Originally aired September 7, 2001

They've been known as the Railsplitters and Treeplanters. Perhaps the A's and Chiefs sound more familiar. Professional baseball in Nebraska's capitol city has a long history, but this summer was the first time Lincoln has seen the game for 40 years.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: • Lincoln Saltdogs web site http://www.saltdogs.com/ • Northern League web site http://www.northernleague.com/

"Statewide's" Perry Stoner looks at the first season of the Saltdogs, the latest in the list of Capitol City baseball teams.

VIDEOS

Watch the Perspective story here:
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Lincoln sportswriter Mike Babcock reflects on Dick Stuart, former Lincoln Chiefs slugger:
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Former Lincoln sportswriter and University of Nebraska sports information director Don Bryant shows off his Lincoln baseball memorabilia:
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Bryant talks about enthusiasm for baseball in the Lincoln area:
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Northern League commissioner Miles Wolff talks about the Lincoln Saltdogs joining the Northern League:
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TRANSCRIPT

Transcript of Perspective

TRANSCRIPT - Lincoln Saltdogs

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Perry Stoner

[Perry Stoner] It's been four decades since a professional baseball team has called Lincoln home. But now, just hours before the opening game construction workers and team personnel race the clock to make sure everything is ready for the return of the game to the Capitol City.
[Charlie Meyer] "I know the fans will have a great time tonight but they won't realize all the things that go on behind the scenes to get ready for tonight."
"So, you guys all ready to go in here?"
[Stoner] For Saltdog's president Charlie Meyer the last few days have been non-stop. He's making sure the new stadium is ready for opening day.
[Meyer] "When you add the game events staff there probably will be approaching 150 people. Could be close to 200 tonight. We… we're going overboard tonight. We feel just because it's a new thing, it's a new experience not only for the fans, it's a new experience for us and so we want to make sure we're hopefully doing the right things."
"These are on a nightly rental so people are renting… or anybody can rent these for seven hundred dollars a night."
[Stoner] Luxury boxes are not part of Lincoln's baseball past. They crown a new thirty million dollar stadium north of downtown to attract today's fans. But overall Haymarket Park is designed like a park of a different era.
[Fan] "Those are somewhere in the late forties…We've got some of the rosters from those teams."
[Meyer] "That's counting down here. We're three hours from the first pitch."
[Fan] "It's not really the team. Its coming out and being with your friends, having a good time."
[Fan] "Kind of a historic moment, opening the park and the opening of the Saltdogs' baseball. And kind of history in the making."
[Stoner] The Saltdogs share their historic moment. Several Lincoln baseball old-timers are on hand to take part in festivities. Native Bob Cerv still calls Lincoln home. His career includes playing with the New York Yankees and greats like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
[Bob Cerv] "I'm glad baseball's back in town. When they put hockey in here and are sold out five years in advance I said I'm pretty sure they need a baseball team."
[Stoner] Mason Bowes played three seasons for the Lincoln athletics beginning in 1949.
[Mason Bowes] "I'm real thrilled to death they asked me… invited me out. I'm real thrilled about that. I think people need a place to go with the family and… enjoy the game. Maybe get away from football a little bit."
[Announcer] "… the ball to Al Madigan who will throw out a first pitch."
[Stoner] Former Lincoln managers, players and sportswriters take part in ceremonial first pitches. After forty years a new chapter in Lincoln professional baseball is here.
[Al Madigan] "This seems to be the time. You got the right people. The unity, I'm just… I'm kind of overwhelmed about it. To come back here and see all the fans… all the people that are involved."
[Stoner] The most visible reminder of professional baseball in Lincoln is Sherman Field. It brings back childhood memories for sportswriter Mike Babcock.
[Mike Babcock] "It was a big deal to be able to come up from York to go to a game at Lincoln. You know, professional baseball because I was a big baseball fan and didn't really get an opportunity to see many big league ball games."
[Stoner] But the history of Lincoln baseball goes back much further than when Babcock went to games in the late 1950's.
[Babcock] "There's a guy in the hall of fame, not a hall of fame name… not a guy that you'd recognize immediately. But a guy named Eagle-Eyed Jake Beckly who played around the turn of the… from the 19th century to the 20th century. And he played in Lincoln."
[Don Bryant] "From 1955-56-57…"
[Stoner] Don Bryant knows Lincoln baseball history too. He was a sportswriter for the Lincoln newspaper before becoming the sports information director at the university of Nebraska. He covered the most remembered Lincoln teams. The athletics that played in the 1940's and 50's and the chiefs in the 50's through 1061.
[Bryant] "In '48 they had a great team with Nellie Fox and Lou Limmer and… and Bobby Schantz pitching. And those guys that went on to major league careers and they won the Western League. So that was a great year and great enthusiasm. And I think you have that again in the fifties there with Sheppard and those Chiefs that won two pennants."
[Stoner] Nellie Fox went on to a major league career that put him in the baseball hall of fame. Many players with Lincoln ties had successful careers in the big leagues. But the biggest name in Lincoln baseball is likely a big hitting California kid.
[Bryant] "The legend has it that this… this is a Lincoln bat… genuine Lincoln Louisville slugger. It was broken and it was supposedly broken by Dick Stuart. The thing that brought great attention to Lincoln at that point was a kid named Dick Stuart. He could hit home runs and in 1956 he hit 66 homes runs. And the town was real excited about that. He knocked them over the light poles leaving Sherman Field."
[Babcock] "We're about five years away from Roger Maris hitting 61 so that was a big deal; to hit 66 home runs was a remarkable accomplishment."
[Stoner] The Chiefs won two western league pennants behind Stuart's home runs in 1956 and '57. While the slugging Stuart made a lot of noise with his bat, his defensive play (or lack thereof) was noteworthy too.
[Babcock] "Dick wasn't particularly fast and he… at best he was probably an indifferent defensive player. Larry Sheppard, the manager, told stories about how on one occasion Dick was in the outfield with his glove under his… under his arm eating peanuts."
[Stoner] Dick Stuart took his power to the major leagues and a career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. But the Lincoln franchise had only a few seasons left. Reorganization of baseball left the Lincoln team without a league.
[Bryant] "We were independent and didn't have a major league affiliation. And so they sold stock at ten dollars a share to raise money to operate the club."
[Stoner] Attendance fell off. Americans and Lincolnites were more affluent in the 1960s than they had ever been. Those still interested in baseball had a new way to take in the game.
[Bryant] "Major league television really started booming and people could stay home and get a beer out of the refrigerator and watch the best baseball in the world instead of going out to Shermah field and the old stadium and drink grape pop."
[Babcock] "I think the big… the biggest factors probably were there hadn't been a demonstrated interested to where you could make money with a team. And then the quality of the facility was a consideration."
[Stoner] After the 1961 season the Chiefs formally shut down. Few realized that Sherman field had hosted its last professional team. Local legion teams still use the facility but it wasn't good enough for a pro team and in the end the lack of a quality facility cut off a courtship between the northern league and the city in the early 1990s.
[Bryant] "I never thought Lincoln could… could get back into minor league baseball."
[Stoner] The northern league never took its eye off Lincoln though. And when the city of Lincoln, University of Nebraska and NEBCO (potential owner of a new team) got together to build a new stadium everything fell into place. Professional baseball was back in the Capitol City.
[Bryant] "It fills a void in the summertime for Lincoln. It really does. And its close to the campus and the tie in with the university and university baseball is unique and also a great plus for continuing to build up interest in baseball in Lincoln."
[Ed Greene] "I think its great. Everybody is really receptive and a great crowd. And the way they honored the past greats, you can tell this town has a good sense of history about baseball."
[Dean Gade] "We got season tickets and we're excited to see a team back in town."
"I remember used to selling tickets at the old Chiefs' stadium down at Sherman field back in about '62, '62 (someplace in there). I was quite a bit younger then. So it's great to see baseball back in Lincoln."
[Babcock] "Its probably comparing apples to oranges but the most solid era of professional baseball in Lincoln, it might be starting right now. I think that the ballpark alone is… is a big drawing card that's going to continue to be that way because it is so well done. Why people go to watch baseball in the Northern League for example might not be exactly the same reason that people came out here to watch the Lincoln Chiefs. I mean, its become more of a… an entertainment. It's an event. It's not… its not just the baseball, its all marketed as family entertainment."
[Todd Loseke] "This has been fun. It's a good family thing. Its good. We'll be here quite a bit this summer."
[Stoner] Lincoln waited forty years for baseball to return and the northern league waited for Lincoln too.
[Miles Wolff] "We've been wanting it for eight years. Its one of the cities we sort of pinpointed early on but didn't have a stadium, but now with the stadium its going to be great for the league."
[Meyer] "When you look around and you see these little kids having a great time, that's what the whole thing is about. And it's family fun and its affordable entertainment."
[Stoner] Forty years is a long time. The names have changed. The Railsplitters and Treeplanters gave way to the A's and the Chiefs.
[Al Madigan] "Its come a long way from Sherman field. Brings back a lot of memories, the town's changed. It's been a great experience to come back."
[Stoner] Now the Saltdogs are in town. Baseball is back.
This is Perry Stoner reporting for Statewide.