While the Civil War made its way through the South, baseball was burying its roots in Paducah. Uniting the community through decades of peace and war, it is a sport that remains an integral artifact of the city's history. On Sounds Good today, author and baseball historian Randy Morgan speaks about his Evening Upstairs program for the McCracken County Public Library on August 20th, based on his book Paducah's Native Baseball Team: A History of Minor League Baseball in Paducah.
A member of the Society of Baseball Research, Randy Morgan will speak on the key players who kept the Paducah teams going through the years including Hall-of-Famer Barney Dreyfuss, Maurice Farnbaker, Harry Lloyd, Ben Tincup, B.B. Hook and Polk Brooks.
Baseball, he says, was brought to Paducah at the start of the Civil War when the Union Army built a fort around the corner of 4th and Park Avenue. Soldiers from the Northeast brought the game of baseball along with them, and as they played the townspeople picked it up.
"The Civil War was a terrible thing, but some good came out of it," Randy says. "Like medical advancements and, if you're a baseball fan, the spread of baseball throughout the country."
Randy will discuss the evolution of minor league baseball in Paducah from the Civil War era to the 1960's. The Evening Upstairs program will be held on August 20th at 7 p.m. in the 2nd floor meeting room. The program is free and open to the public.
