Music: Announcer: The presentation of Toledo's stories is made possible in part by KeyBank, celebrating the strength of our region's history and supporting the promise of its future.

KeyBank achieved anything and by the generous financial support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse: Hello, I'm Timothy Messer-Kruse from the University of Toledo.

In this episode of Toledo Storie We Present.

The Toledo Mud Hens Story, which originally aired in April of 2002 on WGTE It was mid-September of 1928 and the Mud Hens had fallen far from their minor league World Series championship the previous year.

14 games out of first with just a few weeks left to go.

There was little hope of a repeat pennant.

But Casey's Stangles team still commanded tremendous respect throughout the baseball world.

The New York Yankees reigning world champions had just completed a grueling four game series with their closest challenger, Philadelphia, only one and a half games ahead with a single series against the St Louis Browns left to go in the season.

The Yankees boarded a train bound not for Saint Louis, but for Toledo in the middle of the closest pennant run in several seasons.

The Yanks accepted the challenge to play the Mud Hens in Swain Field.

Of course, Babe Ruth was the star attraction, and the Babe didn't disappoint spending time before the game autographing 50 baseballs, which he tossed out into the packed, swaying field grandstands on the mound for the Yankees was Rosie Ryan, a young southpaw who had been called up from the Mud Hens to give New York a boost in his final stretch.

Toledo is off to a fast start in the game, piling up a three to one lead at the end of the third inning.

The fourth brought Lou Gehrig to the plate and he drove the first pitch just over the right field wall.

Next up was the babe, the man who had piled up 49 homeruns this season and had set the all time mark at 60 the year before.

He was determined not to let this game get away.

The first pitch was a hard hit line drive that veered foul.

The second was a towering shot that sliced foul again on the third pitch.

Ruth smashed the ball hard out to right far enough to clear Detroit Avenue and land on some lucky neighbor's front lawn Sparked by this display, the Yankees went on to win eight to six.

But the Mud Hens had proven their mettle throughout their long career.

The Mud Hens seemed to have a knack for making history.

At the end of the program, I'll show you how you can learn more about the history of the Mud Hens Ball Club.

And we'll share some rare images from the WGTE Film and video archives.

And now Toledo Stories presents the Toledo Mud Hens story.

Music: Narrator 1: Baseball, the American pastime.

It's been an integral part of life in Toledo for over 100 years, even though championships have been few and far between.

We've cheered the home team through season after season one Pennant would feed and tatter in the time it took to win the next.

But during those long intervening summers, it was the game that really mattered, not the winning or losing We gave baseball Moses FleetWood Walker, the first black player in the major leagues some 60 years before Jackie Robinson Toledo's Roger Bresnahan invented the pads to protect today's catchers during his Hall of Fame career with the New York Giants.

And Casey Stengel brought a championship to town before moving on to the major leagues to do the same in New York.

But above all else, Toledo gave baseball the Mud Hens They brought us to our feet and broken our hearts and more than any other team.

The Toledo Mud Hens embody the fundamental spirit of minor league baseball frustration tempered by hope.

Perseverance in pursuit of your dreams.

And in most cases, wait'll next year.

Music: Narrator 2: The boys looked very knobby in their new uniforms, which they donned for the first time yesterday in the second inning of the Toledo's Moffett sent Tremblay, a darling fly to right field, which the latter muffed.

Narrator 1: In the fourth.

It all began with blue stockings, white stockings black pirates and swamp angels between 1883 and 1965.

13 teams formed flourished and folded.

Most belong to upstart leagues or the minors, and moved in and out of Toledo at the whims of their owners.

But for one year, Toledo was a big league town with a difference.

John R. Husman: The 1883 team was called the Blue Stockings, and they played at League Park, which was located near downtown on the north side of Monroe Street between 13th and 15th Toledo team.

went to some expense to bring good players here for that first season, and to put up a park and we're very successful in Toledo on on a pan of the very first try and did so well at the gate that it launcehd Toledo into the American Association for the 1884 season which at that time was a major league there were several big name players on the 1883 team.

One was a Moses Fleetwood Walker who played college ball at Oberlin College and he played some at the University of Michigan before coming to Toledo to play professionally.

He was an excellent catcher, a fair hitter a good all around ballplayer for the team, one of the team's leaders.

He was one of a number of black players that played minor league baseball in the early 1880s in 1884 when Toledo moved in the American Association, it was he that was the first black player to play in the major leagues.

Narrator 1: Moses Walker won the respect of Toledo fans and he played here without incident.

But in an exhibition game against the Chicago White Stockings, he found himself judged by the color of his skin.

Rather than the color of his uniform.

John R. Husman: Who care?

Benson was was an outstanding player, one of the best of the 19th century, and he was the manager of the Chicago team.

There was an incident where they were coming to Toledo to play and he refused to let it known that he would not put his team on the field of the black player Toledo manager Charlie Morton called his bluff and said, You can refuse to play, but you won't get your share of the game either.

Narrator 1: Faced with losing the gate receipts, Hansen relented.

But the incident sparked his crusade to ban blacks from all of baseball He lobbied managers to fire their black players, and he succeeded.

By the turn of the century, though, there was no formal color ban.

Every black player in the minor and major leagues was out of baseball.

Moses Walker died of pneumonia in Cleveland in 1924.

A master of the all-American game denied the American Dream Businessman Charles Strobel was one of the founding fathers of Toledo baseball.

He purchased the club in 1896, managed two pennants two years in a row and secured the team a position in the American Association that would last 50 years.

He also helped create the nickname that would last even longer.

His team was initially called the Swamp Angels.

But when blue laws forced them outside the city limits for Sunday games, players and fans found themselves outnumbered by the birds on the marshy fields of Bay View Park.

Soon, sportswriters were calling the team the Mud Hens, and the name stuck.

The rest is history.

John R. Husman: Earl Strobel.

I like to refer to as the father of Toledo baseball.

A little known that Strobel did an awful lot to establish the game here in legitimized baseball as a business, in Toledo Narrator 1: Early baseball games attracted huge crowds.

But fans had to travel all over the city from one makeshift diamond to another until Charles Struble built Armory Park.

John R. Husman: Armory Park was first downtown ballpark and was built in 1887 adjacent to Toledo's National Guard Armory, which was an imposing fort like structure at the corner of Orange.

And that was a solid every day ballpark.

The armory itself provided an off field wall for the park.

The park was very small, had a wooden grandstand, but it held about 4000 people in the heart of downtown Toledo and was full, quite often full to the point that after the 19 07 and eight seasons, it was clear that we needed a bigger part.

Narrator 1: On July 3rd, 19 09, Noah Swain settled into a box seat for the inaugural ball game and his brand new stadium Swain was a lawyer, politician and baseball fan who provided the lot at Monroe in Detroit for the construction of the ballpark.

The team named it in his honor.

Swain Field held 11,800 fans who came on foot or by Streetcar to sit in the shadow of the Edison plant smokestack and watch their team play in this minor league temple.

Frank Gilhooley: My dad and I used to walk to Swain Field every Sunday afternoon for doubleheaders.

We lived over on the 3300 block of Parkwood, which was quite a ways, but we walked along with hundreds and hundreds of other people.

They came from all directions, either that or on the streetcar.

The old long belt stopped right in front of the ballpark.

It was just a great ballpark.

I loved it.

The playing surface was as good as you'd find anywhere in baseball.

And it was a good hitter's park.

Too big.

There were no cheap home runs went out of there.

John R.Husman: Swain Field was a big part.

It was concrete and steel.

Everything was painted green.

The neighborhood was residential.

For the most part, but close into the park right at the corner of Monroe in Detroit and Bancroft in that area where a number of businesses.

And then when there were games there, all those businesses were busy in the streets were full of people.

Helyn Rigney-Carr: Well, I was a little girl and I spent a lot of time at Swain Field.

I remember the signs, the billboards out across left field, center field and right field.

I remember the turnstiles ticket, both the players that played there.

It was a fun time in Toledo.

Swain Field was a great place.

Frank Gilhooley: There was a red man tobacco company in the back of the left field fence.

And if the wind was blowing right, you got a good whiff of the tobacco.

Frank Gilhooley: I remember Swain Field being located adjacent to the play to Edisons steam plant in a huge stack, rose up from the tree at this white heat and power that was visible from every seat in the park.

And the huge coal pile stood next to it.

You could see a ball be hit over that fence.

Disappear for a moment as he waits by the copilot.

Ned Garver: Looking out in the center field and then used to have a big smokestack out there.

It was high.

And, of course, they all just kidded rookies pretty good, you know, and somebody I remember somebody telling me that some guy by the name Loudermilk hit a ball one time in the smokestack.

I'm sure he didn't.

I'm sure he didn't.

He could hardly hit that high swing feel.

Bob Wren: Has a lot of memories for me.

It was a great place to play.

The fans were very learned, knew their baseball, and when you were good, they appreciated.

Whenever you were bad, they let you know it.

Sure, they'd get on you when you had a bad day, you'd call me Booed and Bobby, that didn't bother me.

They were right when you booted a couple of.

They had a right to let you know Swaim field was sort of the sports focal point of the town.

You know, it was down on Detroit.

Monroe very accessible.

People love to come to the ballpark it kind of reminded me the structure of it, the architecture of of some of Norman Rockwell's old drawings of the old Minor-league Parks.

There was a park.

That had some character, a park that was nice to go to, and a park that was nice to play in.

Narrator 1: Swain Field also played host to rodeos and football games, but it was built for baseball.

And over the years, several teams called the Old Park Home as Little League, high school, college and semi-pro games were played there.

And when the Mud Hens were out of town, Swain Field featured Negro League Baseball, thanks in large part to the efforts of local sports promoter Hank Rigney.

Helyn Rigney-Carr: My dad brought Negro League Baseball to Toledo and throughout the country.

He traveled throughout the country promoting Negro baseball, and there were teams like Kansas City Monarchs and Birmingham, Blackburn Barons.

And they played they barnstormed throughout the country during those days.

They did everything they could to attract people.

Bill Copeland: Basically, they'd come in by bus and they would stay and live in various people's homes, you know, overnight.

And many, many times the teams, they would come in and there'd be a man, one or two men short.

We had to pick somebody up from Toledo.

Sam Jethroe: Well, I had played in Toledo before in the Negro League, and we played a swing for you that was considered as our home ground.

We played in Birmingham, Blackburn played Chicago, American Giants played New York Yankees at home, stick with whichever team we were playing, we would travel to Youngstown, Dayton with Springfield.

You know, that was Toledo's like our home ground.

Narrator 1: Toledo was also home to three of its own Negro League teams.

The Toledo Tigers the Rays and the Crawfords, formerly the 1935 Negro National League champion Pittsburgh Crawfords franchise that Hank Rigney moved to town in 1939.

Each team played one season at Swain Field, attracting crowds of black baseball.

Fans were posters, handbills and word of mouth.

Helyn Rigney-Carr: They'd go all over.

They would put their placards in a storefront window and give the people two passes to the ballgame, this type of thing.

This is how they created the interest.

Bill Copeland: I get that time and a car and we just ride around doing the neighborhood primarily and just talk up these events.

Helyn Rigney-Carr: I had recently picked up an article that was written when my father passed away, and it said that some of the young children in Toledo saw their first baseball game when Hank Rigney brought a bus through the black neighborhood and picked the kids up and took them to the ballgame.

Bill Copeland: And he also brought Jesse Owens in here now to Swing Field.

That's when he was at the height of his popularity.

And just on one race, the black baseball players he would run backwards and them.

Players would run forward in their light.

And Jesse was always kind of giving the united things that brought people out to the games in a hot game when things begin to go wrong.

He is a composite of ginger and bad language and his clumsy shin guards and wind had his head in a wire cage through which comes in intervals, a stream of reproof and comment as he fusses around the blade.

He suggests a grotesque overgrown hand trying to get the family in out of the rain.

Bresnahan does not have a delightful personality.

The New York Evening Journal and.

Narrator 1: Roger Bresnahan was one of baseball's first superstars.

He played for John McGraw's New York Giant Teams in the early part of the 20th century, and along with Christy Mathewson, formed what might have been the greatest battery in the history of the game.

He was the first catcher to use protective equipment, revolutionizing his position Bresnahan went on to be a manager and became the only Toledo native ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.

He came home to Toledo in 1916 and purchased the Mud Hens, becoming owner, manager and part time player.

Bresnahan wanted to win and he was determined to change the fortune of his team.

He began by changing the name.

John R. Husman: His initial thought was the name.

The team, the Tweedle Bresnahan prisoner Bryson, a HMS.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

They were the Ironmen for two or three seasons and the public clamor to have the Marine name returned and it was free as last year's here.

Narrator 1: Despite his best efforts, Brosnahan could not turn the mud hens into a winner.

That would have to wait until 1926 and the arrival of a brash young manager named Charles Dillon Stengel, better known as Casey.

John R. Husman: Casey Stengel was the president and manager and player at Worcester, Mass.

And had an opportunity to come to Toledo to start the 1926 season.

He fired himself as manager and let himself go as a player and resigned as president so he could come over here with all three of those things.

So at least and sell from his obligations in Worcester and became the trader, was manager and played.

So I'm here to.

Seymour Rothman: I used to sell at the ballpark when I was in high school.

And so, you know, we were aware he was a manager.

He'd come out.

He looked like an old man there then I think he was about 35 or something like that.

Narrator 1: Stengel quickly put together a competitive team that captured the attention of local fans and brought them back to the ballpark by stocking the hands roster with former Major League veterans and proven performers.

John R. Husman: Outstanding hitters like beach volleyball and by Veach or Major League pitchers.

They'd been through the wars of Major League Ball.

Seymour Rothman: They were all men on their team.

We all played in the majors and all were on their way down.

And I think mostly as a favorite of Casey Stengel and other old timers, they'd come down to the scene of the play, and it was an amazing team.

John R. Husman: The 1927 team was by far the best played overhead on the field.

They were veteran players sprinkled with a few youngsters that knew how to play the game.

They had good leadership.

They said they set out to win the pennant and they did it.

Narrator 1: 11 players on singles.

Monahan's had World Series experience and it showed they won the 1927 American Association pennant and the Junior World Series.

It was the first championship for Toledo since 1897, but it would be the last for a very long time.

John R. very good success in 26, phenomenal success, and 27 didn't keep up their payroll in the final years.

And had some very lean years here when Toledo just could not afford as many other teams could mean a depressing year to field teams.

And he was very tough and losing to team.

Narrator 1: By 1929 and hands were in the cellar again after one pitiful performance.

Stengel found his team in the clubhouse checking stock prices in the newspaper.

Casey sarcastically told his players to buy Pennsylvania railroad stock because if you don't start playing better, there'll be so many of you riding trains out of here that the stock is bound to go up the margins went into receivership in the early thirties, and Stengel was given his release to relieve the club of his salary.

He went on to win ten pennants and seven World Series championships as manager of the Yankees and Mets.

But Casey never forgot Toledo when he died.

In 1975, the Toledo Elks Lodge reported that he had been a dues paying member since 1927 Over the years, dozens of sportswriters have covered the exploits of the mud hens.

But each column or box score owes a special thank you to one of the greatest modern fans of them all.

Ralph Lynn Weber.

Seymour Rothman: Ralph Eagan Weber.

Produced a wonderful book on the margins every year.

Every year he has a full team, the team batting average of fielding averages and everything else.

A matter of fact, if it weren't for that, there would be no old information.

There was no place else.

The Blade Sports Department, that was our Bible sports where the one hand for concern.

That's where mostly all the information came from.

Narrator 1: Unfortunately, Ralph Lynn Weber, his records chronicled far more losing seasons than championships, and the refrain of Wait'll Next Year became an all too common part of the vernacular.

John R. Husman: Overall quality of play by the mud has its twin feel, is poor, but they had some number of good years in the forties.

But for the most part, Toledo languished in the second division.

It's hard to imagine we couldn't have a good streak in there, but it just seems that it isn't Manfred Toledo.

Seymour Rothman: It's you know, it's impossible.

You just don't understand how it happened.

But there it is.

Year after year.

They change players, they change owners, they change farm clubs, and they still have a lot to lose.

John R. Husman: Well, anybody can have a bad century.

They said that about the Cubs.

Narrator 1: In the thirties and forties, baseball was at its peak of popularity.

Parks and sand lots were filled with young boys who dreamed of playing professional baseball.

And they flocked to Swain Field, whether the hands were winning or not.

And few of the luckier ones got paid to go to the ballpark.

Frank Gilhooley: Well, I used to go with my dad all the time as a just a baseball fan in the early thirties.

I became Batboy in 1936 when it was a Tiger Farm Club, and then I became Clubhouse Boy and worked for Andy Perna, who was the trainer.

The mud ends for many, many years through the twenties in the thirties, and forties.

He worked for Casey Stengel when Casey was the manager.

Narrator 1: But in 1952, Toledo's hands were in trouble.

The team was struggling financially and management accepted an offer to move the team in mid-season.

The franchise left for Charleston and Swain Field said empty through most of that summer.

Although the modern name stayed here, it would be more than ten years before it resurfaced.

And its place general manager Reg Smith transplanted a new team with a different name in search of its own voice.

Frank Gilhooley: Baseball came back in 1953 when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee.

You saw the Milwaukee Brewers of that time.

Members of the American Association had to move and there was no place to go.

So Fred Smith brought them in here so I called them and told them how happy I was to have baseball back in Toledo.

And he said, I need an announcer.

I said, I'll try and think of somebody right quick for you.

He's, you know, I'm thinking about you.

And I said, I never talked into a microphone in my life.

I said, You don't want me.

Yeah.

I don't have any time to monkey around.

I need somebody in six days.

He said, So it's going to be you.

And that started my broadcasting career.

It came about a week before the season was to open, and they were parking jeeps and all kinds of vehicles in the old ballpark.

There were weeds and all kinds of things about eight feet high.

So they had a gigantic job to do in a big hurry.

And they did it.

They did it well and they were ready to go.

They had a contest name the team, and somebody came up with glass socks and the committee said that would be it.

And Red Smith broke the glass right quick, is it?

No, it isn't going to be glass socks.

He said it will be socks if that's what you want, but not glass socks.

Sam Jethro: Everybody consider them in good hands.

All the day.

Whether it was a glass up to what.

Narrator 1: The socks turned out to be a solid team.

And one of its anchors was a former Negro League star who had very nearly become the man to break baseball's color barrier.

Sam Jethro: In 1945, Jackie Robinson, Marvin Regan and myself, we went to Boston for a tryout they said the coaches and teams down to give us a tryout.

Just a very, very, very training day.

And we went through all the fundamentals of hitting, running and doing and they all said we had the opportunity you know we all the ability to play Major League Baseball but it just wasn't the right time Branch Rickey interviewed me along with Jackie Robinson.

Branch Rickey was a fellow.

He didn't smoke.

He didn't drink.

He didn't do this year.

And remember, one thing that I remember that he asked me and he asked me, did I live clean?

And I tell him I live, I clean.

And then what is.

John R. Husman: Sam's after I've played for the Cleveland Buckeyes for seven or eight years in the forties, he played for Boston in the National League, beginning in 1950, played for two years, led the National League in steals.

He was 32 years old as the National League Rookie of the Year in 1950 when he came to Toledo in 1953 with the Boston organization, his better years were behind him.

He was still available player speed and power.

And.

A big flashy smile, a lot of confidence.

I just loved to watch him play.

Frank Gilhooley: Sam was an outstanding baseball player, a great outfielder.

He was a good base runner and he was a George Selkirk used him a lot as a leadoff man.

He was always on base.

He was a big, big cog in that pennant winner in 53.

Narrator 1: Frank your hall.

His career was just beginning in 1953.

Sam Jethro was on his way down.

Their paths crossed for only a few summer months, but they'll never forget that championship season.

Frank Gilhooley: Tommy Holmes started as the manager and we quickly went to last place and read.

Smith fired him about 13 or 14 days into the season, and George Selkirk took over.

The old Yankee outfielder, the man who replaced Babe Ruth, came in as our manager.

And it was a really a Cinderella story.

They won 25 to 30 games in the ninth inning, came from behind to win them.

They, they were really exciting.

Sam Jethro: We had a pretty good team.

We, when we went our division and went all the way in the playoffs and they came to Gilead and beat us three straight games in the playoffs.

And we went back to Kansas City and we beat them three straight and now we tied in the last game, a pick of play backfired on us and they beat us and they went to Montreal instead is going to Montreal for the new World Series.

Narrator 1: Baseball sure was different.

In 1953 today a player like Jethro would earn millions.

But back then the front office wasn't quite so generous.

Sam Jethro: I know we win the pennant race live give us $0.69 for league into the win in that period red was tight.

Narrator 1: The 53 pennant was the last that would ever fly over Swain Field.

The venerable old stadium was showing its age its upper grandstand was empty condemned as unsafe.

The concrete under the stands crumbled until it had to be reinforced with steel but still the fans came cheering.

The Sox threw the 54 and 55 seasons and then suddenly it was over.

Frank Gilhooley: The day of the ended the day after we all got a call to come down to the Hillcrest Hotel that the Braves hierarchy was in.

They had a one to see us, so we went down for lunch and the farthest thing from my mind was that they were going to move.

I didn't think it was that bad off, but unfortunately they sent a the nicest man in baseball, John Quinn, and he was the general manager of the Braves.

They sent him down to do the dirty work, so to speak.

The the hatchet men stayed up in Milwaukee and passed out a formal statement and everybody read it and in shock that they were going in the ballpark was coming down.

Narrator 1: And just like that, grass gave way to black top bleachers, two aisles of bleach.

They tore down Swain Field to put up a shopping center.

Frank Gilhooley: It was down I would guess within a month or six weeks after the the end of the season, they had the wrecking ball over there knocking it apart.

It hurt to see it go down.

I didn't want to see it come down.

I didn't want to forget the memories.

That was a sad, sad day.

Narrator 1: Without a team or a stadium.

There was little hope for the return of minor league baseball to Toledo.

That changed in 1963 when Ned Skelton, president of the Lucas County Commissioners, championed a plan to build a recreation center at the fairgrounds in Miami.

The new rec center project included a running track, softball, diamonds and a swimming pool complex and proposed converting the aging Fort Miami racetrack into a sports stadium for baseball and football.

Two years later, the team arrived.

A skeleton and a group of local investors purchased the triple-A franchise from Richmond, Virginia, and brought baseball back to Toledo.

John R. Husman: Baseball was ret to Toledo for the 1965 season through the efforts of a number of people, most notably Mezcal the who will labor to get a franchise to come back here and secure the working relationship of the New York Yankees to bring the Yankee Club here for the 1965 season.

Charles Bracken: Ned Skelton was probably the principal driving force and the Monsignor Schmidt and Henry Morris they were all involved Mr. Morris was a banker had a lot of business connections in the city Monsignor Smith ran the youth programs at the Catholic Club and I think his interest was the youth of the city and if you came to the meetings early on, his big interest was that the hotdog prices would be low enough so that the kids could afford it.

Narrator 1: Fort Miami Downs was rebuilt, betting windows became ticket booths, the home stretch, the third base line.

But the result was a far cry from the glory days of Swain Field.

Charles Bracken: Swain Field was ballpark.

It was billed as a ballpark and looked like a ballpark with the Lucas County Rec Center.

Stadium was not built at the ballpark.

It was a racetrack.

This was always the fairgrounds.

Back in the early days.

It was really a makeshift stadium with just bare bleachers on the first base side and the old third base grandstand.

Jim Weber: Here was the the main grandstand for the racetrack.

The round horse was here in cars.

Then one, Ned Skelton got the baseball team back.

They knew they could come out here and at least, you know, make this a playable facility.

So it's kind of a patchwork stadium.

Narrator 1: In 1965, the new Mud Hens played their first home game on April 4th, beating Toronto six to five.

The return of the game revived a Toledo tradition and introduced a new generation to Mud Hens.

Baseball two years later, Toledo became a Detroit Tiger Farm Club, and manager Jack Tighe gave local fans something to really cheer about.

The Hens finished third in 1967 but pulled it together in the playoffs to win the Governor's Cup as international league champions.

And in 1968 they finished the regular season in first place, winning the only pennant to ever grace the Lucas County Rec Center.

Unfortunately the margins flirtation with first place was brief.

Although some talented players and managers pass through town, the home team finished most seasons out of the running the hands often struggled at the gate as well.

Charles Bracken: The attendance, I think averaged something less than 100,000 a year or two.

First ten years of operation.

When Gene Cook came on the scene in 1978, the attendance doubled.

Joe Napoli: When he first got involved with the team.

The team was not doing very well financially and he used his resources to really stabilize the team.

And make sure that the team remained profitable and, and basically remained in town because it was obviously there would be a danger of losing the franchise if you can't make ends meet.

Narrator 1: Gene Cook was an accomplished athlete at the University of Toledo.

He later went into politics and served 30 years on Toledo City Council, but he may be best remembered as GM of the Toledo margins.

Charles Bracken: Gene was known in the community and a lot of friends in the community.

And however he did it, to get people to understand.

Joe Napoli: What he was real proud of was the fact that he got a lot of families involved in children and started many programs with the schools.

And he was very he did a wonderful job in that in that regard.

Narrator 1: Soon, the team began attracting attention off the field when Toledo native Jamie Farr was cast as eccentric Monahan fan Corporal Max Klinger and the television series MASH.

Jamie Farr: The Marines came about.

Through two of the writers that were on the show that had grown up in cities where the Mud Hens had played, and they always loved the name the Toledo Mud Homes.

It was only natural that Klinger would be a big fan of Toledo, but Hans.

Joe Napoli: Gene could had noticed that Jamie Farr would often reference the Mud Hens on MASH.

So he put together a care package, sent it to the set address The letter basically said, Get out of those women's clothes and into some mud hens, jerseys, t shirts and caps and so on and so forth.

I don't think anyone ever imagined that they would actually write it into the script.

Nowadays we find out that MASH is running in places like Germany or Japan or Australia.

Because we begin to get mail orders from those countries when MASH goes into reruns in those countries.

Jamie Farr: It seemed to work.

It worked well so they repeated it and it did.

I mean, it was it was a lot of fun.

And everybody all over the world knows about the money.

They know about tacos.

They know this is clingers hometown Toledo.

Tom Runnels: But in baseball or the mud in Toledo, Mud Hens is probably one of the first first names you think of when you think of minor league baseball.

If you if you took a poll of 100 people and said, name me five minor league baseball teams, they're going to probably name four in their area in the Toledo Mud Hens, I mean, that's just the way I think people think of Toledo as as a minor league franchise.

Seymour Rothman: The name is the most wonderful thing in the world, and the team is probably the worst thing in the world.

The record probably the worst thing in the world.

But the thing is it's in dollars in the sense it's a wonderful name.

It's so unusual.

Jim Weber: Now, a lot of teams are operating with unusual names, but we were probably the first.

Joe Napoli: The team consistently ranks in the top ten in merchandise sales, the unique nickname.

So we strange however you might want to find it resonates well with people across the country.

Tom Runnels: You'd walk into a stadium and you'd see the mud in hats or the clay on one hand shirts all over the place.

And as opposing manager, it was always nice to see that, you know, thinking, Hey, these people are our fans.

But yet they really weren't Toledo Mud Hand fans.

They were Toledo Mud Hands because they wanted to be acquainted with the name itself.

Christine Brennan: Any baseball fan around the world knows the ends belonging to Toledo.

You know, it's not like another tigers, another bears, another, you know, eagles, whatever.

I mean, this is this is a name that will forever be linked to Toledo, as it should be.

John R. Husman: In a who lives.

The fact that the Americans have the only feminine nickname of a professional sports franchise.

I know of.

Tom Runnels: Really there's a lot of ballparks in America and a lot of new names and great minor league teams.

But Toledo stands out probably far beyond any of the others and so synonymous with minor league baseball that I think everybody.

Now really has a neat feel for it.

Seymour Rothman: You know, it belongs to us and that's our name, and we're not going to change it.

Hey, would I keep the name see more?

It's kind of funny.

I remember the name of my life, and I wore glasses since I was seven years old now, so it hasn't been easy, but keep it because that's your name or the same thing with it might.

Then why would we change it?

Narrator 1: in 1984, the Lucas County Recreation Center Stadium received $1,000,000 facelift updating and improving the aging facility.

Afterward, the ballpark was renamed Ned Skelton Stadium in honor of the man who brought baseball back to Toledo.

Charles Bracken: Even after most of the other people forgot, it dedicated all the ballgames.

He just loved the game.

I think that's reason he did it.

Narrator 1: Ned's Patchwork Stadium may not have been designed for baseball, but over the years it provided a unique environment where players and fans could learn the finer points of the game.

David Canton: Because it was converted from its previous uses as a track racetrack.

You were closer to everything as well.

And the stands were so close that you could easily, if you were sitting in the first couple of rows, get the ballplayers attention without having to yell too loud.

You can see the action right in front of you.

The proximity was just, I think, great.

Christine Brennan: I don't think any of us ever, ever bothered any of us that it was not a quaint little ballpark like the Durham Bulls had or some of these stadiums that you hear about throughout the minor leagues that have such an allure and such a mystique.

Everyone here was Lucas County Recreation Center.

You know, I think I can hear that.

I can still hear the the clank of the foul balls on the seats, you know, those those metal seats that were there.

But so many of the ballparks of that era were, you know, the Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, the Philadelphia Veteran's Stadium.

So those big donuts, those big concrete donuts, that were being built.

So the fact that that the Lucas County Rec Center later to be that Skyline Stadium and the fact that it wasn't particularly quaint or it wasn't a beautiful, sweet little ballpark, I didn't care.

I didn't know any better.

David Canton: Like a true minor league part.

One of the outstanding features were all the signs.

They were they were great.

It's immediately hearkens back to all the times in baseball when you had a lot of advertisements and they, in fact, were the walls or they were the edges of the field, older aspects of the game that that were it's a visual cue to that kind of memory of baseball.

For a photographer, the light in the stadium was was just fantastic.

Because it wasn't conceived as a ballpark.

It wasn't built the way ballparks are.

And the beauty of that was, especially on the first baseline in the late afternoon, you would get this shaft of sunlight that would run up the entire right side of the field Part of it is just the geography of being on the edge of the time zone.

Seemingly, you have, you know, the endless summer nights where Sunset would be at nine 30 and maybe in July when whenever you get to the depth of the summer days there and the skied twilight was just fantastic.

Narrator 1: Those lingering summer nights at Ned Skelton Stadium provided a magical setting for baseball that seemed to bring out the kid and everyone.

Christine Brennan: There's something about Ned Skelton, something about the Lucas County Rec Center that is so conducive to have fun for kids.

I mean, to be a kid and to be in a Mud Hens game, there's nothing better.

David Canton: Compared to the professional ballparks.

The big city, big league parks.

This ballgame here was.

Always more of a family outing.

So the first thing you notice was all the kids running around all the time.

Narrator 1: Even the construction seemed to favor younger fans from open areas perfect for catching foul balls to the unusual placement of the team locker rooms.

Jim Weber: You've got one dugout in the third bayside side, one on the first base side, of course, and the clubhouses are together with just a weight room in between Over behind the first base seats.

So the team that would be stationed on the third base side had to walk all the way to home plate, all the way down the warning track in the right field under the stands and in the clubhouse anywhere else with the new facilities on either side, you've basically just walked through a tunnel about 30 feet, your right into, you know, state of the art clubhouse.

So that was kind of a problem.

But the fans love it.

The fact that they could go down there and wait behind the stands and catch the players coming out.

That was probably their favorite thing.

Tom Runnels: The fact that the fans could actually, you know, shake hands and pat you on the back as you were coming in and going from the game.

I mean, I thought that was kind of unique and it was something that, you know, you don't see anywhere else.

Christine Brennan: What a magical place that was for a kid because we knew when they came through out of the dugout, they had to come by us before they got to the clubhouse and to the locker room.

And so the players were sitting ducks because we knew we would just camp out there, get lots of autographs.

Narrator 1: Regardless of the team's position in the standings.

Ned Skelton, Stadium's kid friendly atmosphere, brought families out to the ballpark over and over again.

And introduced countless young fans to the American pastime.

Joe Naploi: When people make a decision to go to see a minor league baseball game, they don't make it based on the number of wins or losses that the team or how the team performs.

The number one reason people come to see the Toledo Mud Hens is that it's a family oriented event that children are welcome.

Christine Brennan: It's easier for a family to take their kids to a minor league game it's more fan friendly, it's more fun, it's cheaper.

There's so many different reasons why kids are learning the game and getting a wonderful introduction to the game at Minor League ballparks.

Narrator 1: Finally, after 35 years of peanuts and Cracker Jacks and everything else that baseball entails.

Ned Skelton Stadium was showing its age.

Jim Weber: When I started.

We had eight teams in the league.

This was probably one of the top four facilities, and of course, the last several years it was probably the worst.

We added the first base rule four years ago.

We put new seats, and at one time we put new flooring in.

At one time we remodeled the concession stands.

At one time.

The field's been rebuilt two or three times things that we had to do to keep an old facility, you know, operable.

And so when those things came up, we just had to take care of it to keep operating.

Tom Runnels: It was the oldest ballpark, one of the last ballparks to be renovated or fixed up in all of baseball.

You go from a college program, a decent college program.

The facilities are usually better than what they were here.

You go to our rookie club and the facilities are better.

You go to Lakeland, which is our Major League Spring Training site.

It's Major League Caliber.

We went to Double-A, which was in Jacksonville, Florida, for so many years.

And it was a pretty nice ballpark and pretty nice facility.

And then you come to triple-A and it's like you took two steps backward.

Narrator 1: Construction began in October.

2000 on the new home for the Mud Hens.

Built by a partnership of public and private funds.

It was designed to incorporate the surrounding historic buildings into the ballpark.

Connecting the city's past and future.

Sandy Isenberg: It anchors the downtown and the warehouse district together.

It provides a backdrop for the buildings that Lucas County owns and.

Has owned.

And.

St Clair Streets.

The original St Clair Village.

We saved all those buildings.

We poured several million dollars into.

Shoring up all the buildings and taking care of all the buildings and what we did, I think, is preserve a piece of history in making a new.

Chapter in history.

As well.

Narrator 1: As the stadium took shape downtown.

Fans revisited old memories and old friends during one last season at the Lucas County Fairgrounds.

Christine Brennan: I don't think whether the Martins win or lose, it matters really to me.

Going there and seeing my hands play was much more important.

I don't remember the score.

I don't remember really who they played.

I remember the fun time that my sister and I and her kids and my dad, all of us had been at that game.

Joe Napoli: For many people in the area, their first experience related to baseball was at a Mud Hens game for 35 years.

This was the place that people went to to create their family memories about baseball in Toledo.

And they'll remember that, and they'll remember their positive experiences and their experiences of visiting the park with mom and dad and their siblings.

As opposed to maybe remembering the shortcomings of Skelton Stadium.

Narrator 1: Ned Skelton Stadium went out in style.

An assemblage of past players and managers returned to say goodbye to the old ballpark Ball Park sounds trailing badly through most of the game, the Mud Hens rally only to fall one run short.

Wait'll next year, Fade seemed to say After the game, the younger fans ran the bases for the final time.

and then former and general manager Gene Cook threw out the ceremonial last pitch.

Stadium Announcer: And that's it from.

Ned Skelton Stadium, ladies and.

Gentlemen.

Narrator 1: Gene died just six months later.

The 2002 season opened a new era.

Toledo, Monahan's baseball.

The completion of Fifth Third Field gave the team a state of the art stadium downtown.

The new park with luxury boxes, modern amenities and picnic areas.

It was built just a streetcar ride down Monroe Street from the site of Swain Field and only a few blocks from where local baseball began in 1883 The Edison smokestack has been replaced with the skyline of Toledo the manually operated scoreboard by a jumbo video screen But the spirit and excitement are the same.

Crowds still gather to sit along the third baseline or behind home plate, enjoy a hotdog or two and cheer the hens Whether they win or not.

Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse:If you' about the Toledo Mode Hens, a good place to start is by checking out a few books on the subject.

Of course, you'd have to consult Mud Hens Memories by John O'Brien, Jerry de Bruin and John Hussman.

This, of course, not only has a lot of statistics and rosters of all the teams, but just a tremendous number of great stories of the team and great history there.

Also, I'd recommend the history of professional baseball in Toledo, a collection of history articles prepared by the members of the Roger Bresnahan Mud Hens chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and many of the local libraries here in Toledo do have a copy of that.

The other really fine work to consult would be the little baseball guide of the Mud Hens, past and present of the professional game.

This massive compilation of statistics and box scores and player biographies was compiled by Ralph Lynn Weber is an excellent resource to consult if you want to find out about the statistics and records of the Mud Hens team.

There are also some good Internet sites that you can consult.

The Mud Hens have their own Mud Hens Gqom, which is the standard for finding out about upcoming games The team as it is today and next year's season.

We also learned about those fine Negro League baseball teams and the Negro League Baseball Players Association maintains a fine website with the history of all the different teams and many biographies of many of the players.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, maintains an excellent website with many online exhibits featuring the history of many teams and in many of the seasons of the Negro League Baseball.

Finally, you can go to Toto's Attic website and search either on baseball or Swain Field or any of those sorts of keywords and find many references to articles newspaper clippings, photographs covering the history of Toledo Mud Hens.

And of course, as time goes on, more and more materials are constantly being added to the Attic website.

Of course, you can find links to all these resources on the WG website at W dot org.

Thanks for joining us for Toledo Stories.

And now we'll leave you with a trip through the vaults of the WTT Film and Video Archives.

Which contain donated photographic images where film footage and video that documents many pivotal moments into little history.

The archives also hold vintage commercial messages from long lost Toledo businesses.

Enjoy this.

Look back at the Golden Age of television and Timothy Messer-Kruse for Toledo Stories.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next time.

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