Mattoon, IL

Take Me Out to the Ballgame... in Mattoon, Ill.

The year was 1898, and all around the country, as families and communities sought to heal the wounds of the Civil War and come to grips with an emerging Industrial Revolution, an informal pastime was hitting the big time.

The game was baseball, and Mattoon, Ill., (pop. 18,124) was on the cutting edge of the national trend.

“The town really had baseball mania,” says Renee Henry, director of the Coles County Historical Society.

Last year, Henry put together a snapshot of that legacy, an exhibit of photographs, equipment, uniforms, score boards, trophies, and memorabilia from Mattoon’s baseball past—a past that includes three eras of professional and semi-pro teams and scores of local players who made it to the big leagues.

Mattoon’s love of baseball, however, is more than a relic of the past. It’s maintained today through active youth leagues and regular tournaments.

Last August, Mattoon hosted the Cal Ripken World Series at the 5,500-seat Graham Field, making it the first town to hold back-to-back World Series’ in the history of Babe Ruth Baseball. The 12-and-under tourney featured teams from around the world and a visit from Cal Ripken Jr., the legendary Baltimore Orioles’ third baseman.

“Mattoon is a true-blue baseball town,” says Chris Considine, who spearheaded the effort to bring the tournaments to the east-central Illinois community. “People (here) are always looking for something to hang their hat on, and baseball has taken that spot.”

Mattoon, named after William Mattoon, who helped bring the railroad to town 150 years ago, also is home to the world’s largest bagel bakery. In 1986, Lender’s Bagels opened the plant which employs 400 workers and produces up to 3 million bagels daily.

The community honors its other round claim-to-fame during its annual Bagelfest, scheduled July 26-29, featuring a free bagel breakfast, queen pageant, parade, live music, and a carnival.

But while bagels are big, it’s baseball that provides the town’s most enduring point of pride.

Three times since 1898, local people have invested time, money, and effort into forming leagues and supporting them, Henry says. And even though the leagues eventually faded into history, each was more successful than the last. One of the latest efforts in the 1950s produced a minor league team, which was aligned with big league teams such as the Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Athletics.

Notables such as Babe Ruth watched and played in exhibition games in Mattoon. Others, such as Dallas Greene, Gary Gaetti, Marty Pattin, and Rod Maxwell got some of their youth experience playing in Mattoon before moving up to the majors.

Before the modern big leaguers came through town, guys such as pitcher Hoover Kelley made a living on the diamonds of the Midwest, playing for crowds numbering in the thousands in towns such as Terre Haute, Ind., and Rockford, Ill., as well as Mattoon.

“Baseball was really in its heyday when I played,” says Kelley, who at 92 still lives in Mattoon. Kelley played third base for The Big Four railroad team, based in Mattoon in 1927 and 1928, until the Great Depression took hold and the team went bankrupt. Kelley went on to play for other pro and semi-pro teams, but never forgot Mattoon’s well-groomed Peterson Park, which hosts games to this day.

“I had only played on sandlots before I came to Mattoon,” Kelley recalls. “I thought I was in hog heaven.”

Around town, the young ball players were treated like royalty.

“People would invite them to their homes for dinner and really take care of them,” recalls Jerry Groniger, a retiree who helps with the baseball exhibit put together by Henry.

Henry hopes the exhibit at the Mattoon Welcome Center helps younger fans learn about the town’s baseball past—a past with fond memories for people such as Groniger and Kelley, whose heartstrings are tugged by the smack of hickory on horsehide and the smell of fresh-cut grass.

“Mattoon has such a rich history,” she says.

Tim Crosby is a freelance writer in Decatur, Ill.

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