Baseball before 1920.

I have a picture of the Parks team my dad, Frank Crabtree, and uncle, Frank Wiley were on before 1920. I think if my daddy was playing AFTER 1920, I would remember it.

I do remember that daddy played on the Fourth of July one year with a bunch of the neighbors. He didn't go to the practices because he would get sore muscles that would affect his skill in the real game. I think his farming took all of his time. I remember only one of those games. We played against the Cook team who had enough boys in the family to make up a team. We all went to the game. Lloyd, my brother, was little. The woman who was taking care of Hopey (Ansel Miller's girl) was sitting with mamma in our car. Hopey was crawling over the seat back or something and she was trying to talk her into sitting still. I guess Curtis (Miller) was off with the other boys somewhere. (Hopey is now Hope Bressler)

Anyhow, that is a memory of mine. I don't even know who won the game or which side Ansel Miller was on. He was brother-in-law of the Cooks so might have been counted with them. The field, they played in that day, was on the land just across the road north of his place.

Anyhow I just thought that I could add that little bit of info about baseball around 1920.

Ansel Miller was the kind of person you would never forget. He had an infectious laugh and would slap his leg ‘til I thought he would probably wear a hole in his overalls. His laugh would make anyone around him laugh.

-- Submitted by Alice (Crabtree)Gregory