Notes from my excursion to Franklin, Oil City, and Clearfield, PA;
aug/2/99 and aug/3/99. I have copies of some of the articles mentioned
here; contact me (e-mail address at bottom of page) if you are interested.
Dates are date of newspaper, not date of event.
FEN = Franklin Evening News (I believe this became FNH in '19)
FNH = Franklin News-Herald
FPH = The book "Franklin, a Place in History" (written by the Franklin
Bicentenniel Committee in 1995, and published by Seneca Printing,
Franklin)
OCD = Oil City Derrick
CP = Clearfield Progress
TSN = The Sporting News
Franklin, Oil City, Clearfield, St. Mary's, New Kensington, Elk County, and
Philipsburg are all in Western PA, most of them in northwestern PA. Franklin
and Oil City are less than ten miles apart.
From my high school history, Oil City was a boom town beginning shortly after
Drake's oil well, which was 1858 if I remember correctly. According to my
father, Franklin had two oil refineries.
• FPH, pg.337 states the following:
"Franklin's last major effort in the professional baseball ranks [or 'links']
came soon after World War I with the establishment of the Franklin
Independent team of 1919, of the famous Two Team League. Although there was
enthusiasm for the team and the competition, the second year ended with a
$5,000 deficit that was still unpaid when the 1921 season started. When
attendance started to falter in June and already a small deficit was showing,
officials of the Franklin Baseball Association decided to disband the club."
• FEN Aug/9/18 pg. 3
Talk by Cubs players about boycotting the World Series.
• OCD Aug/29/18
Lineups for Franklin vs. Oil City:
| | Oil City | Franklin |
| | Burt, lf | Jones, ss |
| | White, 2b | Howard, 3b |
| | Sinex, 1b | Brazill, 2b |
| | Biltz, m | Tate, 1b |
| | Huhn, c | Wilson, m |
| | Donica, ss | Mills, c |
| | Lilly, 3b | Raley, lf |
| | Stoudt, rf | Flynn, rf |
| | Murray, p | Williams, p |
Of the Franklin players, only Raley appears in the FNH Aug/7/19 lineup. Note
also that 'm' stands for 'middle', which is centerfield. I also saw 'mf' in
other boxes, and the term 'middle fielder' in articles.
• OCD Sep/2/18
today's game between Franklin and Oil City is a holiday double header (I
didn't know that labor day was that old!). This is the last game of the
season; there is mention of Franklin's team being 'imported'. The term
"Stove League" is used in OCD this year, but I'm not sure if it is just
Franklin and Oil City, or some other teams. I saw no standings for any local
league.
• OCD Sep/6/18
Series stats for Oil City vs. Franklin (not player stats). I copied this.
• FEN Sep/14/18 pg. 3
Reference to World Series players having threatened to strike due to division
of proceeds. Prior to the season, a specific formula had been agreed on, with
2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams getting money (was this the first time non WS
teams shared in WS monies?). Any shortfall in funds was to be lost by the WS
teams, but not by the other teams, if I understand this correctly. Due to the
war, there was a lot less money than in '17.
• FNH Aug/7/19 pg. 3
Franklin lineup vs. Oil City
Layden, cf
Gray, ss
Nixon, lf
Rittleman, rf
Raley, 1b
Thompson, 2b
Buffington, 3b
Snyder, c
Fullerton, p
This is essentially the same lineup used in games vs. other teams, such as
St. Mary's the next day, and New Bethlehem the following day. So the Franklin
team does not play exculsively in the "Two Team League". Similarly,
comparison of the Oil City lineups in this game and the next day against the
New Kensington Aluminums shows the same sort of thing. Other teams included
Allegheny Steel, the Elk County Elcos, and the Pittsburgh Collegians (though
not necessarily all in the same season).
I believe the Franklin paper listed standings for the "Two Team League" in
'19, but I did not make note of it.
• FNH Aug/20/19 pg. 3
Talks about an article in the Pittsburg Gazette-Times that mentions Stengle
may join the league. Stengle had refused to report to Philadelphia after a
trade.
• FNH Aug/25/19 pg. 3
Article referred to, in Pittsburgh Dispatch of "Sunday", about the history of
Franklin baseball.
• FNH Sep/4/19 pg. 3
Article about 53rd anniversary of the first Oil City/Franklin baseball game.
Separately, FPH, pg. 337 mentions that the first published box score for
Franklin vs. Oil City was of Sep/28/1866.
• FNH Sep/6/19 pg. 3
Joe Dugan of Mackmen to join Franklin team, rather than accept a suspension.
• FNH Sep/8/19 pg. 3
Joe Dugan isn't coming after all.
• FNH Sep/30/19 pg. 3
George Sisler and Joe Harris to arrive. Admission price is raised to 75 cents
per game.
• OCD Sep/30/19
Sisler and Harris will join Franklin team. Note that OCD does not list
"Two Team League" standings.
• FNH Oct/1/19 pg. 3
Joe Harris plays first game for Franklin (unless he played in '17 or earlier).
Sisler batted 3rd, Harris batted cleanup. Near riot follows game-- a fan
attacked an umpire; game was a scoreless tie, may have been called due to
riot; more articles about riot the next several days; the Oil City Derrick
had a different view-- a fight that was quickly broken up by police.
Harris plays the remaining games (total of 4) with Franklin.
• OCD Oct/1/19
"Harris and Sisler, imported by Franklin team from the big show ..."
• TSN Oct/2/19
Box scores show Joe Harris pinch hit in Cleveland's game of Sep/28, which
appears to have been their last game of the season.
• OCD Oct/2/19
Article titled "Steelers Win Toss" states that the Franklin outfit is loaded
with big leaguers.
• OCD Oct/3/19
Doak, of the St. Louis Nationals, pitches for Oil City.
• FNH Oct/7/19 pg. 3
Franklin team 'disbands' but wants a team for the next season; I think
'disbands' in this case means the players went home for the off season.
Article about Sisler and Harris in the American League's final batting stats.
Both finished in top 10, though Harris only played in 62 games.
• FNH Oct/25/19 pg. 3
Article about Joe Harris. I meant to copy this article, but it got lost in
the shuffle.
• FNH Jul/27/20 pg. 3
Refers to an article in the Pittsburgh Leader about the reasons good players
are leaving organized baseball for teams like Franklin. This should be an
article to see.
• FNH Sep/3/20 pg. 3
Harris leading the team with 12 HR's. List of individual hits and HR's for
the Franklin team. Nuts, I didn't copy this. That's the closest thing I
found to season's stats for Franklin in '20 (even though the season isn't
over)
• FNH Sep/14/20 pg. 3
Recap of team stats for the '20 season, but no individual stats.
• FNH Sep/15/20 pg. 3
Thirteen more games scheduled for Franklin vs. Oil City. This was not
unusual, as they did the same thing in Sep/1919. They seemd the schedule a
batch of a dozen or so games, play them, then schedule some more. Or perhaps
they just added extra games in September, depending on how things were going
(weather, finances, turnout).
• FNH Oct/2/20 pg. 3
Stats for Oil City players. Also, an article about the Black Sox compares
it to the 'Hartford Scandal', in which "four members of the old Lousivilles
were blacklisted and forever barred from baseball". The four were Devlin,
Hall, Nichols, and Craver. They were banned in 1877. I'd never heard of
that before.
• FNH Feb/21/21 pg. 5
Joe Harris marries Pearl Hepner
(this was according to the librarian, but it was not at that page; perhaps in
a different newspaper?)
• FNH Jun/2/21 pg. 3
Stats for Oil City players.
• FNH Jun/3/21 pg. 3
Scott Perry tells why he quit the Philadelphia and came to Franklin.
• FNH Jun/8/21 pg. 3
Three Franklin players let go as a cost cutting measure.
• FNH Jun/9/21 pg. 3
Stats for league pitchers.
• FNH Jun/17/21 pg. 3
Stats for Franklin players. Also an article titled "But Oil City's Collins
is Still in the Game", which might refer to Eddie Collins (see Aug/6/21). I
didn't notice the article, but the headline got copied with the stats.
• OCD Jul/7/21
OCD is now listing "Two Team League" standings.
• FNH Jul/9/21 pg. 3
Franklin team disbanding for good. There were some other articles discussing
attempts to prevent this, in the preceding day's paper. The players had been
asked to take a 25% pay cut.
• OCD Jul/11/21
"Two Team League Ends". Oil City will continue. Box score of final game
between the two clubs (this was officially a forfeit followed by an exhibition
game). I have a copy of this.
• FNH Jul/13/21 pg. 3
There is mention that Harris had tried to rejoin organized baseball prior to
the season.
• CP Jul/12/21
Joe Harris plays first game for Clearfield Terriers vs. Philipsburg. "it was
worth ther price of admission alone to watch Joe Harris in action...";
Clearfield picked up Harris, Anderson, and Russell from the Franklin team,
Philipsburg got Yerkes (former Red Sox captain) and Gallia.
• FNH Jul/14/21 pg. 3
Joe Harris signs with Clearfield.
• CP Jul/18/21
Franklin to have a baseball team next year. 1920 team cost $60,000. 1921
team was on pace to cost $50,000. Either Scott Perry or Joe Harris will be
the manager of the new Franklin team. I had not checked the '22 Franklin
papers, and was now in Clearfield (80 minutes away), so I didn't have a chance
to follow up on this.
• FNH Jul/19/21 pg. 3
Franklin's '21 team picture, and season's final stats.
• FNH Aug/6/21 pg. 3
Eddie Collins debuts for Philadelphia. He had played for Franklin in '19
and Oil City in '20. I did not actually notice him in any box scores in those
years, but had not looked. There is no Collins in the box score in the
Oct/1/19 FNH.
• FNH Aug/9/21 pg. 3
"Former Franklin Men Popular in Clearfield"; Joe Harris is now playing for
Clearfield. There is also a mention of Harris inviting the mayor of
Clearfield to "The Grand" billiard room. My dad thought that Joe ran a
bowling alley in Franklin (he remembers Joe talking about it), but perhaps it
was a billiard room with a couple of lanes.
• CP Sep/2/21
For the last time, Joe Harris appears in box score for Clearfield. Yerkes is
now with Clearfield. Clearfield plays a few more games (including the
Mackmen in Sep/8 article), but no mention is made of Harris' departure, nor
of an injury.
Back to the Joe Harris page.
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