05/22/2006

TC has Brief minor league history

Future major leaguer played for the Resorters

by jeff peek

jpeek@record-eagle.com

Bundy Brief joined the Traverse City Resorters as a 17-year-old in 1910.

TRAVERSE CITY — During an era when baseball was king, Bundy Brief was Traverse City's version of diamond royalty.

He was so popular, in fact, that about the same time that candy companies began naming chocolate bars after famous athletes like Babe Ruth, a Traverse City creamery honored Brief with his own ice cream bar, the "Home Run Bundy."

Traverse City's love affair with the man (also known as "Bunny") began when he was a teenager after a simple notice was published in the April 5, 1910 edition of the Grand Tra verse Herald newspaper.

Just a few inches away from advertisements for Scott's Emulsion Food-Medicine and James W. Gauntlett, M.D. ("Cancers Cured Without The Knife") was a headline that read, "Base Ball Meeting."

Yes, "baseball" was two words then.

The notice urged fans of the game to attend a get-together at "The Academy" near the City Opera House to discuss an idea raised by Grand Rapids baseball enthusiast E.W. Dickerson. Would Traverse City, which cheered the "TC Hustlers" semi-pro team in the late 1800s, be interested in forming a team to play in the new West Michigan Base Ball League?

Traverse City fans answered with a swift and resounding, "Yes." According to the Herald, the idea was unanimously approved by all present at an April 8 meeting.

"If base ball fans of Traverse City want to get into the game right and enjoy the real thing this summer, an opportunity will doubtless be presented...

"The possibility of a Western Michigan league is very bright and a proposition made some time ago to form a league has been received with a good deal of enthusiasm and approval."

Dickerson suggested that the league include teams from Traverse City, Cadillac, Muskegon, Manistee, Ludington and Big Rapids. Among those Traverse City residents who pledged their support were Carey Hull, James Kehoe, Dr. Guy M. Johnson and J.J. Corcoran — all "old ball players who would take an active interest in this association and assist in making it succeed."

MOVING FORWARD

Within days a committee had been formed to raise money and receive pledges to support the team. It was suggested that the town hire five semi-pro players to build around, using local talent to fill out the team.

Neither the league nor the team were official yet, but the Hannah & Lay Mercantile Co. capitalized quickly with a quarter-page newspaper advertisement asking locals, "Doesn't that sound good to you, with Traverse City right at the top reaching for the pennant? It can be done if you have the hustling spirit... We have hustled to get you the best base ball supplies in the land."

Hannah & Lay offered a "full line of Victor and Reach base balls, from 5 cents to $1.25." Also for sale: base ball bats from 5 cents to $1.25, catcher's masks from $1.25 to $4.50, and mitts and gloves ranging from 25 cents to $5. There was also a special offer: "Get Spaulding's Base Ball Rules for 1910 — 10 cents."

By April 26, more than $1,200 had been raised, much of it from kids pulling change from their pockets. The page one headline from that day's Herald — "Money Coming In" — rivaled the one announcing the death of Mark Twain.

On May 17 it became official. Four cities — Traverse City, Cadillac, Muskegon and Holland — would form the league. The season would begin May 28.

Henry J.C. Collett, of Rochester, N.Y., was named the team's first manager and called for tryouts and practice to begin on May 24. W.C. Hull became club president, with James Kehoe secretary.

The Traverse City Driving Park Association, site of the current Grand Traverse County Civic Center, already had a ball diamond and bleachers, and it offered its grounds for use free of charge.

The players began to trickle in... shortstop George Rose of Copemish ... second baseman Bill Turney of Adrian ... catcher Arthur Mayhew from Kingsley ... and other players who didn't seem to have first names — guys like Tindall from Mancelona, Robinson from Battle Creek and Cummins from a town called "Terry."

The TC nine tuned up for their first minor league season by beating Elk Rapids 4-2 in a "scrub game" on May 27.

HERE COMES BUNDY

The team would soon be joined by Traverse City's most famous baseball player, a 17-year-old outfielder/first baseman from Remus who was born Antonio Vincent Bordetzki or Antonio Grzeczhowski or Anthony John Grzeszkowski, depending on the source. As legend would have it, when the phenom was asked his name upon entering organized baseball, he was told to "keep it brief." So Brief it became — Bundy Brief.

Brief would go on to play parts of four seasons in the major leagues, breaking in with the St. Louis Browns in 1912. The Browns had offered him an earlier tryout, but Brief only got as far as Chicago before he grew homesick and turned back.

Brief eventually became a minor league star in Kansas City, slugging an American Association career record 256 home runs. He won eight minor league home run titles, his first two as a member of the Traverse City Resorters.

In 1911, Brief led the Michigan State League — as it eventually became known — with 169 hits, 10 home runs and 97 runs scored. In 1912, he topped the league in hits (152), homers (13), triples (12) and runs (74).

After a quick rise to the majors, Brief struggled to stay there. He made his last MLB appearance with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1917, then returned to the minors for 11 more seasons.

Brief put together the greatest season of his life in 1921, when he paced the American Association with 42 homers, 191 RBIs and 166 runs scored. He retired in 1928 with a career batting average of .331.

And it all began in Traverse City in 1910, a year in which he paced the new league with 10 triples as a professional rookie.

OPENING THE SEASON

Traverse City's two newspapers, the Herald and the Evening Record, both covered the city's new team with enthusiasm. In its May 27 issue, the Record reported Cadillac's suggestion that Traverse City call its team the Lunatics, for the city's asylum. Not surprisingly, the team balked, choosing to remain nameless for nearly two weeks while the other three decided upon their nicknames — the Cadillac Chiefs, the Muskegon Lumbermen and the Holland Dutchmen.

Traverse City had bigger fish to fry anyway. Its citizens were too busy getting ready for the season opener at Cadillac on May 28. A band in an "autobus" met the Traverse City team at the Cadillac train station and led an automobile procession to the field.

Since neither side had its actual uniforms yet, both played in "practice suits." Traverse City won 3-2, then lost 7-2 the next day.

Hannah & Lay presented the team with its new uniforms — described by the Herald as "gray with the letters T.C. in black" — just in time for the club's home opener against Muskegon.

The weather didn't cooperate, however. It rained for three days before a home game was finally played against Holland. After a parade to the park, Traverse City dropped a 3-1 decision to the Dutchmen in front of 705 fans — including Dr. J.D. Munson, namesake for Munson Medical Center — on June 3. The batting order read: Collet, 3B; Gauer, LF; Tierny, 2B; Dunckel, 1B; Partlow, CF; Rose, SS; Westerman, C; Brief, RF; and Robinson, P.

THE NAME GAME

On June 11, the Herald began calling the Traverse City club the Resorters.

The Resorters started slow, but the fans continued to come — sometimes as many as 1,500. They didn't seem to mind the team's losing record through the first two months of the season. But they complained loudly that they were being charged double (10 cents) by the local transportation company for a lift from downtown to the ball park.

The city grew more excited, however, when the Resorters made a charge in August, going 21-13 over their final 34 games to finish 50-45 — three games behind first-place Cadillac, which finished 53-42.

On the final day of the season, the Resorters split a doubleheader with the Chiefs, losing 2-1 and winning 7-2. Cadillac fans hoisted a banner that read, "Cadillac, Penant Winners, 1910," prompting the Evening Record to joke that "half of the people in the turpentine burg don't know they've won a pennant and the other half cannot spell the word."

More than 1,000 fans showed up on that rainy Sept. 3 day, proving — according to the Record — that "the people of Traverse City appreciate league ball."

END OF THE LINE

Apparently, they didn't appreciate it enough. Over the next three years the Western Michigan/Michigan State League first expanded, then collapsed. By 1914, with fewer fans attending games and the club strapped for cash, the Traverse City Resorters folded.

Bundy Brief returned to Traverse City after his pro career ended and formed a solid semi-pro team known as "The Briefmen." The club even played a barnstorming game against the Detroit Tigers.

But "Home Run Bundy" couldn't reignite the baseball excitement the Resorters generated in their first season of 1910. For years, nothing even came close — nothing, that is, until the Traverse City Beach Bums came to town 96 years later, to much of the same hoopla.