By Dominic Konareski
Voice Staff Writer
Barnstorming is now a forgotten era of baseball’s past but go back to the mid 1900’s and it was all the rage with thousands of people flocking out to see the offseason contests. Barnstorming gave fans who were either die-hards or couldn’t make it out to a regular in-season game a chance to see some of the greats play the children’s game, against what would usually be a local team during the offseason or a quick mid-season stop on a team’s scheduled off day.
Barnstorming baseball teams were everywhere from the 1920s through to the 50s, and in 1947, Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs came to West Haven. The Monarchs arrived at the newly-constructed then-called Exhibition Stadium, which wasn’t even a year built to play an exhibition against the semi-pro West Haven Sailors.
The Sailors, a fierce semi-pro team owned by Mo Quigley, had Exhibition Stadium constructed to have his Sailors call it home. Quigley had opened the stadium that would later be renamed after him just a week before the Monarchs rolled into Allingtown in late June.
Quigley wanted to give the crowd a show and something to remember. With that said, he offered Satchel Paige $500 (worth around $6,000 today) that would be rewarded if he went the full distance and picked up the win.
Mo Quigley was very confident in his Sailors, who were very-well known at this point in New England for beating up on multiple barnstorming teams. Meanwhile Satchel Paige, who was 41 years old at the time, accepted the offer.
At the end of three innings, the Monarchs trailed 1-0 before Kansas City would tie things up in the sixth, with a hit off West Haven’s Bob Barthelson. Paige allowed several hits but was as sharp as any 41-year-old pitcher could be – notching eight strikeouts.
A tied game in the ninth had the thoughts of extra baseball on everyone’s mind, but age and fatigue caught up with Paige. An RBI single up the middle off the West Haven bat of Red Sheehan won it for the Sailors.
Paige did pick up the complete game, but he also picked up the loss as Kansas City left the playing field outplayed by a semi-pro team.