, 1919: 10.
[21] “Klein Chocolate Team
Shows Quaker Fans It Is No Rube, Three Games Won in Tour.”
[22] “Klein Chocolate on
Winning Trip,” Lancaster New Era, June 23, 1919: 6.
[23] “Klein Team Lose in 16
Innings,” The
(Harrisburg) Evening News, June 26, 1919: 11.
[24] “Connie Mack is Coming to
Harrisburg from the West,” Harrisburg Telegraph, July 18, 1919: 28.
[25] “Klein Chocolate Downs
Athletics,” Lancaster New Era,” July 24, 1919: 6.
[26] “Athletics Lose Contest
to Klein Chocolates, 4-2,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 24, 1919: 13.
“Athletics the “Candy Kids,” New York Tribune, July 24, 1919: 13.
[27] The New York Tribune
reported that the Athletics “had lost their self-respect entirely.” While the
headline in the Wilmington (DE) Morning News crowed “Even Klein
Chocolate Are Better Than Athletics.”
[28] “Klein Hands Wallop to
Parkesburg Iron Team,” Harrisburg Telegraph, August 1, 1919: 21.
[29] “Dry Docks Lost to Klein
Chocolate,” Lancaster New Era, August 8, 1919: 6.
[30] “Klein Buds Win 34th
Victory of the 1919 Season,” The (Lebanon, PA) Evening Report, August
11, 1919: 5.
[31] “Big Stars with St. Louis
Cardinals Meet Klein Team H. A. C. Field Tuesday,” Harrisburg Telegraph,
August 9, 1919: 13.
[32] “Klein Chocolate Trims
Cardinals,” Lancaster New Era, August 13, 1919: 6.
[33] “Klein Chocolate Trims
Cardinals,”
[34] Bacharach Giants Defeat
Klein Co.” Lancaster New Era, August 19, 1919: 6.
[35] “Kleins Lose Two,” The
(Harrisburg) Evening News, September 1, 1919: 9.
[36] “Great Crowd Sees
Exhibition Game Between Cincinnati and Klein Boys,” Harrisburg Telegraph,
August 30, 1919: 17.
[37] “Great Crowd Sees
Exhibition Game Between Cincinnati and Klein Boys,”
[38] “Klein Chocolate Loses
Hard Game,” The (Lancaster) News-Journal, September 2, 1919: 8.
[39] “Sports Scraps,” The
(Lancaster) News-Journal, September 9, 1919; 8.
[40] Gerald Heusken,
[41] “Klein Wallops Athletics,
8-2.” The (Lancaster) News-Journal,
September 9, 1919: 8
[42] “Klein Chocolate Leaves
Diamond,” The (Lancaster) News-Journal, September 11, 1919: 9.
[43] Klein Club Downs
Dodgers,” The (Lancaster) New Era, September 23, 1919: 6.
[44] Gerald Heusken.
[45]
Gerald Heusken.
[46] “Local Players May Go
Upline,” The (Harrisburg) Evening News, September 27, 1919: 11.
[47] “Boston Blanked by Klein
Chocolate, The (Lancaster) New Era, September 26, 1919: 6.
[48] Gerald Heusken Decatur
pitched for Nashville in the Southern Association in 1919 and joined the Klein
team after Nashville’s season concluded. He would later pitch in the major
leagues, for the Dodgers and Phillies. He was 10-9 as a swing man for the
Dodgers in 1924. He was a teammate of Russ Wrightstone on the Phillies from
1925-27.
[49] “Boston Red Sox Bat Out
Close Win Over Red Sox,” The (Lancaster) New Era, September 27,
1919: 6.
[50] Gerald Heusken.
[51] Gerald Heusken.
[52] Gerald Heusken
[53] “Washington
Hands Fans Poor Quality of Baseball.” Harrisburg Telegraph, September
30, 1919: 15.
[54] “Washington Hands Fans
Poor Quality of Baseball.”
[55] “Giants Win from Klein
Chocolate, The (Lancaster) News-Journal, October 6, 1919: 8.
[56] “Kleins Beat American All
Stars,” The (Wilkes Barre) Evening News October 6, 1919: 12.
[57] “Giants Trounce Klein
Tossers,” The (Lancaster) News-Journal, October 7, 1919: 8.
[58] “Klein Chocolate Team
Closes Successful Season,” Lancaster New Era, October 8, 1919: 6.
[59]
“Klein Chocolate
Team Closes Successful Season.”
[60]
“Klein Chocolate
Team Closes Successful Season.”
[61]
Gerald Heusken.
[62]
“Klein Chocolate
Team Closes Successful Season.”
[63] “Norman Plitt Injured in
Auto Accident,” Harrisburg Telegraph, December 16, 1927: 21.
[64] “Klein Players Are Given
the Gate,” Lancaster News-Journal, June 23, 1920: 8.
[65] “Famous House of David
Baseball Team to Again Play Klein Team in Night Game Here on June 2,”
Elizabethtown Chronicle (Elizabethtown, PA), May 20, 1932: 1.
[66] Chad Umble, “5 Key
Moments in Elizabethtown History,” Lancaster Online, Accessed on
November 12, 2021. https://lancasteronline.com/features/5-key-moments-in-elizabethtowns-history/article_87962f06-8444-11e7-8b9d-1fa4e7d48265.html#:~:text=Klein%20Chocolate%20becoming%20a%20major%20player%20in%20the,Milky%20Way.%20It%20has%20more%20than%20300%20employees.
No comments:
Post a Comment