Above - Charles Peete of the Brandon Greys tries to dodge a pitch during a pre-game warmup. Chuck Wilson is the catcher. (Photo courtesy Lil Lowe)
The lights go on in Carman! July 6, 1950 Carman unveiled its flood lights at the ball park. The $25,000 addition featured eight light stands with a total of 160 15-hundred watt bulbs. Manitoba Premier D.L. Campbell was at the switch as the lights were turned on for the first night game in the city. The Cardinals lost the game, 12-5, to Brandon.
Left - Willie Wells Sr., Negro League superstar, playing manager of the Winnipeg Buffaloes in the inaugural season of the ManDak Baseball League. Centre - Carman's Ron Teasley. Next - Lillord Cobb, Carman's lefty starter.
Left - Winnipeg Free Press marks the kickoff the the new baseball season and the new league. Right - Carman catcher Almer McKerlie, one of the fine local products to suit up in the Mandak League.
Above Left - The first pitch, May 24, 1950. Elmwood leadoff man John Britton takes a cut at the first pitch from Daniel Webster as Carman and the Giants open the season at Carman. The catcher is Almer McKerlie and the umpire, Honey Cochlan.
Right - Curly Haas, Winnipeg Buffaloes manager listens in as Carman manager Charles (Red) House tries to make a point with umpire Honey Cochlan
Above left - Carman lefthander Lillord Cobb. Right - Sonny Andrews.
Below left - Walter Thomas. Right - Bob Johnson. [Photos courtesy Barry Swanton]
Below left - Ted Novak. Right - Winnipeg's Jim Newberry.
Below Left - Butch Davis of Winnipeg Buffaloes. Right - Lyman Bostock, Winnipeg Buffaloes
From the Minot Daily News, May 11,1950
"When the Minot Mallards launch their semi-pro baseball season here May 27, LeRoy "Satchel" Paige will be wearing the livery of the Magic City team.
The fabulous fireballer has been contracted to pitch parts of three of the Mallards' first five games, Roy Reimer, president, announced today.
Carman's Cardinals are scheduled here Saturday night, May 27, and on Sunday afternoon, the 28th.
A non-league offering against the Moorhead, Minn. Red Sox will be played the night of May 29. Brandon comes here for afternoon and evening encouters on Memorial day.
Paige's contract reached Minot late Wednesday.
Services of three other colored players, for season duty, were also secured yesterday by the Mallards. They are pitchers Lester "Big Spoon" Witherspoon, a righthander from Deland, Fla., and Jimmy Peet, a southpaw from Portsmouth, Va., and infielder Leonard Williams of Lakeland, Fla.
The trio is furnished thru Syd Pollock of the Indianapolis Clowns, who supplies colored players to Brandon.
Back on the barnstorming trail he left to sign with the Cleveland Indians of the American league in July, 1948, Paige returns to a state where he made semi-pro history in 1935.
Playing for Neil Churchill's Bismarck team in 1935, the fireballing Negro righthander won 34 games, lost 2 and tied 2. He triumphed four times in starting roles and served as a reliefer in a fifth game as Bismarck captured the first national semi-pro tourney at Wichita, Kan.
His season setbacks were by one-run margins -- 2-1 by Jamestown and 4-3 by Devils Lake -- and the ties were 0-0 affairs.
Paige's record of 60 strikeouts in the national tourney still stands.
He has also had several good seasons with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American league."
Satchel Paige made quite an impression in his first start in the ManDak League pitching three shutout innings and fanning seven batters.
He allowed just one hit. (Winnipeg Free Press, May 31, 1950)
Left --1950 program from the Northern Senior league. This appears to have been the forerunner to the Manitoba - Saskatchewan loop. Five Manitoba teams -- Gilbert Plains, Grandview, Dauphin, Neepawa and Roblin. (Program courtesy Lorna Wilson)
Right -- Smokey Joe Adams had quite a background before joining Carman in 1950. Adams had pitched in the Toledo, Ohio, City League and for the barnstorming Komedy Kings of New York in 1949. June 19, Adams registered a no-hitter with 20 strikeouts. It brought his strikeout total for his last five games to 84, slightly less than 17 per game. He won just two of six decisions in 1950 with the Cardinals.
Adams, the most sensational pitcher to cross the colored baseball horizon since Satchel Paige was a rookie … record indicates he is destined to become one of the great Negro hurlers of all time. (Traverse City Record-Eagle, July 6, 1949, p. 13)