Mickey Mantle of Independence, Kansas

[W. Gray]

Mickey Mantle was born in Commerce, Oklahoma, 116 miles from Howard.

In 1948, just out of high school, he started playing shortstop for the Independence Yankees, a New York Yankees Class D farm team in Independence, Kansas. The team played at Riverside Park.

Mantle received a $1,500 signing bonus and made $140 per month playing in Independence.

Two years later, he was promoted to Class C baseball playing for Joplin.

A year later in 1951 he was in New York making $7,500 per year and then slumped and was sent to the Kansas City Blues farm team. He made it back to New York that same year.

[Bullwinkle]

       He was a class act.

[Ross]

Very interesting.

That's my home town and I did not know that. They didn't teach that in history class. LOL
And I don't recall anyone bragging about Mickey Mantle playing there.

I knew about Able the first space monkey from the Riverside Park and zoo, but not this.

I learn something new every day. Thanks for posting this information.

[W. Gray]

This may be all that is left of the professional baseball stadium at Riverside Park in Independence, Kansas.

[Bullwinkle]

    Did you go to the games there W Gray?

[W. Gray]

I did not even know the team existed until last week when someone on Ebay was advertising an 8x10 glossy of Mickey Mantle's Independence, Missouri, baseball team. The players all had "I" on their caps and I was a little confused.

My family moved from Howard to Independence, Missouri, in the mid forties and I thought I knew that city never had a professional baseball team. I began searching and found the information on Mantle and the Kansas town of Independence of which I am familiar enough with that I can find the Walmart and the Chinese restaurant.

I notified the seller and they changed the location to Independence, Kansas.

I had always thought Mickey Mantle started out with the Joplin team, chuckle.

In 1951, I went to some games at the old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City to see the Kansas City Blues play but I have no idea if I saw Mantle play.

[Bullwinkle]

       Did you ever go to games in Wichita?

       I saw Roger Maris and Don Drysdale at Lawrence Dumont as a kid. Got autographs.

[W. Gray]

I lived in Mulvane from 75-80. The Wichita Aeros were a Triple A franchise then of the American Association. There was some good baseball at that level.

I recall one big promotion they had when they brought in the San Diego Chicken and the stands were filled for the first time in a long time.

Since then they were reduced to an AA Franchise of the Royals but now they are called the Nuts or something and I dont think they even have a major league affiliation.

[Wilma]

They are known as the Wing-nuts, but I don't know about any major league affiliation.

[W. Gray]

I just looked the Wingnuts up and they are in first place in their division. Now I seem to recall that Wichita lost the Wranglers to a town in Arkansas a few years back.

The Wingnuts are in the American Association of Professional Independent Baseball. Apparently the American Association AAA league went out in 1997.

The capacity of their stadium is 6,400, which is the same stadium all the Wichita teams have played in. For some reason I was thinking the capacity was higher than that.

Also noticed Kansas City has a team in the league, Kansas City, Kansas, that is.

Here is something I learned about baseball in Wichita. Prior to the current stadium being built, Wichita had a baseball team that played outside the city limits because blue laws prevented playing the game on Sundays. The stadium and an adjacent amusement park were located on Ackerman Island in the middle of the Arkansas River. The stadium burned in 1934. That island no longer exists. Amazing.