I was excited to pick up this c.1912 type-1 photo of Les Nunamaker. Les was a Bloomington Bloomer back in 1910. Aside from the fact that I was able to score a cool photo of a Bloomer in the big leagues, this is also an early photo of Fenway Park. I did a search of photos of Fenway Park from 1912 and located a good one. The 3rd image of this post shows the same “Gold Seal…” that is visible in the upper-right hand corner of my photo. Kinda neat. You can actually see the fellas painting the wall in the 3rd image.

Pretty excited to add this Three I League official ball for my Bloomers collection. The Illinois Iowa Indiana (3 I or 3 Eye) League was around from 1901 to 1961. the Bloomers (aka Blues, aka Cardinals, aka Bengals, aka Cubs) were a part of the league from 1902 to 1939. This ball is from the 50s based on Totten being league president. Maybe someday I’ll find an official ball from when the Bloomers were active, but I’m happy to have this in the meantime.

Art Wilson was a Bloomer from 1906 to 1908 and had a nice big league career. I love that his T207 calls out his time here in Bloomington, IL.

Check his SABR bi:

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/art-wilson/

Butch Henline was a Bloomington Bloomer in 1919 and went on to have a solid big league career. In 1922 he became the first big league catcher to hit 3 home runs in a game. After his playing days ended, Henline went on to have a nice career as an umpire. As an ump, he was the first to eject Jackie Robinson from a game. I’ve included a link to his SABR bio below. This is his 1933 Mrs. Sherlock’s Home Made Bread pin from his time with the Toledo Mud Hens. Little bit of Bloomers. Little bit of oddball!

Ed “Rube” Kinsella was born in Lexington here in McLean County, IL. He played for the Bloomers in 1904 and 1905. He has the “10” on him in photo 3 (1904) and “11” in photo 4 (1905). He pitched for the Pirates in 1905 and for the Browns in 1910. I love this auto I recently found. Towanda is right down the road and the inscription is priceless. The photos are from old Spaulding yearbooks. It’s been an option to get images of teams and of players that didn’t make it to the big leagues.