Cornelius Alexander “Connie” Mack, known as “The Tall Tactician,” was baseball’s “grand old gentleman” for more than 50 years. Mack’s career spanned 65 major-league seasons as a player, manager, executive and owner. As a manager, he eschewed wearing a uniform in the dugout in favor of a suit and derby or bowler hat.

Over a generation, Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics posted 3,731 wins, won nine American League championships and five World Series titles. And, in 1948, Mack moved one of his minor league teams from Moline to Kewanee. Kewanee had its first professional baseball team in 1908. The Kewanee Boilermakers played for half-a-dozen years in the Class C Central Association before the team folded at the end of the 1913 season.

Thirty-five years later, “organized ball” returned to our hometown. In late 1947, a representative of Mack’s Athletics visited Kewanee and expressed approval of the city as a possible site for an A’s minor league team, likely its team then in Moline. However, Moline managed to keep the team for the 1948 season. Kewanee’s road to another minor league team was aided in 1948 by the formation of a Fans Association. The short-term goal was for Kewanee to join the newly formed semi-professional Central Illinois Conference. But the long-range goal was to secure a minor league team in 1949.

Longtime Walworth employee Elmer Damaske was named president of the association. A team in the CIC would show the support an A’s team would receive in Kewanee. In mid-April, Kewanee joined the CIC. Well known Kewanee baseball man, Russell “Butter” Peden, was named manager of the Kewanee Parkers. On Sunday, May 30, the Parkers opened the season in Lewistown, blasting the Merchants 24–7. The following Sunday, the Parkers opened their home schedule by beating the Bloomington nine under the lights at Northeast Park.

Suddenly, in mid-June, the Philadelphia Athletics announced that they were pulling their Class C Central Association team out of Moline. Their head scout visited Kewanee, was impressed, but some Kewaneeans were concerned that the sudden appearance of an A’s farm club would hurt the Parkers. However, the Fans Association voted to invite the A’s team to Kewanee. The invitation was accepted, and the June 16, 1948, “Kewanee Star Courier” reported that “[b]aseball fandom in the tri-counties area rejoiced today in the announcement that Kewanee has been awarded the Philadelphia Athletics franchise in the Central Association, a class C league, and effective Friday the team will be known as the Kewanee Athletics.”

At the time, the Parkers were still undefeated, and the Athletics said that the sentiments of Connie Mack were that “[w]e will do nothing that will in any way hurt your Parkers’ team, but to the contrary will do all we can to help them finish their schedule. Your fans are entitled to that consideration.” The Parkers went on to win the CIC championship. The Kewanee Park Board granted the A’s rights to play at Northeast Park.

Former New York Yankee Joe Glenn was the manager of the now Kewanee A’s, and the first game was played on June 18 in Clinton, Iowa. The A’s beat the Central Association’s first place club 5-2 behind the six hit pitching of Art Becker. The A’s held their home opener on Monday night, June 28, under Northeast Park’s lights. The A’s blanked the Hannibal Pilots 3-0 before 1,127 rain-soaked but joyous fans. The win put them within reach of third place in the six team league. Organized ball had returned to Kewanee. Unfortunately, the team finished the season with a record of 53-74, good for last place, 26½ games behind the Clinton Cubs. Of the dozens of players who cycled through the A’s that year, Art Ditmar and Billy Shantz eventually made it to the majors.

The A’s improved dramatically in the 1949 season. They finished third in the league with a 68-60 regular season record, 12½ games behind the first place Burlington Indians. But the A’s shined in the playoffs. They beat the Keokuk Pirates 3-0 in the scheduled five game series. Then the A’s faced the Cedar Rapids Rockets, which had thrashed the Indians 3-0. In the best-of-seven championship series, the A’s defeated the Rockets 4-2 in six games. The A’s were league champions, and Kewanee supported the A’s that year with an attendance of 29,483. However, Kewanee, through no fault of its own, lost its minor league team when the Central Association folded at the end of the 1949 season.

Founded in 1854, Kewanee’s love affair with baseball began shortly thereafter. Although play was paused by the Civil War, our hometown joined its first baseball affiliation, one of 55 teams in the Illinois chapter of the National Association of Baseball Players, in 1867. In the 20th century – twice in a span of forty years – Kewanee hosted professional baseball teams. Although there have been no professional teams since 1949, Kewaneeans continue to play and watch the game with enthusiasm, and dream of a time when they could watch young men reaching out, hoping to touch the stars.