Michael Allstott can vividly recall that baseball field
tucked into the trees on the West Baden Springs Hotel grounds. Fence was still
up and everything, as recently as the 1990s.
“We’d pass by it every weekend going to my great-grandmother’s. Just growing up in the Valley, seeing it out there, hearing the stories of the team…it had always meant something. The pride of our community has always been a big deal. I know the towns (French Lick and West Baden Springs) have always been proud of those two teams.”
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| A panoramic shot of the former West Baden ballpark, which was enclosed in the double-decker bicycle track. The scoreboard is at the far left with the hotel in the background. |
Now Allstott is ensuring that pride and awareness about this area’s remarkable baseball history trickle down to this area’s newest generation of ballplayers.
One of the coaches of the youth baseball all-stars teams in
our community, Allstott patterned his team’s summer jerseys after the French
Lick Plutos and West Baden Sprudels, the two independent baseball teams that
played here in the early 1900s. Comprised primarily of African American hotel
employees, the Plutos and Sprudels borrowed their team name from the mascots
associated with the mineral Pluto Water and Sprudel Water the hotels were
famous for. They also laid the groundwork for several players on those teams to
move on to play in the organized Negro Leagues, and had a hand in the
development of Major League Baseball as we know it today. (One of our past blogs
and videos tells
their story in more detail.)
The idea first occurred to Allstott a couple years ago, and
after the 2020 season got wiped out because of covid, “we decided to go for it
all and not take any season or moment for granted,” he says. These 2021 jerseys
were made to be as true to form as the originals, with a few modern twists.
The full-colored sleeves (navy blue for the 10-and-under Sprudel stars and red for the 12-and-under Pluto stars) looked too cool to pass up. Historical photos weren’t high quality enough to decipher what exactly the Plutos had on their hat, so Michael improvised. The red “P” on the hats nicely complements the devilish red Pluto on the front of the jerseys.
When the players first got a glimpse of the new jerseys, “their
eyes were as big as softballs seeing these really cool uniforms,” says Michael.
But he made sure to connect the dots further, sharing with the kids some of the
same stories he heard about the Plutos and Sprudels when he was a youngster.
How the Sprudels once beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in an exhibition game in West
Baden. How the Chicago Cubs trained at French Lick in the spring leading up to
their 1907 and 1908 World Series titles.
“Just putting it all together for them, the kids are amazed
by it all, honestly,” Michael says.
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| Over his shoulder in this grassy area is where the baseball field once sat on the West Baden Springs Hotel grounds. |
After the 2021 Sprudels played their first game a few days ago, Michel got a kick out of sharing it on social media. “First time a Sprudel has taken the field since 1916! What an absolute honor!!”
Opposing teams are getting a little old-school baseball
education, too. When the Plutos and Sprudels show up to games in red and blue
uniforms instead of their customary black and gold, they get to spread the word
about the old-school connection. Keeping the Pluto and Sprudel legacy flickering,
more than 100 years later.