This 1919 photo of Paul Zahniser arrived today! Pretty excited. He was a Bloomer in 1919 and 1920 and had a lengthy pro career, including spending parts of 5 seasons in the Big Leagues. Two of those seasons were with Walter Johnson and the Washington Senators, owned by former Bloomington Red, Normal, IL native, and Hall of Famer, Clark Griffith. This is my first photo of a future big-leaguer in a Bloomers uniform. Plus, I believe that’s Fan’s Field, home of Bloomington pro baseball for almost 40 years. I love seeing the fellas in hats and ties.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=zahnis001pau

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!

One of my projects is collecting cards, photos, autos, and other random memorabilia of players with some relationship to Bloomington-Normal, IL - esp. minor league teams from 1887 to 1939. Here is a 1914 B-18 Blanket of George Moriarty. George played for the Bloomington Blues in 1902 and went on to have a long and varied big league career. He was a player, a manager, and an umpire at various points. He was also a newspaper columnist, a songwriter, and a poet! He was known as a tough guy who once fought 5 White Sox players at once when he was an ump. A sportswriter said old George was losing it because he fought those 5 fellas to a draw. You can read more about George at his SABR bio (link below). As an aside, his grandson is Michael Moriarty, who played Ben Stone on Law and Order, among other roles.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-moriarty/

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.