Lunatics, Rioters, and Goldbugs: Southern Illinois’ forgotten baseball oddballs
Much of my life is serendipity, findings that bring pleasure by chance.
Many of these things come from the internet, such as a company which designs tee shirts using defunct minor league baseball teams. Some of the names were imaginative – the Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Hungarian Rioters, the Jefferson City (Missouri) Convicts, the Fargo (North Dakota) Divorcees.
There were dozens of these teams. Most were founded around 1900 and most didn’t last long. They existed in small towns all over the country. Many were Class D, the lowest professional classification at the time.
Several of the odd names caused backlashes, such as the Hannibal (Missouri) Cannibals and the Jacksonville (Illinois) Lunatics. Jacksonville also played as the Jacks, the Reds, the Jacks again, the Lunatics again, the Braves and the Jacks a third time before dying after the 1910 season.
Jacksonville wasn’t the only team using the Lunatics name. There were the Nevada (Missouri) Lunatics as well. Nevada lasted a couple of years before moving to Webb City (Missouri) as the Goldbugs.
Amazingly, people have compiled statistics on many of these teams, including club rosters and hometowns of players. That is where the town of Coulterville caught my attention. There were two players from Coulterville playing for the Nevada Lunatics.
Bob Kahl and his younger brother, Nick Kahl, were Lunatics, so to speak. Both had long careers, bouncing around the minor leagues. But, in 1905, Nick was sold by the Colorado Springs Millionaires to the Cleveland Napoleons, or Naps, later to become the Indians and now the Guardians, in the American League.
Nick played in 40 games in the major league with 135 at bats and 29 hits mostly as a second baseman for a batting average of .215. Not surprisingly, the next year he was back in the minor leagues with the Kansas City Blues and spent several years with various other minor league teams before hanging up his spikes in 1915 with the Quincy (Ill.) Gems.
He also managed several teams, starting with the Leavenwoth (Kansas) Old Soldiers. His lifetime minor league batting average was .261 Brother Bob also played minor league ball but had a shot with the St. Louis Terriers in the ill-fated Federal League, an attempt at a third major baseball league. In 1913, he played 12 games with 37 at bats and 9 hits for a .243 batting average. His minor league average was .270
He returned to Coulterville and resumed his mining career. He was acting superintendent of a mine when he died suddenly in 1918.
Nick died in Coulterville in1959.
Meanwhile, while I was wound up in this research I found another Coulterville minor leaguer, Walter East, a contemporary of the Kahls. He also played college football and got a law degree.
In 1907, he was player-manager of the Akron Rubbernecks. He signed Nick Kahl, but Kahl apparently hurt his arm. East ended his career in1912 with the Atlanta Crackers. Interestingly, all three played second base.
East practiced law and dabbled in politics after moving to Columbus, Ohio.
